Police ethics: principles and professional practice

Philosophy Police Ethics

Learning Police Ethics

Learning police ethics and responsible behavior on the job are important functions of a police professional's duty. By definition, police officers have sworn to protect and serve the community. However, if they act unethically at any time then they could do harm to the community as opposed to help support it. Deviant behaviors among the police force can do significant harm to the reputation of the force as well as make the job of the police to serve the public more complicated as well as more difficult to accomplish. This analysis will look at some of the ethical standards that are expected of this profession as well as the importance of learning the correct ways of behaving in this role.

Ethics Standards in Policing

When policing came to the United States, there was little concern among police officers about adhering to legal norms, despite their formal policing role as enforcers of the law; in fact, police received little training in law, and most of those arrested were tried before justices who also had little legal training. Police were part of the larger political system, seen as a resource at the command of local political organizations (Banks). However, as the field became more developed and the police's role in society became more defined the expectations of the police officer have grown by leaps and bounds.

Police departments the world over face no greater challenge each day than fostering humane and ethical policing which puts the common good at the center of all that they do, while scrupulously protecting the dignity of even the most despised persons; yet far too often police departments ignore the human dimension at policing's core, finding it easier, especially of late, to focus on technologies and measurements of what they do, instead of how they do it (O'Donnell). Although police departments have various metrics that they use to monitor their performance, there are many areas of the police's presence that are hard to quantify.

In many cases the ethical role of the police in the community can be complex and dependent on cultural variables. One problem is that ethics is a difficult concept. It is wrong to take bribes from drug dealers or terrorists, but is it also wrong to take a free meal from a restaurant owner who wants you to be a frequent guest (U.S. Department of State)? These complexities often escalate the case in minority communities in which police departments play more of a military role than a community support function. Joseph McNamara observes that "Learning about the cultures of the communities police serve is not enough. Police departments also have cultures that need to be learned about -- and sometimes changed. (U.S. Department of State)"

Learning Police Ethics

Ethics is our greatest training and leadership need today and into the next century; in addition to the fact that most departments do not conduct ethics training, nothing is more devastating to individual departments and our entire profession than uncovered scandals or discovered acts of officer misconduct and unethical behavior and the effects of unethical acts and behavior take many forms (IACP). One form is that the community can lose faith in the police force and be reluctant to offer any kind of assistance in the policing of the community. This can make a police officer's job more difficult because much of their success relies on the cooperation of the public for information about crimes or illegal activities.