Police Ethics And Deviance

1119 Words5 Pages
Police Ethics and Deviance CJS 210 People look at police officers everyday and usually associate them as “heroes” or “the good guys.” Usually police officers are exactly that; the good guys. But, that is not always the case. There is corruptness in the criminal justice system. It is something people have to look out for and know that it is out there. Many police officers have good ethics. Ethics are “the practical, normative study of the rightness and wrongness of human contact.” (Depsey, 2005) There are basic ethics which are just “broad moral principals” and there are applied principals which focus on the specific applications of the basic ethics. When an officer swears into the police department, they usually have a code of ethics that they read or swear to. These usually include their duties and what they promise they are going to do with or for the department. Some departments have ethics training classes. Most officers know how to good ethics and morals, however, some officers do not. Police officers go out everyday to maintain the law and enforce the law. So, it is expected of them to do the same; follow the law. 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. For example, basing their facts or decisions on race, the ability to gain influence, or pay offs is start to corruption. Police corruption is “when the officer is acting under his or her official capacity and receives a benefit or something of value (other than his or her paycheck) for doing something or for refraining from doing something.” (Depsey, 2005) Many times, an

More about Police Ethics And Deviance

Open Document