What the Tidewater Police Department Needs Right Now

Code of Conduct and Ethics Policies for Police

A new culture of ethics and good police conduct needs to be adopted by the Tidewater Police Department. It is outrageous -- and a classic example of bad management and poor oversight -- that four police officers have had civil cases filed against them for misconduct in a year's time. These cases are not just bad public relations for the department; in a time when the media has been showing many apparently unjustified shootings of unarmed citizens by police, these civil suits play into the hands of people who are launching vicious verbal attacks against all law enforcement in the public arena. As the new chief of this department, I will do a thorough investigation and evaluation of all officers and detectives to determine if we need to do re-training, house-cleaning, or a combination of both.

The U.S. Department of Justice on Ethics and Integrity

When damage has been done to the image of a police department the first thing the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) asserts is that there must be training on three key concepts: a) procedural justice; b) bias reduction; and c) racial reconciliation (usdoj.gov). Now we don't know for the purposes of this paper what mistakes or wrongful actions were made by the officers at the Tidewater department. But it is absolutely certain that a more effective partnership must be created between the department and the community.

One unethical officer can taint a whole department, but on the other hand every day " ... tens of thousands of law enforcement personnel throughout the United States perform honorable and conscientious police work" (COPS). Notwithstanding that most cops are good cops, there does need to be trust built up between police and the community. The COPS material online states that police are held to "a tremendously high standard of honesty, integrity, equity, and professionalism," which Tidewater police need to step up and take very seriously (COPS). Police executives must constantly reinforce what COPS calls " ... sound, ethical policies and procedures," and those executives and leaders in the department must interact with the community to demonstrate the "honor and integrity" within the department.

For one, Tidewater police need an Internal Affairs office, which is essential. This office is sworn to investigate and address any misconduct (or allegations of misconduct) within the department. Citizens need to know they can present their allegations or questions to the Internal Affairs office and expect ethical, honest response to those allegations. The Internal Affairs office must also train officers in ethical conduct. Departments must be accountable and they can show their accountability through transparency; in fact the city of Tidewater could actually establish a citizen Internal Affairs review board, which will give citizens an open book into how police misconduct is handled.

Milwaukee County Sheriff's Code of Conduct

The Milwaukee County Sheriff's Department has a code of conduct, portions of which are universally used by law enforcement, and is appropriate for this paper.

Police officers must perform all duties impartially ... without regard to status, sex, race, religion, political belief or aspiration