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Ethics in Law Enforcement

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Ethics in Law Enforcement
Abstract
The analysis of the ethical decision making process in law enforcement agencies has been the subject of numerous research articles in the past several decades. The following research project uses a non-experimental design to collect and analyze the responses of police officers in a suburban agency, to survey items that attempt to measure officer perceptions of the seriousness of specific ethically problematic behaviors. Xxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx.

Introduction

The ethical behavior of police officers is a fundamental issue in the creation of trust within a community. Police officers are given an enormous amount of power; this power has been granted to police officers by consent of citizens in the form of a social contract. This social contract transfers citizens rights to the police, and includes such rights as the right to use force to defend their property, to apprehend law breakers with forceful action, and other rights of self-protection. Therefore, citizens must be able to trust that police officers will use this power that has been ceded to them, with a great deal of moral and ethical restraint. Unfortunately, the history of policing has been plagued by abuses of police power, which have led to many social problems, including the erosion of the trust of citizens. One of the issues that seems to contribute to this problem is that police officers are not xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx This research project will explore xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx


References: Brooklyn Park Police Department. (2005, May 1). Use of deadly force policy and procedure (No Del Pozo, B. (2005). One dogma of police ethics: Gratuities and the “Democratic Ethos” of policing Kleinig, J. (1996). The ethics of policing. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. Klockars, C.B., Ivkovich, S.K., Harver, W.E., & Haberfeld, M.R. (2000, May). Measurement of police integrity (NCJ 181465). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice. Newham, G. (2002). Promoting police integrity at the station level: The case of the Hillbrow police station U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service. (2003, September). Police use of force: Addressing community racial tensions Retrieved November 2, 2006 from http://www.usdoj.gov/crs/pubs/policeuseofforce092003.pdf
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