Police Use of Force and Ethics Law enforcement dates back to the 1700’s and is yet considered a fairly modern social establishment. Even back then, before the formation of professional law enforcement bodies, people felt concern when it came to the granting of power and authority to the police as they were rightly apprehensive over what they were afraid would become another occupying force. As such, there has always been a level of apprehension between society and police officers, because the obvious power to use force when they are around, along with the imminent threat of being arrested makes citizens uneasy. Although Police Officers have the ability to use force when necessary, present society now has an aversion to extreme retributive
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It was not until 1928 the United States formulated a code of ethics for Police Officers (Kleining 1996).???? In order to have a reliable and competent understanding of ethics and how they should be employed by criminal justice professionals and to the effective working of the criminal justice system, police officers must be trained. Ethics fall under three branches of study; metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Police officers are usually guided by normative ethics which is concerned with ways persons behave and their modes of …show more content…
A police officer of good character is sometimes defined as an ethical individual. An ethical person possesses high principles that direct his actions, a clear conscience and moral courage to act. He must be able to evaluate the facts, different points of view and behaviors impartially. He then needs to assess the method in which the information is obtained or transmitted to make a decision about the validity of the information and then chart out the best course of conduct to bring about an amenable solution for all parties. Morals and ethics are not in-born to people; one has to be taught. Ethics is the manner whereby one can see that there is a higher reason to life than self-interest (Arrigo, 2008).
One of the main hypothesis in normative ethics purports that there is a standard of ethical conduct that flow from a set of good character traits or foundational principles which fall under the following
It was not until 1928 the United States formulated a code of ethics for Police Officers (Kleining 1996).???? In order to have a reliable and competent understanding of ethics and how they should be employed by criminal justice professionals and to the effective working of the criminal justice system, police officers must be trained. Ethics fall under three branches of study; metaethics, normative ethics and applied ethics. Police officers are usually guided by normative ethics which is concerned with ways persons behave and their modes of …show more content…
A police officer of good character is sometimes defined as an ethical individual. An ethical person possesses high principles that direct his actions, a clear conscience and moral courage to act. He must be able to evaluate the facts, different points of view and behaviors impartially. He then needs to assess the method in which the information is obtained or transmitted to make a decision about the validity of the information and then chart out the best course of conduct to bring about an amenable solution for all parties. Morals and ethics are not in-born to people; one has to be taught. Ethics is the manner whereby one can see that there is a higher reason to life than self-interest (Arrigo, 2008).
One of the main hypothesis in normative ethics purports that there is a standard of ethical conduct that flow from a set of good character traits or foundational principles which fall under the following