Leadership And Personal Characteristics Of A Good Police Officer

Decent Essays
A police officer is a key person in law enforcement service, but besides that, a police officer is a public servant, while holding both of those roles they both requires for the police to have certain characteristic to effectively deliver on the job: Policing today is very complex. Police officers are expected to show overall effective leadership and make split second decisions under varying stress conditions. Police officers must be effective in everything they do due to the decisions they make could potentially affect the lives of many people. For the majority, being a law enforcement officer is more than just a job, it is a lifestyle and an identity: There are many personal traits and attitudes that make a good police officer; these personal …show more content…
It is important that integrity is maintained at all costs because police officers are in a position of public trust, and if that trust is broken it will create an atmosphere of hostility between the police and public. “Police integrity and ethics are fundamental to effective policing and help build trust within communities. Sound conduct by police improves community interactions, enhances communication, and promotes shared responsibility for addressing crime and disorder” (Ethics and Integrity, n.d.). A police officer success depends upon the trust and confidence of the citizens in the respective community. Furthermore, it is important to remain professional in whatever they do and forever be committed to the highest level of standards within the law enforcement profession. A police officer is one who maintains honesty in all dealings in their work life, which allows the public to put faith and trust into the hands of the police. Citizens want police officers to uphold that trust that they promise by showing citizens that they are serving all citizens fair without prejudice, favoritism, or special treatment. For instance, if police officers make bad decisions they need to have the integrity to come forward and make things right. By implementing integrity into police officers everyday duty, thus creates an environment in which relationships between citizens and police will …show more content…
Impartiality is crucial on behalf of police officers because it is important for all people to be treated equally within the Justice system. To emphasize, within the ideal of professionalism impartiality plays a major role in the profession of a police officer, considering it encompasses the idea of fair treatment regardless of the circumstances. To explain, due to corruptibility and the actuality to infringe on one’s individual rights negatively, impartiality is important within the Justice system. For example, over time there have been multiple deaths, crimes, and situations, whereas people strongly feel that the police have abused their power and treat African American people unfairly due to their race. According to, the study, Law enforcement and Violence: The Divide between Black and White Americans, “Similarly, 85 percent of blacks think police are more likely to use force against a black person in most communities, compared with 63 percent of Hispanics and 39 percent of whites. Nearly as many, 71 percent, of blacks say police in their own community are more likely to use force against a black person compared with 47 percent of Hispanics and 24 percent of whites” (The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research

Related Documents

  • Superior Essays

    The role of the police officer as a member of the community is important, as they must adapt to a variety of situations. Their job is to maintain the balance between law and order, protect members of the public and their property, prevent crime, reduce the fear of crime and improve the quality of life for all citizens. Police use a numerous amount of tools to protect individuals, pinpoint the perpetrators of crime and ensure successful prosecutions against those who break the law. Modern policing varies from the textbook definition of the job and the reality officers face everyday. How police do things in the real world differs from what is put down on paper.…

    • 1213 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Decent Essays

    An officer is expected to be held to the highest standard, to display professionalism. Professionalism in and job pretty much speaks for itself "straignem up that tie" "fix your hair" "walk straight' you are the image of the company. Most jobs are all about professionalism in an image, the police departments all around the USA are much more. Read into a mission statement, Avondale PD (Vision, Mission and Values) Phoenix PD (P.R.I.D.E), pretty much all mission statements are the same "to serve, protect, and reduce crime in Phoenix while treating everyone with digity and respect"…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Decent Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Introduction Secrecy is a common factor in the government, they will always hide something from society. It could be to protect us or just to avoid something even bigger. A police officer role is to “serve and protect the community” by enforcing the law in a safe way to those that break it. Every citizen have the right to be treated fairly in this country. Police officers are supposed to help the community follow the law, by making sure that everything is in order and no one is acting illegal.…

    • 1196 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    One story that related to police brutality in Virginia Beach was the story line called, “Virginia Beach oceanfront excessive force investigation, December 17, 2016”. [Wavy 10, 2016] The event happened at night when police men were called to escort a drunk black male from a club. The club complain reported that they kicked out the black male because he got too drunk to remain inside the club. When club security escort him out, the customer went back in line trying to get back in.…

    • 563 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Systematic Reform

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Pick up any newspaper or watch a news program over the past several years; you will see a story about police misconduct. The recent events involving police misconduct, and the perceived failure of the justice system to hold officers accountable has started a call for reform, oversight, and retraining of law enforcement personnel on a national level. Systematic reform on all levels of law enforcement is a critical first step to improve accountability. According to the ACLU’s call for reform and the elimination of police abuse, “Nothing will be resolved until there is systemic change throughout this nation in the implicit and explicit bias against people of color and particularly African American youth who are routinely targeted by law enforcement even within their own communities.”…

