Introduction
There have been concerns regarding police conduct for years. Therefore, the managerial departments have been working hard to educate the cops about ethics. Unethical behaviors of police officers can subject their agency with civil litigation. Civil lawsuits come in many forms such as racial discrimination, age discrimination, sexual discrimination and religious discrimination. The organization will, therefore, have a hard time curbing this kind of lawsuits. The media will also bring down an agency particularly if a police office has violated one's civil rights (Barry, 1999). The public will watch the news and lose their confidence in the organization.
How current level of officer misconduct is analyzed?
The victims of police misconduct have every right to report or sue any police officers for any misconduct they have committed. Their rights are under the statute of section 1983. This fact is claimed to have been written under the Civil Rights law of 1871 (Stanislas, 2014). The Act was amended due to the increment of oppressive behaviors by the government officials. Therefore, the current level of officer misconduct is analyzed through looking at this Act and also the civil rights laws. One of the traditional misconduct reported by people is false arrests, which falls under the fourth amendment rights against unreasonable seizure. Therefore, it is imperative that police officers have a warrant before arresting an individual. If in the future evidence appears that the person arrested was innocent then they will not have any problems because they followed the law. However, when a person commits a crime before an officer. They have every right to arrest the person on the spot.
Malicious prosecution is another misconduct that has been reported by many civilians. This kind of claim is under the fourteenth amendment, which talks about the rights of liberty. However, a person who is reporting this crime has to prove that the procedures turned out to be malicious and also the victim has to have been acquitted of all the charges (Douglas and Perez, 2013).
Excessive force by police officers is one of the most common forms of complaints by victims. There have been many reports where police officers have physically or verbally abused victims and in severe cases, some of the victims end up dying. Therefore, police agencies have to take these kinds of claim very seriously, and this is the reason they formulate programs that will stop help curb misconduct in the force.
What techniques will be used to train officers in successfully and repeatedly making ethical decisions while both on and off duty?
Ethics training curricula
There is a need for the police force to implement ethical training programs or curricula. These programs will educating all the police officers about the need of being ethical in the workforce. In the training, the officers will learn about their responsibilities on how to handle criminals in every given situation so as not to break laws (Barry, 1999).
While training, the police officers will be educated about the code of ethics and conduct. It has been established that the law enforcement Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct are used as an oath for the officers. These two documents were formulated in 1957 as two separate entities. The police code of conduct has nine ethical mandates used for guiding officers on how to perform their duties. Therefore, once the training is over all the officers must understand the code of ethics and conduct by heart thus, it will help them avoid any misconduct.
The department policy
The department policy should be formulated in a manner that will ensure all officers are trained about ethical behaviors. One of the major rules in the policy should indicate that all officers need to attend ethical training programs. The importance of the programs should be well stipulated because they will enable officers to know about the civil rights of individuals and how to avoid violating these rights (Stanislas, 2014).
Eradication of the code of silence
It can be observed through history that police officers have their culture that sets them aside from the other law enforcement agencies. One of those cultures is the code of silence. Ethical training will enable the officers to learn that code of silence causes them to be accomplishes for crimes committed by their colleagues (Barry, 1999).
How will these training methods or technique be implemented in the organization?
Implementing harsh punishment
Disciplinary actions should be taken for any officer who has been reported for committing misconduct. The police executives need to apply and carry through with the disciplinary actions (Douglas and Perez, 2013). When people are punished for their actions, the officers in the department will learn to be disciplined and be afraid to do anything that is illegal. It is also important that people who cover up for one another to face disciplinary actions. This fact can be observed when reported cases of misconduct are swept under the rug or are not investigate. When this happens, it will cause mistrust from both the victims and the public with the police force. However, when swift actions have been taken against dirty cops the public will have trust in the police force, and thus, they will be able to cooperate with them.
Encouraging good relationship between the Internal Affairs Bureau (IAB) and the Chief Executive Officers (CEO)
The relationship between the CEO and IAB is crucial because it can be useful in reducing police misconduct (Stanislas, 2014). The IAB are the ones in charge of investigating any claim of misconduct by police officers. People working in this organization are usually not well received by the officers. This fact is the reason why the CEO needs to cooperate and collaborate with the IAB to eradicate ay police misconduct.
Implementation of code of ethics and code of conduct
The code of ethics and conduct should be implemented during the graduation ceremonies of the officers. This fact will put them under oath and thus they will uphold the laws of the land. The oath will also bound them to be vigilant while performing their task on and off duty (Barry, 1999).
How will the effectiveness of these training methods be evaluated?
There are four stages of the effectiveness of these training methods. The first one is through the reaction of the trainees (Raines, 2010). In this stage, the trainer is interested in finding out how the officers feel regarding the training. It will be done through a series of questions about how they feel about the training. If the officers are happy with the training, then they will be able to apply what they have learned in the field.
It is important for the trainee to check the progress of the sessions. This fact will be done through a series of open- ended questionnaires pre-test and pro-test and the results will be compared. The results of the test will enable the trainer to know whether the officers were gaining any knowledge about the importance of ethics in law enforcement (Stanislas, 2014).
The behavior of the trainees will be measured through the attendance record of the officers. The head department should ensure that all officers have participated in the programs (Raines, 2010). The attendance record will indicate whether the officers are taking the issue of misconduct and ethics seriously. The higher number of people attending the training will help in reducing misbehaviors in the police force.
In conclusion, training of officers about ethics is important because it will assist in reducing misconduct issues in the organization. Several techniques are implemented during training such as eradicating code of silence. The department policy should add training programs for ethical issues, ethics issues curricular, education of code of ethics and code of conduct. The implementation of the training is done through encouraging a good relationship between the CEO and IAB and implementation of harsh punishments (Stanislas, 2014). When all these has been done, then the officers will be able to understand what ethics entails and how it is implemented.
Reference
Barry, D. P. (1999). Handling police misconduct in an ethical way. Nevada: University of Nevada press.
Douglas W. Perez, J. A. (2013). Police Ethics. New York: Delmar Cengage Learning.
Raines, J. (2010). Ethics in Policing: Misconduct and Integrity. Johns and Bartlett Publishers.
Stanislas, P. (2014). International Perspectives on Police Education and Training. New York: Routledge.
