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For the last several years the prestige and reputation of the police has declined dramatically. It is considered that the failures in ethical conduct and insufficient monitoring are two major reasons why police brutality has become the most widely used characteristics of the work of law enforcements. It is a particularly ethically challenging job that requires thorough expertise and high standards in ethics to fulfill all goals. Policing is a difficult job as well in terms of physical and moral complications it may generate. It poses a direct threat to life of professionals operating in this field and high risks of being ethically compromised. At the same time, it is an essential profession that cannot be replaced by anything else. A primary aim of a police officer is to safeguard the citizens by providing them with a stable protection as well as to monitor them in terms of compliance of their actions with the laws. Therefore, the citizens for a police officer are both the objects of protection and a potential threat, which usually lead to the ethical conundrums among the professionals operating in this field.
A typical professional development in this field includes several steps that start with the training where young men and women obtain the knowledge in legislation, physical training, psychology, ethics, and criminal justice. The main requirements for recruitment include physical agility, absence of criminal records, no serious health issues, U.S. citizenship, minimum age of 21 years, weight proportionate to height (Grant, 2002). Later on, future police officers have the opportunity to increase their level of professional development by enrolling in the specialized courses dedicated to the particular areas of interest, such as criminal psychology, leadership training, IT and communication, investigative training, conflict management, health and safety, as well as diversity. Usually, after the initial training, novice police officers are appointed to the patrol or community policing that requires working closer with the community, react promptly on the emergent cases, monitor the safety on the streets, and assist the other professionals operating in this field in their functions.
A newly graduated police officer may be appointed to different units, including the vice, drug unit, homicide division. Later on, patrol officers may be promoted or choose to become police detectives/investigators that requires an additional training, excellent conduct, as well as long and meritorious service. The officers may be transferred to other units or the departments according to their qualities or their personal preferences. Later professional developments include the hierarchal promotion that maintains a framework of quasi-militaristic range that varies across different states. For instance, some of the state departments may have the rank of a colonel, while the others have a rank of superintendent or a commissioner. Further development usually include the leadership positions where the work of these professional will require the implementation of monitoring and supervising of the police officers or/and the detectives. It has to be mentioned that there are specialized units like SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics teams), special response teams, hostage rescue teams, and other more specialized units.
Ethical development in policing is vital for the professionals as well as the entire community. It is essential for the police departments to improve and facilitate community relationships through training personnel on three key notions, including procedural justice, bias reduction, and racial reconciliation (Moll, 2007). These three concepts have the ability to create an environment of mutual trust and understanding that will be embodied in the effective partnership and collaboration between the citizens and the officers. In order to ensure integrity and ethics among the police officers, the leaders have to implement appropriate recruitment process, provide adequate training, equip the officers with the necessary resources, foster excellent compliance with the law and ethics, and promote high standards in moral values among the personnel. In this case, effective ethical developments require sufficient leadership qualities among the head of the departments as well as all officers working in this profession. One of the major concepts within the ethical development goal is to maintain the principles of community policing that requires a close collaboration with a particular community that will lead to the prevention of crimes rather than reaction to them (Castaneda & Ridgeway, 2010). It is considered to be an effective approach in targeting the goals of ethical development of the police officers.
Universal code of ethical conduct approved by the government includes several basic principles of operation, such as accountability, fairness, honesty, integrity, leadership, objectivity, openness, respect, and selflessness (College of Policing, 2014). Each of these principles has a specific requirement that has to be maintained by every police officer. Specifically, the principle of accountability requires full responsibility of every action, decision, and omission; fairness demands to treat people fairly. Such principle as honesty requires being trustworthy, where integrity demands to be guided by the necessity to do a right thing. It was mentioned earlier that leadership is a crucial principle in the law enforcement, which encourages the officers to be the examples for the community that demands to be objective, open, and selfless. Finally, the police officers have to treat everyone with respect including the citizens as well as the fellow officers and the top management.
It is a well-known fact that police officers are enabled by the community to use force, which poses a serious threat to a person’s ethical and moral values. By bearing such a responsibility, the personnel have to “only use force as part of a role and responsibilities and only to the extent that it is necessary, proportionate and reasonable in all the circumstances” (College of Policing, 2014, p. 4). It is quite a challenging task taking into account that not all situations experienced by the officers are straightforward and has a one-dimensional decision. As practice shows, the law enforcement personnel are required to use the code of ethics, logic, and immediate reaction in some of the situations. Some of the cases demands to take independent decisions when it is impossible to consult with the leaders, which also makes the officers autonomous and independent, which also requires the application of high ethical standards and their appropriate implementation. Nowadays, one of the most challenging aspects in ethical development among the police officers is diversity and approach to the racial minorities. The code of ethics has included equality and diversity into its standards of professional behavior in the law enforcement, yet it still remains a problematic aspect of the police. One of the major reasons for this is the economic inequality that triggers the intensification of violence and crime, which leads to the increased presence of the law enforcement in the poor areas. In this case, self-control and tolerance have to be used as the main concepts guiding the police work, where diversity serves only as a characteristic feature of the work.
