Criminal Justice Ethics

Criminal Justice Ethics

The ethical issues in this case are not serious in the sense of corruption or bribery, but clearly there is a problem here because the older officer is friends with the driver of the car that went through a red light. First of all, no matter that the veteran officer has a first-name relationship with the driver, a traffic violation has taken place and legally (unless there are extraordinary circumstances that led to the violation) there are penalties that must be carried out. Ethically, the young policeman is within his authority to issue the ticket and if the veteran cop instructs the young officer to let the driver off, it is a serious breach of police ethics; moreover, it is a bad example to set for the young officer. Police are trained to recognize an ethical problem and they are trained to make "a rational and ethically sound choice" (Gleason, 2009).

TWO: Police misconduct issues were initially acknowledged from a legal standpoint in 1871, when the Civil Rights Act of 1871 was passed in the U.S. Congress. Victims of civil rights violations rely on this law, which was intended "…to curb oppressive conduct by government and private individuals participating in vigilante groups" like the Ku Klux Klan (Findlaw, 2010). The federal law is now called Section 1983 (in Title 42 of the U.S. Code); it is unlawful for anyone who acts under the authority of the state to "deprive another person of his or her rights under the Constitution or federal law" (Findlaw, p. 1).

THREE: Fifty years ago an officer may have given the driver running the red light a break, although that is pure speculation. The field of law enforcement certainly wasn't as tuned into ethical issues as it is today and in the early 1960s the Civil Rights Movement was in full bloom and some law enforcement officers in the south knew nothing of ethics it seems; they only knew they didn't want African-Americans to have civil rights like Caucasians did. Twenty-five years ago it seems more likely that -- due to the instant coverage of news incidents by television and radio -- an officer would not cut a deal with a friend. Ten years ago officers would be very sensitive to the possibility of a breach of ethics.

FOUR: The media and technological advances certainly had a big part in the evolution of criminal justice ethics. Take the Rodney King case; sixty or so years ago there would not have been video camera to record police abuse. Now that virtually everyone with a smart phone could take pictures or videos of police misconduct, the field of law enforcement is obliged to be ethical because one never knows when a phone / camera is aimed at the behavior of cops. Also, the television news industry now has several cable news channels and they compete vigorously to beat each other with revelations on misbehavior (whether real or questionable), cops included.

FIVE: Ethics is a field that is probably more significant now in the law enforcement milieu because the definitions of ethics are numerous and it can be a confusing issue. Understanding the importance of ethics is vitally important for a law enforcement officer because he or she will find that what is ethical and what is not ethical can be a fuzzy dilemma. However, the law is far more cut and dried; it's either legal or it's not legal. The statutes are very clear so officers (in most cases) are very familiar with laws. But as noted, ethics can be confusing and vague as to what is truly ethical hence I feel ethics is more important in this case.