Police Officer

Introduction

There are many issues facing today's police officer and police supervisor. Some include the police use of excessive force, deadly force, police corruption, police pursuits and other popular police related topics (Close p.19). While all of these have problem areas, there are two police topics that touch on all the above issues, police oath of office and the code of ethics. Today's police officer is working in an era where the public's opinion of the police is influenced by the negative stories they read in the media, as in the Rodney King and Malice Green cases. On top of all the media influence of police misconduct, is the public's view of all the misconduct by our political leaders (Spinoza p.19-22).

The public is concerned over its own ethics and morality because it has no trust in its leaders. I will cover this issue in the chapter on "Public trust in the Police." There has never been another time when police officers and political leaders were viewed by the public with as much distrust (Delattre p.17). There has also never been a greater need for the police to understand their oath of office and to be trained in ethical decision making as well as ethical behavior. In this paper I will show how the police officer doesn't understand his responsibility and commitment to his police oath of office and in turn his code of ethics (Johnston p. 285-313).

To accomplish this I have given a survey to several Law Enforcement Officers of all levels and agencies. Clearly the survey shows police officers do not understand that the oath of office they take is one of the most important statements made in their career. I will also discuss the current state of police ethics, both from the police oath and from my own police experience (Michigan Commission on Law Enforcement Standards p.15).

Before beginning a discussion on the police oath of office and code of ethics, both must be defined. There is very little written on the police officer oath of office. I was forced to look to the political area on oaths and identified the origin from the United States Constitutional and Michigan Constitution. The oath of office and police ethics discussed in this paper is looked at as one in the same. Police ethics is an issue of how to behave. The oath is a sworn commitment to act in an ethical manner. You can't have one without the other being affected (Southwestern Law Enforcement Institute p.14).

Two of the most neglected areas of police work are code of ethics and oath of office. These two documents are the most important issues of truth and integrity a police department has with the community it serves. Most police agencies have neglected these issues and do not fully understand the impact they have on the community they serve. Studies have shown the distrust the public has with several different professions, the police being one of these professions. In my research I surveyed ...