Police Subculture Essay

That said, the police culture is a subculture of its very own. A subculture is a group of individuals within the general cultural environment comprised of people who adopt and share common attitudes, values, and rules (Ortmeier & Meese p. 89). The law enforcement subculture is no different than any other professional subculture other than the delicate standards and stresses that come with the legal authority placed upon them to serve and protect without violating civil and human rights.

The police subculture is directed by both formal administrative and legal regulations, and informal characters that dictate behavior in the decision-making process (Herbert, 1998). In other words, the police work is an environment where they define the situation and try to apply action

Requiring discretional decisions cultivated over a lifetime of learning proper habits, hardships, and acting as a positive role model of what one should do even when the ends do not always justify the means (Ortmeier & Meese, p. 68). Ethics falls upon personal values and attitudes related to professional behavior regarding standards and the reasonable obligation one has in making decisions as a virtuous product of honesty, integrity, compassion, equality, and accepting responsibility and accountability.

Integrity is related to the quality of actions on an individual and agency level relevant to moral values, rules, and norms accepted by society in each unique situation (Ortmeier & Meese, p. 68). Each of these elements are of considerable importance in the law enforcement field to promote professional and ethical integrity within the agency and to inspire respect and trust at the community level to support healthy community policing partnerships. Without these elements, police agency’s harbor low-integrity that do not resist the temptation to abuse authority that serves self and peer