The police personality fosters and “us vs. them” mentality that cops are always the good guys and everyone else is a potential bad guy (The Brotherhood). There is a subculture in Police work that in some cases can carry severe penalties towards officer’s if they were to “rat” on another officer. This subculture code of “Don’t give up another cop” has been described as the code of silence, or the blue curtain of secrecy (Pollock 119). In this subculture police officers are often ostracized or deemed unfaithful to the badge if they were to turn on another officer and testify against them during an investigation. Police officers must trust other officers to back them up in a struggle that could potentially be a life or death situation.
Is it ethical or unethical…that is the question. First off, what is “professional courtesy?” In law enforcement professional courtesy is when an on-duty officer pulls over an off-duty or retired officer for some traffic violation and lets him go, by not issuing a ticket or arresting him. The central ideal behind this behavior is that cops have to stick together, to look out for each other. In a profession that yields little respect from the general public officers should support other officers, not try to bring them down. This subject has many perspectives however, and each officer, depending on his life experiences and personal values, feels differently about this ethical dilemma.
After reading the report, I chose Glen Woodall. I found this case to be very interesting, as situations like this happen all the time. Wrongful convictions,not only hurt the one that's being accused, but it hurts the person's family as well. In the eye of the public, if your arrested for a crime, then your an outsider, no matter how you may have contributed to your community. But a lot of people remain steadfast in their innocence.
Therefore, a compromise must be made because it would be ideological to believe that there can be a government that bans the use of racial identification. Lastly, one must remember that all men are created equal legally and politically. In the field of law enforcement, police officers use certain techniques to describe individuals they pull over or arrest. One of the most controversial means of identifying people is racial profiling. This is “the practice by law enforcement of considering race as an indicator of the likelihood of criminal behavior” (Robinson 530).
His belief was that if nonviolence led to a nonsolution, and cruelty still surfaced in the community, then you should defend yourself by using any means necessary. I concur with his assessment of how to respond with the misdeeds of both former and today’s society. Although it can be viewed as unnecessary and idiotic, initiating violence can be utilized to defend against tyranny, ultimately shielding the innocent lives of those that are victimized. Malcolm X’s main idea is to uphold the entitlement of security and justification. He believed it was “a crime for anyone who is being brutalized to continue to accept that brutality without doing something to defend himself.” This corresponds with the second amendment in the United States Constitution: the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.
The investigated violent crimes that came came under the jurisdiction of the FBI. As they both progressed in their career they began to study why some offenders committed violent crime and some who became serial killers. In the Ressler book “Whoever Fights Monsters” the violent offender was wrote about. Ressler wanted to show the offenders make-up of why they committed violent crimes, how their family dynamics at their early ages might have caused their violent behavior. Ressler focused a majority of his writing around some of the well known serial killers and violent offenders with such names as Manson, Bundy, and Kemper.
A former police chief refers to it as a “veil of silence surrounding police agencies,” and it has been more commonly referred to as the “Blue Wall” (2005). In this paper the measures that should be taken if indeed this scenario presented itself, also the professional implications of reporting the unethical behavior. What the liability issues involved with not reporting the officer will be discussed, and what supervisory issues does this situation present to management and leadership will be discussed as well. Lastly why ethics are so important in the law enforcement profession will be discussed. When an officer is faced with this type of situation he or she is held to a higher standard ethically as well as morally.
Law Enforcement Code of Ethics Chad Lomax ADJ/235 07/05/2011 Rebecca Sanchez-Roig There are many conflicts between the formal law enforcement code of ethics and the police subculture. Police officers are sworn to not take part in any corrupt actions. When this happens other officers do not report the actions and stand with those corrupt officers. The officers have sworn to only use force when absolutely necessary yet there are many cases where suspects are beaten and injured while being arrested by over-aggressive officers. Other officers will cover up these actions when filing reports.
Unethical Police Operations As long as there have been professional law enforcement agencies, there has been some measureable amount of police corruption. Most police officers uphold the honor and dignity of their position, however there are a percentage of officers who can always be relied upon to violate the trust of the public they serve. Like any disease or infection, corruption must be detected and removed immediately before it spreads and compromises the entire mission of the department in which it exists. The extent of corruption within American law enforcement agencies varies from department to department by type and level of corruption. Types of corruption include the acceptance of gratuities, disregarding “inconvenient laws,” role malfeasance, bribery, property crimes, criminal enterprise, denial of civil rights, and violent crimes.
I feel that the wounds tell a lot about wrongful death depending on the wounds and where the victim was shot at. From the trajectory of the gunshot wounds if Mr. Jones was shot in the back he had his back turned and never seen it coming. There are various dissimilar forms of wounds each of which can tell investigators something about the behavior of death. Wound forms change depending on whether the individual was shot, stabbed, blunt force trauma with a certain object, raped, poisoning, burned, or a fatal crash. A forensic investigator’s role is to investigate what the wound make known about how it was exposed and what inflicted it.