Police Ethics and Looting After Hurricane Katrina
This paper examines the ethical dilemmas confronted by New Orleans police officers in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Drawing on reported incidents of looting by officers, it distinguishes between theft for personal gain, necessity-driven acquisition in the line of duty, and ambiguous cases in between. The paper applies concepts of competing ethical obligations — professional duty to uphold the law versus duty to protect citizens' welfare — and also addresses conflicts between personal survival ethics and professional codes of conduct. It concludes that any judgment or punishment of officers involved must account for the genuine complexity of competing ethical responsibilities they faced during an unprecedented crisis.
- Introduction: Katrina's impact and paper's ethical focus
- Understanding Ethical Dilemmas: Sources and types of ethical dilemmas defined
- Types of Looting: Distinguishing the Acts: Three categories of looting behavior by officers
- Clear Violations vs. Genuine Ethical Conflicts: Personal-gain theft versus survival-driven looting
- Competing Professional and Personal Ethics: Officers' dual duties and personal survival needs
- Public Perception and Ethical Responsibility: How citizens judged officer inaction or action
- Conclusion: Call for nuanced judgment in officer punishment
✍️ How to write this paper — guide, tools & examples ▾
What makes this paper effective
- It immediately establishes a clear analytical framework — distinguishing three categories of looting — which prevents the argument from collapsing into a simple moral judgment.
- The paper consistently applies a theoretical lens (competing ethical principles from Walters and MacIntyre) to concrete, reported incidents, grounding abstract ethics in real events.
- The conclusion is measured and nuanced, resisting the urge to condemn or excuse, and instead calling for careful consideration of context when assigning punishment.
Key academic technique demonstrated
The paper demonstrates the technique of ethical disaggregation — breaking a single complex event into distinct moral categories and analyzing each separately before synthesizing them. Rather than treating "police looting during Katrina" as one problem, the author separates personal-gain theft, duty-driven necessity, and survival-driven necessity, applying a different ethical analysis to each. This prevents overgeneralization and models how applied ethics arguments should be structured.
Structure breakdown
The paper opens with context and a statement of scope, then defines the theoretical framework before presenting evidence. It moves from clear-cut cases (obvious violations) to genuinely ambiguous ones (survival looting, competing duties), and then incorporates public perception as a third ethical layer. The conclusion synthesizes all strands and makes a practical recommendation. This inductive-to-synthetic structure is well suited to applied ethics essays at the undergraduate level.
Introduction
When Hurricane Katrina struck the United States in 2005, many individuals had their lives destroyed. The resulting flooding in New Orleans left countless people without homes, food, water, or employment. Even those in positions of authority were left without means of communication, and in some cases these individuals committed acts completely contrary to their codes of ethics. This paper focuses on one group of authority figures exclusively — the police officers of New Orleans — and examines the ethical dilemmas that stemmed from acts of looting carried out by some of those officers.
Understanding Ethical Dilemmas
To fully understand the situation in New Orleans, one must first understand the issues underlying ethical dilemmas. These dilemmas can stem from a variety of sources, including a conflict between personal and professional values, a conflict between two principles, a conflict between two courses of action each carrying strong positive and strong negative aspects, and a conflict between one's perceived values and one's personal values (Walters, 41).
Types of Looting: Distinguishing the Acts
It is also important to distinguish between three types of looting: acts done for personal gain, acts done out of necessity in the line of duty, and acts falling somewhere in between. In one reported incident, police officers were seen breaking into a car dealership and taking eight to ten vehicles without permission. As New Orleans Police Superintendent Warren Riley noted in the CNN report "New Orleans Cops Investigated for Allegedly Stealing Cars," if those vehicles were used in place of stalled patrol cars rendered inoperable by flooding, the act would not constitute looting, since it would represent obtaining a means of transportation in the line of duty (CNN, online).
However, other officers — such as those reportedly involved in looting at the Amerihost Inn and Suites — were not carrying out essential job functions. According to the CNN report "Witnesses: New Orleans Cops Took Rolex Watches, Jewelry," hotel owner Osman Khan informed police officials that eight officers staying at the hotel were involved in looting houses and businesses in the surrounding area. The items allegedly stolen ranged from tennis shoes and jewelry to weapons and microwaves (CNN, online).
Conclusion
There can be no question that the duality of professional ethical responsibility, the conflict between personal and professional ethics, and the ethical perceptions of the public had a profound impact on the actions of police officers in New Orleans during and after Hurricane Katrina. While it is certainly true that some officers acted for personal gain, other circumstances may have required officers to make on-the-spot ethical decisions in which either available choice would have been viewed by some as the wrong one. The legacy of Katrina continues to raise difficult questions about how institutions and individuals perform under catastrophic stress. Careful consideration of these ethical dilemmas should inform any decision regarding reprimand or punishment for the officers involved.
Bibliography
CNN. "New Orleans Cops Investigated for Allegedly Stealing Cars." Hurricane Katrina Updates. Updated October 7, 2005. Retrieved October 7, 2005 <http://www.cnn.com/2005/U.S./10/07/katrina.cadillacs.ap/index.html>.
CNN. "Witnesses: New Orleans Cops Took Rolex Watches, Jewelry." Hurricane Katrina Updates. Updated September 30, 2005. Retrieved October 7, 2005 <http://www.cnn.com/2005/U.S./09/30/nopd.looting/index.html>.
MacIntyre, Alasdair. A Short History of Ethics: A History of Moral Philosophy from the Homeric Age to the Twentieth Century. London: Routledge, 1998. Questia. 8 Oct. 2005 <
Walters, James W. What Is a Person? An Ethical Exploration. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press, 1997. Questia. 8 Oct. 2005 <
Always verify citation format against your institution’s current style guide requirements.