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C206 ethical leadership
Analysis of ethics in leadership
C206 ethical leadership
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Introduction: Having strong morals and ethics are important for all law enforcement professionals. Decisions need to be made that can greatly impact the lives of others. For this reason there is a higher expectation from the public for law enforcement professionals to have strong morals and ethics (Gleason, 2015). It is important that all law enforcement agencies conduct ongoing education with realistic scenarios to help be ready to make the right decisions. When responding to a situation there are two issues that occur for the law enforcement professional, reaction and action. The reaction is the feelings and thoughts, and the action is what is actually done. The action is the one that must adhere to the law (Gleason, 2015).
Body:
Society impacts ethical behavior of law enforcement by holding them to a higher standard of expectation. Police officers act as protectors and liaisons in highly stressful situations with the power to make decisions over society. Holding this position requires trust and the ability to lead by example. Police officers may have to be able to recognize the ethical dilemmas, decide the
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This is necessary to make sure that the needs of society are actually being met. When police departments ignore the needs and wants of society and only focus on the technologies to do their job, they are missing the most important need, to serve the community. This could result in not putting enough emphasis in crime reduction or keeping up a strong relationship with the citizens. There is also a connection with police officers treating citizens the way citizens react towards them. If the citizens feel they are not being served and begin a negative treatment towards law enforcement, then law enforcement may return bad behavior. This could snowball into animosity that is out of control (U.S. Department of State,
The job of a law enforcement officer sometimes can be tough. Officer are sometimes plagued with situation that test their ability to enforce the law and maintain order. Police officers today face a constant battle to maintain higher ethical standards. This mission becomes tougher each day when one considers the importance of fighting terrorism, drugs, human trafficking,
In society we will always faces ethical and unethical choices. There are time when we cannot always chose the ethical approach. Other decisions primarily only affect us as individuals. However, when you are in the public eye such as police officer your decisions affect others. In this paper the discussion will be based on the Kansas City case study.
Dempsey, J. S., & Frost, L. S. (2012). Police Ethics and Police Deviance. An Introduction to Policing (6th ed.). Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning.
According to our book “Ethical Dilemmas and Decision in Criminal Justice,” we learn, as a class, about the different missions and responsibilities that law enforcement has. The book talks about two specific missions of the law enforcement which are crime fighting and public service. As a law enforcement, professional ethics should be honest and ethical. Although this, in the recent years, we have heard about some of these professionals that have been abused of their position. However, as a society, we should not believe that every person on the law enforcement career is the same. As a society, we should focus on the officers that are doing a great job every day trying to deter the crime. They are public servants, this means that they are working
Each position in criminal justice holds power and responsibility, and therefore, it is very important that said people in those positions do not abuse it. Unethical behavior in the criminal justice system takes away trust and respect from authority, and as a consequence, the law is more easily disregarded if the people lack faith in the system. It can, also, contribute to crime and/or cause citizens to not report crimes. Society should have indubitable confidence in the men and women of the criminal justice system. Law enforcement officers violating even the smallest rule could lead to more serious infractions. 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 persons in our criminal justice system can lead to a weakened society, the ruining of lives, and even add to crime.
As stated in the textbook, police often have to make decisions on their own, with only their moral compass to guide them. Most ethical dilemmas that police officers face derive from their powers of discretion. Moral dilemmas that police officers face are often frequent and unavoidable. They are often unpopular with many people, resolved quickly, and are often dealt with alone.
This essay is examining an ethical dilemma I may encounter as a Police Officer. The New Zealand Police (n.d.) have stated that the police officer’s main roles are to seek to prevent crime, advance public safety, find offenders, and uphold law and order. Due to the role of maintaining law and order, a Police Officer should not be rebelling against the law. This relates to the ethical dilemma I am researching; Whether or not a Police Officer should report illegal activity by friends or family. In this assignment, I will be analyzing both of the arguments this dilemma holds; what happens if I report the illegal activity, and what will happen if I do not report the illegal activity? in relation to virtue ethics.
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.
The use of discretion in the profession of law enforcement has shown to be an inevitable practice. Police officers routinely use their own beliefs and judgments to make critical decisions that include the life and liberty of the citizens in the community they serve in. Although discretion has both negative and positive sides to it, discretion is impossible to be eliminated from law enforcement. The best way to use discretion in a safe manner is to practice using discretion while on and off duty as well. While practicing discretion, officers should keep their own beliefs and prejudice to themselves and out of line of duty. When police officers are on duty, they must have knowledge of what is going on around them and eliminate discriminatory factors and use confidence to make a lawful
In 2011 assistant professor in the department of political science at Western Illinois University, Casey LaFrance, wrote an article in the International Journal of Police Science & Management regarding discretion among the levels of authority within police departments. He sees that communication in the organizations hierarchy leads to similarities in their discretionary behavior. LaFrance determines from previous research that there are nine influences that affect why and how officers utilize their discretion. These factors include personal values, community norms, peer group norms and the informal organization, departmental standard operating procedures, legal liability, expectations from accreditation bodies, expectations from various professional
Police Officers Oath of Office and Code of Ethics, A Question of knowledge Richard W. Deshon (2000) retrieved from: www.emich.edu/cerns/downloads/papers/PoliceStaff/
When political anarchy, social injustices, and crime end up leading to civil depravities that go against the foundation of democracy, society depends on the police to come in and keep the peace, while attempting to restore the order. These officers are asked to pursue criminals in vehicles, and on foot, repeatedly expose themselves to the dangers of the crimes, and remain calm while being under pressure at all moments on the job, and even off duty. Being an officer of the law takes a special person
It is often said that power brings corruption, but in reality it is an individual’s lack of character, self-discipline, and integrity that leads to corruption. Law enforcement can bring many temptations on the job, and maintaining an up most level of personal integrity can often times be very difficult. The very nature of the job surrounds officers with all of the bad things that society, produces. There can be an endless amount of training and rules put into place to try and deter officers from committing unethical acts, but in the end it really just comes down to the specific individual and their willingness to do the right thing.
In this essay, I will examine the ethical issues surrounding police corruption and discretion in the criminal justice system. I will also define legality and equity and how they relate to police corruption and discretion. Police corruption and discretion are ethical issues that have been negatively impacting the criminal justice system for years. Police corruption weakens the public 's confidence in law enforcement officers. It also hinders the effectiveness of law enforcement officers whose job is to serve and protect. I will also define police corruption and discretion and the reasons behind police misconduct.
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).