Professional obligations of the police officers are challenged by the ethical developments in the profession due to the character of the job and the need to maintain safety as well as execute power, including the physical restraint if it is necessary. It has to be noted that the police work is particularly dangerous, as it may involve physical harm as well as lethality. In this case, for example, the utilization of fire arms and other tools of physical power has to be especially cautious and responsible. Here, the police work borders with the brutality that is observed in many cases today. However, it is not a simple issue as well. The main aim of the police officers is to safeguard the citizens as well as to prevent crimes, which requires the use of force. It is difficult to determine whether it is police brutality or a necessary mean for preventing or reacting to a crime. Therefore, this conflicting issue has to be evaluated in a context rather than judged by an instance. Another conflicting issue in the police ethics is the necessity of being objective.
In the work of a police officer there are cases that might be personally challenging, for example, extreme violent crimes that can interfere with the fair judgment of an officer. In this case, psychological resilience and impartiality are required. Lack of these qualities usually leads to the wrongful convictions, violation of code of ethical conduct, disruption in leadership, and inadequate treatment of possible suspects. There are many cases proving the inability of some of the officers to separate personal attitude towards people and the objective judgment, which serves as one of the major causes of ethical misconduct. Further ethical development of the police officers is challenged by the ability to sustain the pressure and increased level of stress these professionals encounter with. It is possible to admit that the professional development goes hand in hand with the ethical evolution of a law enforcement agent, thus, the career promotion is impossible without excellence in the code of conduct shown throughout the years.
As it was mentioned earlier, modern law enforcement proved to be problematic in terms of ethics and professional development. It is considered that one of the major reasons of this situation is a failed system of training. According to Owens & Pfeifer (2003), current education is not proficient enough to equip the future officers with the exemplary knowledge of ethics. The researchers suggest that one of the causes is the obsolete doctrine that does not reflect the modern reality, where such principles as diversity and absolute tolerance are crucial for the society (Owens & Pfeifer, 2003). For instance, there are multiple instances of police brutality executed against the racial and ethnic minorities, which are difficult to list due to the high prevalence of such cases. It is easy to remember a case of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year old teenager shot by a police officer or the most recent case of Walter Scott, who was shot in the back by one of the officers (Sanburn, 2015). Both of them were African-Americans and the situations did not require the use of physical violence. In the result, these and the similar cases induced panic and intensification of violent protests in the U.S., which served as a vivid representation of opposition to the law enforcement agencies among the communities.
Consequently, today the police enforcement is challenged by both the ethical conundrums and loss of respect as well as trust to this profession. This situation represents a difficult and controversial issue that has to be resolved in the nearest time. Distrust to the police means that the officers will not be able to cooperate with the community and prevent crimes, which will increase the level of violence in the society. Ethically corrupt officers do not serve as good examples of conduct in the community, which may lead to the violence against the law enforcement in general. Therefore, there is a need of improvement in the ethical code of conduct among the law enforcement agents with the further implementation of renewed principles in practice. For instance, it is possible to train the officers in the aspects of diversity by providing them with the lessons of culture and history, which will help them to understand the other ethnicities as well as to acknowledge the need to treat all persons with respect. Also, the leaders may choose to introduce in-service training that will address specific ethical misconduct by particular officers through the punitive measures as well as training in ethics. Better accountability has to be enforced in the police department, when the personnel will be held responsible for every case, decision, and action executed in the line of duty as well as within personal life.
It is quite difficult to distinguish between the misconduct and the necessity to use physical restraint, thus, the investigation of internal cases has to be improved. Overall, the police departments have to increase the level of transparency of their actions due to the decrease trust to this profession among the community members. In future, it will be difficult to recruit and attract ethically and morally excellent personnel due to the current situation in this profession. Also, the outcome may result in the disastrous boost of the violent crimes where the members of all communities as well as the officers will encounter with if any preventive ethical measures are not applied.
References
Castaneda, L. W., & Ridgeway, G. (2010). Today's Police and Sheriff Recruits: Insights from the Newest Members of America's Law Enforcement Community. Santa Monica, CA: Rand.
Grant, K. J. (2002). Ethics and Law Enforcement. FBI and Law Enforcement Bulletin, 72(12), 11-14.
Moll, M. M. (2007). Improving American Police Ethics Training: Focusing on Social Contract Theory and Constitutional Principles. Forum on Public Policy: A Journal of the Oxford Round Table, 1-26.
Owens, K. M., & Pfeifer, J. (2003). Police Leadership and Ethics: Training and Policy Recommendations. Journal of Police and Security Services, 1(2), 2-14.
Sanburn, J. (2015). From Trayvon Martin to Walter Scott: Cases in the Spotlight. Time. Retrieved from: http://time.com/3815606/police-violence-timeline/
