Disclosing Officer Untruthfulness to the Defense: Is a Liar's Squad Coming to Your Town?

Disclosing Officer Untruthfulness to the Defense: Is a Liar's Squad Coming to Your Town?

Introduction

Truthfulness is one of the most crucial character foundations as far as effective police officers are concerned though there has been a growing frustration on what has seemed to be an extensive deficiency of integrity as well as lack of support for any disciplinary measures by appointed boards as well as politically elected members. The main root of all evil is as a result of lack of truthfulness either from uninspired working performance as well as excessive force. Integrity and ethics should be the main target and main issues to be considered during evaluation of any internal investigation. When the officers are truthful on misconduct, it is crucial to give them affirmative reinforcement through citing the case as being a mitigating factor. It is imperative to make it clear that lying among police officers is a major termination offense (United States, 2011). This paper will hence analyze a case brought to my attention of an officer who used one of the computers in the patrol division inappropriately.

The case scenario

It has been brought to my attention by my Deputy Chief of Police that one of the officers who were investigated was inappropriately using one of the computers in the patrol division.  It was hence determined that the officer used the computer to search for pornographic web sites. When he was confronted with the contention, this officer denied of having any knowledge on this incident. On further investigation, the computer crime analyst determined on the fact that the officer log in password had been used to enter the unauthorized web sites. The officer hence admitted to the wrongdoing and affirmed that it would never happen any other time. This officer has been with my organization for 15 years and the only disciplinary action that was taken against him had been for being involved in a traffic accident 10 years ago.

Definitions and discussion

The police officers' inappropriate use of the computer to view some sexually explicit information and material which are personal and unrelated to the officials job function is completely unethical. This can cause peoples lives to be immensely affected and hence the strict action as a warning to the rest of the officers. The department policy clearly states that the computers which are owned by the municipality should not be used for inappropriate and personal subjects. There is obviously no any room in the law enforcement for such kind of behavior and the only way to protect the integrity of the entire department is by terminating the officer as a future warning against such dubious actions.

The main risks for inappropriate use of the computers are the fact that it can lead to hostile lawsuits as well as drain the IT resources (Regini, 1996, 27-32).  Pornography is also an infamous means used to entice the users to sites which are ripe as far as security risks are ...