Why It Is Important To Have A Professional Code Of Ethics. (Part1) A code of ethics is essential to a profession, especially a law enforcement agency in my opinion. A code of ethics will provide a starting point for the professionals and for others that they may deal with on a daily basis. It will also ensure fair treatment of members of the profession and the profession serves. Ethics provides a framework for conducting essential information functions, instituting policies, and developing strategies for service. Without them, we are merely on our own to determine what is right. Some without morals may take advantage of that, which would look unjust in the eyes of the public.
A code of ethics provides a guide for dealing with ethical situations
In this particular case, the officer abuses his power just because he does not like being recorded. This officer should realize that he lives in 2015, and everyone is going to be recorded even if they do not like it. Especially when you are a public figure. Well city officials in Rohnert Park, California say they are investigating a video that appears to show a police officer drawing his gun during a confrontation with a man who was filming him. They decided after viewing the video, that the officer in question would also be placed on administrative leave. In the video, McComas notes that he is standing in his front yard, and begins training his cell phone camera on a police car that pulls up nearby. The officer in the car takes out his own cell phone and points it at McComas, apparently to take a photo. The officer then gets out of the car and tells McComas to take his hand out of his pocket. After McComas replies, “No, sir, I’ve done nothing. I’ve done absolutely nothing,” the officer draws his gun. He doesn’t point it at McComas, but continues to hold it in his hand throughout the incident. (LA Times,
The public has another incident to not trust the police and hate them. It is the few that ruin it for everyone. He needs to be a professional and just drive on. It does not hurt the officer nor anyone for a person to record him. Especially with body cameras on the rise, and he is worried of being videotaping. It makes you wonder why he is so worried and what he might have to hide. In the end, bringing such issues to the fore may cause a sense of uneasiness, embarrassment, and at times, shame. Nevertheless, under the sunshine of ethics, these subjects must be confronted and their moral implications exposed. (Ethics in CJ,
The Code of Ethics can help us understand what our professional responsibilities are to the children in our care, to the families of the children, to co-workers, and to the community and society in general.
The first case that I have chosen to analyze is case #3. The standards from the Code of Ethics that comes into play regarding this particular case would be the first and most valuable one will be commitment to client. With this code the social worker primary responsibility is to promote any type of well-being to the clients. The social worker has to remain loyal to their clients. Another standard from the Code of Ethics would be the privacy and confidentiality with this code only as a social worker you are only allow to discuss with persons who are legally incapable of giving informed consent and also their legal representative. Social workers can not disclose confidential information that could lead to identification of a client/ patient with
Syed (1997) states, "Every instance of corruption bends or violates a rule or law and, similar to the granting of impunity, may contribute to an officer's perceptions of the law as applying differently to different people and increase the ease with which violations can be rationalized. " Having less than ethical people in our criminal justice system can lead to a weakened society, the ruining of lives, and even add to crime. For a start, ethics, or lack thereof, in criminal justice could be detrimental to citizens, and to the society as a whole.
A code of ethics is a formal document in which is used to assist members of an organization, to know what’s ‘right’ and what is ‘wrong’ in the work place and applying it to their decisions. A code of ethics is a written set of rules or guidelines to help the workers and management ‘conduct’ or direct their actions with its primary values and ethical standards. A code of ethics is important because without it, employees and management wouldn’t have guidelines and the establishment would resemble a crazy house. Consider the establishment, Dunkin Donuts. Dunkin Donuts is a food establishment well-known for their famous donuts, coffee and their slogan “America runs on Dunkin”. Without a code of ethics, the industry would most likely be extremely hard to control.
One of the many drawbacks that come with using body cameras is due to the fact that there is a locus of control. This may pose a problem because there is an underlying question of who can control the cameras. There can be many videos of incidents that are not captured because an officer decided to turn off their camera. Officers have the ability to turn them off or on which causes the problem of each officer not releasing them. Many departments across the country does not even allow individuals to access the footage that is recorded and with the laws that are in place for many department to deny access to the footage that they have. Due to each officer having to release the footage that they capture, they are allowed to review the footage that they record before they make a statement (Harvard Law Review). This is one of the biggest drawbacks because controlling the video footage is important in not only courts but to ensure the minds of
Not always characteristic of police working in black and brown communities. It is not only white officers who abused their authority, and no matter what an officer has done to African-American or any race, those officers can always cover themselves in the running narrative of heroism, involving exposure to danger, and sacrifice. About 15 percent of the officers who regularly abuse their power: a major problem is the victims were electrically shocked suffocated, and beaten to death into false confessions in which many of them being convicted and serving time for crimes they didn’t commit. In the U.S. every police officers in the country should wear a body camera that remains on and activated throughout any interaction that they have with the public while they are on duty. There is no reasonable Expectation (which means something will happen in the future), of privacy for officers when they are on duty and in service to the public. Citizen also has the right to record police officers activities as they carry out their public service provided that there are at a safe distance. Because of this legacy of racism police abuse in black and brown communities is generations old. It’s nothing new. It has become more visible to social media like YouTube,
Police ethics are extremely important because ethics are the typical of “fair and honest conduct” (pg 460). People may have a different definition of what is fair and what is honest, and there are different circumstances where officers may not be able to be honest; such as covert investigations. Society in general determines what our ethical standards and moral principles are. Individual morals vary among all of us as they are what we as an individual consider to be right or wrong. We also have morals that are set by society. These are what we as a society consider to be right or wrong and may go hand in hand with individual morals. Morals change as society and people change, therefore we as a country have to adapt to what the changing morals are.
