Ethics is the study of what is morally right, wrong, good, bad, obligatory and permissible (Arrigo & Williams, pg. 3).
Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles. Ethics, integrity and morality are intertwined. A chief of police is responsible for the overall command of all sworn officers and non-sworn employees in his department (Office of the Chief).
Ethics and integrity are important to any job, but it is especially important for law enforcement agencies.
Police officers are the first enforcers of the laws and it is important for the leaders of these officers to be of the highest ethical standard. Ethics and integrity are important for a police chief because he or she is the head of the organization and should lead by example, they set the standard for all others in the department, and they are the face of the organization. As a leader, it is expected that the chief of police would be above reproach. A chief with a low moral compass, and lack of integrity can cause damage to his department and the community.
The damage to the community can be especially harmful in cities where there is already a distrust of law enforcement. One such city is the city of Miami Gardens in the state of Florida. In December 2013, the city’s first and only police chief resigned amidst allegations that his officers have systematically committed harassment, intimidation and civil rights violations. The officers were accused of harassing patrons and workers at a local convenience store. Earl Sampson, a patron and employee of the convenience store, was stopped over 419 times by officers in the past fiver years.
The Term Paper on Officers One 61623 Police People
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He was cited for trespassing and on one occasion was hauled out of the store for trespassing while working (Police Chief Resigns Amid Scandal).
In early 2013 the owner of the convenience store, Alex Selah, filed a complaint against the Miami Gardens police department. His complaint only intensified the harassment that his customers and employees faced. As a last resort, Selah installed a $15,000 surveillance system to record the activities of the officers. In the hundred of hours of recordings, officers are seen stopping, frisking, and arresting customers who did nothing.
In other videos, officers are seen conducting searches of the store without a warrant or Selah’s permission. When the allegations came to light, Boyd maintained that the officers’ actions were appropriate, given the city’s crime problems (Police Chief Resigns Amid Scandal).
This case may seem harmless or inconsequential, but it is not. The officers clearly crossed the line and by supporting their unethical behavior, Boyd has set the city back. Ethics, morality, and law are intertwine-able to some, but they are all different. Ethics is the study of what is morally right and wrong.
While it does study what is morally right or wrong, morals can be different depending on the culture. What is considered wrong in American culture, may be considered right in Indian culture. Laws are enactments made by the state that are backed by physical coercion;its breach is punishable by the courts. It represents the will of the state and realizes its purpose. Laws are made by people and they are infallible. We depend on ethics and integrity to keep people from breaking the laws, and to help law enforcement officers uphold the laws.
A police chief should use ethics and the code of conduct to help them with decision making when it comes to enforcing policies, and to determine if an officer is behaving in an ethical way. Had the former police chief for the city of Miami Gardens used ethics and the code of conduct, the harassment that citizens faced would not have gone on for so long. His ethics would have told him that the officers were behaving in a way that what unethical and they were violating the code of conduct.
The Term Paper on Ethics in Policing
This paper explains issues that shape the role of ethics in policing. Police ethics involves hard choices as well as avoiding violations of basic moral standards. Police officers will inevitably face ethical issues concerned with questions of right and wrong. Moreover, the authority that is given to police officers in order to protect the public presents the temptation to abuse the power given to ...
Ethics and code of conduct is not only to protect the community, but law enforcement officers and personnel also. All agencies have policies in place to protect their officers and personnel and the chief should use ethics when enforcing these policies. Ethics and integrity are an essential part of law enforcement. It is expected that law enforcement officers and personnel will operate with the highest ethical standard. What is legal is not always ethical and this makes the job much harder.
