Police Officer Ethical Dilemmas

Every job has its challenges. Whether it is a major job where you influence millions of people or a job that is not so large scale I am certain that it will have challenges for its employees. With each job having its challenges, employees need to make sure that their ethics are not being swayed. Being a criminal justice major myself, I have thought about where my education will take me and what ethical issues I might face while I take on the task of doing my job. For the purposes of this paper I will focus on the ethical dilemmas that Police Officers will face. I say “will” because I am certain that each and every officer will face these ethical issues while on the job. These issues that I speak of stem from one Main issue. When should a police officer exercise his or her power as a police officer? What I mean by that is in which moments while doing their job should an officer choose to either use their power or not use their power. A police officer should avoid using discretion when the safety of others is in danger or the use of discretion comes with benefit to the officer.

When I think of myself as a police officer I think of a few scenarios that I mighty myself be placed in. Those situations I have broken down under the one overlapping problem

For example, roughing up a suspect of a crime in order to obtain the information needed to solve a crime, while it may produce results, the means of getting that information is wrong. Using your postion as a police officer in order to intimidate someone so that you may receive something in return is part of the same problem of using you r power. In my opinion it falls under a saying that as kids my friends use to say which was, “I probably shouldn’t but I will. Again I repeat what I have said before, the law cannot be bent to the will of any one person, or in this case officer, because they have the power to do