Police ethics principles and professional conduct standards

Police Ethics: Presentation Summary

The presentation to be delivered to my organization concerns the critical public safety issue of police ethics. The primary source for this presentation would be the data gathered from an interview with an individual working in the county sheriff's department to reinstate an internal affairs unit are a twelve year absence.

The subject of the interview would provide detailed and first-hand insight into the importance of the role played by ethics in shaping police work. In his responses, he would assert that ethical policing extends from ethical leadership. The example for fair and honest police work must start at the top of a police department and must be extended through every arm of law enforcement. The interview would reveal the internal priority of training law enforcement agents to function as role models and also to hold themselves to the same set of ethical standards that govern all of us.

The presentation reveals that there is a critical difference between calling for ethical policing and actually ensuring it. For the internal affairs agency here, there is an emphasis being placed on regular and ongoing ethical training for officers, a clear departure from the relatively modest attention given to ethical conditioning for young trainees.

Another step being taken by police forces, the presentation will show, is improved screening for ethical orientation as individuals are evaluated for police work. In the county around which the interview was centered, the interview subject indicated, a new sheriff had begun to take a more hardline stance on hiring only those who meet certain ethical prerequisites. In the interests of ensuring ethical police work and protecting the reputation of the precinct, the new sheriff has turned away applicants who do not meet the ethical standards for law enforcement.

The presentation will offer additional indications that in the county in question, there has been more than just a change in the discussion on ethics. The effort to reinstate the internal affairs office would actually be part of a broader cultural change throughout the police force, with ethics becoming a more notable presence in everyday police operations. The interviewer would credit this to the mission of leadership, specifically the newly elected sheriff to bring about a genuine shift in the values and priorities of the police force.

The presentation will also recognize that with even the most genuine attempts at addressing police ethics issues, the complexities and uncertainties of work in the field will result in complaints and discrepancies. Therefore, a key role for an internal affairs office, the interviewee would explain, is to establish a clear protocol for handling any such issues in an honest and equitable manner. The presentation will note that police departments are moving away from the codes of silence that have previously prevented honest reporting on such incidences.