Law enforcement officers need to uphold the law in order to enforce it, so police officers must have a strong sense of right and wrong and they must generally exhibit and encourage good behavior to the public. This sense of right and wrong and the desire to do good in the community is perhaps the most important trait a police officer needs to have. Police officers often find themselves in high-stress, volatile situations. At the other end of the spectrum, they deal with a lot of mundane, routine patrols. They deal with dishonest and dangerous people, and also victimized and abused people.
The use of police force is highly important and can make a huge difference in society. It can make an impact and affect the outcome of a situation. There are people that like the police and there are people who hate them. Regardless of what your opinion is about the use of police force, one should take into account that it is much needed. Police force protects our rights as citizens, enforces the law, and it helps shape a society to make moral and ethical decisions.
Prosecutors can sometimes get away with misconduct as it is extremely difficult to prove that misconduct had actually taken place. Often times the prosecutor is viewed as being on the side of justice and as a result it is difficult for the defendant (who is accused of a crime) to turn the tide against the prosecution. Although during the trial both the defense as well as the judge may report a prosecutor for misconduct, this rarely happens as these reports are often dismissed. This is because as long as the prosecutions misconduct does not affect the outcome of the case, then it is tolerated, meaning that a prosecutor can harass a witness or the defendant so long as the harassment did not have anything to do with the outcome of the trial. The fact that the prosecutor works in the interests of the state can be seen as the underlying factor here.
In addition to these investigations it is important for law enforcement officers to report inappropriate conduct they witness to their supervisor as well. This, however, may be the most difficult principle to follow. What I find interesting is that few police officers actually cause a majority of the complaints (Justice,
If police want to gain the respect of their community, they must respect all of the different cultures in the neighborhoods they are working in. If officers refuse to respect these people, this can end up leading to distrust in any police force, the loss of credibility, and the inability to be able to work together effectively. In order to learn from past mistakes in community policing, they must examine their past mistakes and correct
For some of us we feel a certain pressure or fear of being arrested that keeps us from trying to break laws. The average Joe understands the consequences of committing a crime and most of would try to avoid these consequences. When we often see the lifestyles many inmates are living by in the prison system not to many of us look forward to having to fight for our meals or worry about their cell mate’s intentions. Society recognizes the pressure of the consequences of committing a crime, so pressure plays a vital role why people obey the law. Peers Our peers can have a major influence on why we choose to obey the law.
Police Ethics and Deviance According to Wadsworth An Introduction to Policing (2005), “ethics can be defined as the practical, normative study of the rightness and wrongness of human conduct.” What this means is that everyone is taught the difference between what is accepted as right and wrong. The nature of ethics is for each individual to be able to look at a situation and make a sound judgment according to what is right and wrong. A police official must pay particular attention to ethics. They must make sure their personal lives, prejudices, political views, goals, personal hostilities or friendships to influence their decisions (White, 2004). Some of the standards police have to follow concerning ethics in their work routine are things like: Officers must enforce the law without compromise for the crime they are preventing and with carrying out the prosecution of criminals.
However, this is not what happens. There are officers out there that break the law just as much as some criminals. They are paid to enforce the laws but how is it fair if they are not enforcing the laws themselves? It is not. The first step to corruption is using the wrong factors when they make decisions.
This code that has been established, is protected and feared as rules within such communities. These rules are unspoken and it encourages people to seek respect by engaging in criminal behavior in order to protect one’s self image and gain respect. For example, if a person is or feels disrespected or dishonored in some way, he or she may engage in a demeaning way to gain respect. The codes of the neighborhoods goes further in how being informants for police authorities, should not happen and showing emotions when challenged is not encouraged. These rules are a way of how the
Conservatism I see as a one track mind, and not open to other possibilities. A police officer that uses his mind in such a way can be lead to being prejudice when approaching justice, or be lead to target on single racial community in the area. In other ways it can lead to certain way he performs his job. He could either be a rule breaker or not want stir away from the rule book. This can also tie into cynicism, in ways that a police officer can approach his job in a cynical way.