Ethical Issues In Law Enforcement Case Study

When making a decision should one consider ethics? Law enforcement throughout the years have face ethical issues. One of its main issue that law enforcement is the use of discretion. Many may say that there are officers out here not using their discretion wisely and it is one of the reason that leads to profiling/stereotyping different groups. Ethics in law enforcement needs to be follow because it allows things to be fair. When law enforcement seem unfair or bias this can cause an issue with the public and within law enforcement. There is no true direction and officer has to follow, but their own. Discretion should be used correctly and should be morally and legally justify. How can one correct this issue, when it has been happening for years? The issue may not end, but the issue can be improve to make sure that more officers are using it the way they were trained.

As police administration have to look at the issue and what way to try to correct the situation. One of the ethical issues dealing with law enforcement today is when using discretion when stereotyping/profiling. There has been many discussing of police discretion. Perez and Moore (2013) stated that an officer uses of discretion is very important to the community and the justice system. If officer use of discretion is not seen as fair it can cause problems with administration and citizens. Discretion is define as “the decision-making power afforded to police officers that allows them to decide if they want to pursue police procedure or simply let someone off with a warning. How it looks in practice is different from situation to situation” (Hirby, nd). What have been discuss throughout the years with discretion and stereotyping/profiling is traffic