    • 536 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Procedural Justice

    • 1468 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Many studies have been done on legitimacy surveys asking questions about confidence and trust of the police and the public's willingness to follow the police orders. Tyler and Muo(2002) conducted a study to access these types of questions to learn people's sense of accepting police decisions. they found that people who viewed the police as legitimate were more likely to accept their orders. When police act fairly and used procedural justice they were more accepting of the police actions.…

    • 1468 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Police Brutality Police officers risk their lives daily to keep our communities safe. These men and women are often in situations where their lives are in danger. Facing dangerous criminals, police sometimes must use force. However some officers use more force than what is needed. Today this issue is debated constantly.…

    • 1441 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    More prominent in the news now more than ever, is the reporting of black men being shot down by police, and more often than not now, it feels unjustified. When we discuss racial bias by police officers, it can be described through four different mechanism’s: racial profiling, deployment, cognitive bias and stereotyping, and prejudice and racial animus. What is more likely at play is an unconscious, singling out and stereotyping.…

    • 308 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Radical Policing In Canada

    • 1730 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Policing in Canada has progressed since the Code of Hammurabi in 1200 BC. The first police force was founded, and organized by Sir Robert Peel, where he came up with nine principles that police officers should follow (Griffiths, 2015). One of these principles were that “police [should] maintain public favour by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service, not by catering to public opinion” (Griffiths, 2015, p. 29). As a result, police officers should not be affected by the opinions of the power groups or the government. However, this is not the case.…

    • 1730 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Not all cops are bad Police Officers: Courageous, strong, brave, amazing people, but to some they are all brutal, evil, horrible people. Not since the 1960s have police been subjected to so much criticism, disaffection, and public abuse (Moore). Yet, not all cops are bad people like people tend to think. A good majority of police are honest, caring, loving people that love their job, protecting us and their city from harm.…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Superior Essays

    Issues In Policing

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages

    What Are the Issues in Policing? Policing has been around for a very long time in society. Policing is simply the duties and tasks that police officers have to perform to maintain law and order in communities. Polices perform such duties as traffic control, criminal investigation, keeping peace, and other helpful services to citizens. Over time, policing has changed tremendously and has had a great effect on today’s society.…

    • 1405 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Superior Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Police Subculture Essay

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages

    As stated by Steve Herbert, “police are viewed as a distinct subgroup with a particular ethos that strongly influences their daily practices.” The subculture leads them to believe that they cannot appear weak no matter the circumstance and that they should essentially ignore their own humanity (Malmin). The subculture of police is also filled to the brim with close-mindedness, biases, prejudice, and suspicion (McCartney and Parent). Still, in spite of all of those negative aspects, there are some positive qualities of police subculture that somewhat assist in counterbalancing the more unfavorable aspects. People in law enforcement share respectable principles like teamwork, supportiveness, perseverance, loyalty as well as quite a few more.…

    • 1375 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Great Essays

    Police brutality and racism seem to be consistently connected to one another. This has become a serious issue in which circumstances have ended violently or even fatally when involving police officers and African American citizens. In 2014, the United States Census Bureau reported that African American people make up only 13.2% of our population. Anyone can become a victim of police brutality, regardless of their race; but statistics show that African American people are being killed by police at more than twice the rate of Caucasian and Hispanic people. It is also considerably more likely for the African American victims in these situations to have been unarmed at their time of death.…

    • 1322 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Great Essays
  • Improved Essays

    In the first place, it discussed two absolutely opposite researches on whether the police tend to target special ethnic groups such as African Americans. One research conducted by Brunson and Miller (2006) put forward the hypothesis that the minorities are more subjected to police violence, while Reiss’ studies (1968; 1971; 1980) argued that white men happen to be victims of police aggression more often than individuals of other races. However, the latter added that the victims tend to be from low socio-economic class. Thus, it supports the idea that unjustified excessive force is very often directed toward a certain group of people such as racial minorities or poor males. Moreover, other articles provided more broad explanation of the factors that induce law enforcement officers use this force.…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Improved Essays
  • Improved Essays

    Prejudice or racial tensions have become a fore fronting scapegoat for police brutality. Individuals have accused police officers and vice versa of being racists and treating them of lesser quality as other races. “Although black men make up only six percent of the U.S. population, they account for forty percent of the unarmed men shot to death by police this year.” (Kimberly, Fisher, Tate, Jenkins) That means that African-American males create a little over half of the population shot by police officers this past year.…

    • 1673 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Improved Essays

Related Topics