POLICE AND THE UNWRITTEN CODE

Police and the unwritten code: Ethical Dilemma of reporting a cop who is abusing the law vs. keeping silent

Table of Contents

Introduction2

Discussion and Analysis2

Ethics Training in Law Enforcement:5

Content and Instruction:7

Whistleblowers in the past and how they were treated by other officers:10

Conclusion12

References13

Appendix16

Perception of value:16

Police and the unwritten code: Ethical Dilemma of reporting a cop who is abusing the law vs. keeping silent

Introduction

Ethics training in law enforcement has received considerable attention for a variety of reasons. First, many police departments are participating in voluntary accreditation through standards set by the Commission of Accreditation in Law Enforcement Associations, and ethics is often included as a component of required training. Second, organizations such as the National Institute of Ethics benefit by promoting the need for ethics training in law enforcement. Third, police departments experiencing incidents where officers have violated organizational policy, have been accused of excessive use of force, or have engaged in questionable conduct want to prevent further damage and future incidents. Finally, the administrators of many police agencies believe that ethics training reinforces the mission of the organization and adherence to policy and procedures, and enhances the ability to resolve moral dilemmas. This paper discusses gives an ethical dilemma of reporting a cop who is abusing the law.

Discussion and Analysis

It is in the nature of the tasks involved in policing that the ethical dilemmas presented to officers and their managers are sometimes intractable. The mission to protect life may need to be balanced with the need to take life to do so. Preventing serious crimes may require the police to act deceptively, to intrude in citizens' lives and homes. There is now considerable evidence to suggest that a Police Service that is viewed as acting 'ethically' may well have significant advantages in securing legitimacy with those whom it serves, potentially adding to its effectiveness (Tyler, 2004).

Although the definition above applies very much to the everyday as well as to times of crisis, much of the debate has tended to focus on questions of ethics in policing from a crisis perspective. There have been, broadly, three areas for debate: the styles of policing, the institution of policing and police culture. With styles of policing, the focus has been on areas such as the impact of 'crime-fighting' approaches, with their potential for 'noble cause corruption', often driven by police officers frustrated by the 'system' which they seek to short-cut. In particular, a number of studies have looked at the ways in which tactics such as covert policing can lead to entrapment and the creation of crimes that might otherwise not have happened. The challenge for police in this instance is to manage deception 'ethically'.

Corruption has been the primary institutional focus. This has ranged, from the early twentieth century, where concerns about political and economic corruption produced a literature about 'professionalism' and studies of the extent and causes of corruption, to more recent concerns about administrative corruption resulting from the extensive focus on performance managerialism.

The focus on police culture has looked at the ...