A.) First and foremost, the police department must have a clear office-wide ethical police all officers and staff must comply with. Second, the department should also have a program of continuing ethical educational requirements that all officers, leaders and staff must periodically complete to either stay employed or have the opportunity for promotion. These two elements are needed to: inform officers of their ethical duties, underline that the department takes its officers ethical responsibilities seriously and will not tolerate failures to comply, and provide officers with continuous refreshers on the ever changing ethical dilemmas that they are most likely to encounter (Kaci, 1998). In this particular, case, the above mentioned ethical policy needs to have a provision emphasizing that officers are not allowed to take or accept gifts as that may allow for the development of corrupt practices such as bribery and kick-backs where an officer will not be able to arrest a suspect based on the fact that in the past a suspect provided gifts for him.
B.) As mentioned above, the prison must have a clear ethical policy that all guards are required to know, understand and follow. In addition, guards should also be made to complete periodic ethical refresher courses. The purpose for these is, as with the police department, to put the guards on notice they have ethical duties and those duties are expected to be followed and kept up to date by the guards. In this particular case, an ethical standard that should be part of the prison’s policy should be guards are not allowed, unless absolutely necessary such as in the event that there is a shortage of staff, to be assigned to or in or patrol areas that house family members or friends. This is needed to eliminate conflicts of interest (Kaci, 1998). This will mainly be implemented by the voluntary admission by the guard for reassignment once he knows that he is working in an area where family or friends are housed. This is needed to eliminate the possibility that guards will be persuaded to allow inmates to act above the rules.
C.) Under the Fourth Amendment, police officers are prohibited from initiated an “unreasonable” search of a suspect or their property. Unreasonable here refers to a search that is knowingly performed without a warrant or an exception to the warrant requirement such as if the officer believes that the suspect may be destroying evidence. Failure to follow these standards will result in the exclusion of any information so obtained from being used against the suspect. This is necessary because without the principle, it is likely that police will ignore the people’s Fourth Amendment rights and use information and evidence illegally obtained to legal prosecute the suspect. Probation officers are less restricted by the Fourth Amendment because they generally deal with people that have already been convicted. Under the Constitution, convicted offenders have less Constitutional protections, which were taken away from them when they were convicted.
D.) In the 2009 case Ashcroft v. Iqbal, the Supreme Court held that the plaintiff, Javaid Iqbal had not stated or provided enough information in his complaint to bring a viable claim against the defendants, who in this case included the Attorney General and the director of the FBI (Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 2009). According to the Court, a subtle claim must provide clear evidence showing that superiors knew of or ordered the illegal actions of their subordinates. In terms of Iqbal’s impact on ethics, it provides a clear means for police and other law enforcement executive to allow, intentionally ignore the bad acts of their subordinates as long as they have plausible deniability that they did not expressly know about or order the alleged bad acts in question. In essence, the decision allows for the development of an unethical culture in lower ranked members of a law enforcement unit because it eliminates the requirement that leaders need to know what is happening or take responsibility for the actions of others.
E.) Based on the ethical and professional practices of the three branches, the courts seem like the most suitable branch to work in. First of all, courts and the judges and attorneys that work in them are not only bound by the ethics and professional responsibilities of their profession but also by the Constitution (ABA, 2013). Accordingly, they have some of the highest standards of honesty and integrity and all criminal justice stakeholders. Secondly, they also have the responsibilities of ensuring that the other branches of the criminal justice system stay true and follow their own ethical duties.
References
American Bar Association (ABA). (2013). Model Rules of Professional Conduct. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/groups/professional_responsibility/publications/model_rules_of_professional_conduct/model_rules_of_professional_conduct_table_of_contents.html
Ashcroft v. Iqbal, 556 US 662 (2009). Retrieved from https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/07-1015.ZS.html
Kaci, J.H. 1998. Criminal Procedure. Incline Village, NV: Copperhouse Publishing Company.