According to Journalistresource.org, officers were more cautious with how situations were handled one statistic said that the cops worked 23.1% more productively by issued more citations for ordinance violations than officers who did not wear them. This follows up with what the ACLU is wanting, in regards to keeping an eye on officers at all times, which shows that they tend to act different when they are on camera. “In San Diego, for example, a 2015 report based on preliminary statistics showed that body cameras helped reduce “personal body” force by officers by 46.5%” (journal). However, CATO Institute’s Police Reporting Project argues that, “ it is difficult to determine how much of the decline in use-of-force incidents and complaints can be directly attributed to the police body cameras.” It is hard to place what the statistic for use-of-force is, because there is a lot that goes into the statistic that could show many inaccuracies.It is also based on how one person is acting at the given moment under a set of various factors that a statistic just cannot show. Location is important as well, because each city is different which results in different cultures and crimes that go one in those areas. An example is comparing Chicago and East Peoria police, Chicago see far more calls and violence than East Peoria, as a result Chicago would require more of an agressive backbone
... middle of paper ... ... The Code of Ethics exists “as a reminder to the educator that there are obligations and expectations associated with the profession” (4). There will be many times in ones educational career when they will have different viewpoints or want to break some of these obligations, its important to think about whom one talks to, who is watching, and what the consequences are.
What happens when officers forget their role and responsibilities? They abuse their power and go beyond their duties crossing lines that should not be crossed for instance in Saratoga New York a police officer tries to conduct and illegal vehicle search, when the civilian refuses, the officer slaps him and takes the keys. This type of conduct should not be tolerated and officers should constantly be reminded of the consequences of such actions. One thing in particular that can be observed is that in most videos the officers are not alone yet the other officers knowing their partner are wrong do not intervene, this pattern shows that the officers are not being trained properly. Proper training can easily avoid such conflicts for example in the case of Saratoga New York another officer could have deescalated the situation by letting his partner know that what he is doing is illegal, this simple action could had avoided a lot of problems. The majority of police officers do an excellent job but is the few that do not do a good job the ones ruining the image and reputation of the force, reminding officers of their duties and paying attention to their actions can make a difference in job performance while helping keep good community
Unlike occupational deviance, abuse of authority in regards to police, is the act in which officers use the powers given to them in malice (Barker, 1991). In more serious cases the abuse of power can result in death, as was the case in the recent Michael Brown shooting. Officer Darren Wilson took aim at 18 year old Michael Brown, witnesses recording, and opened fire resulting in the 18 year olds death. This is just one of the many examples of corruption still existing within the police agencies which are designed to protect us.
Banks, Cyndi. Criminal Justice Ethics: Theory and Practice. 3rd ed. Thousand Oaks: Sage, 2009. Print.
Ethics are moral principles or values that govern the conduct of an individual or a group.It is not a burden to bear, but a prudent and effective guide which furthers life and success. Ethics are important not only in business but in academics and society as well because it is an essential part of the foundation on which a civilized society is built.
Members of the public whose views are “anti‐police” make earnest attempts to bring frivolous lawsuits against officers and their departments that they may have been involved with. These lawsuits range from accusations of police profiling to excessive use of force. With that said, Body cameras protect officers from false allegations by providing an unbiased visual record (Lou Ponsi, 2015). The actual footage of the occurrence could then show the actual events that transpired, and if the officer did not violate the rights of the individual in question, then the case would, in most instances, be dismissed, saving the police department a lot of time and
Ethics in the workplace is a very important thing to have. Without a sense of ethicality in the workplace there are many things that could go wrong. You could even end up losing a job because of a lack of ethics, or other consequences could be felt due to a lack of caring or morality. The workplace is a place that you should show respect and dignity, and a deeper sense of ethics is very important in order to uphold these senses of morality. Workplace ethics, which include such things as behavior, integrity, commitment, teamwork, and other things, are important, if not required, in most workplaces and can help to improve performance and morale for workers and employers.