Unethical Behavior In Law Enforcement

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Within the last few decades substantial progress has been made in Law Enforcement regarding police corruption. To being with, there are a substantial amount of police departments that have stayed away from hiring law enforcement candidates who do not have high ethical standards. These same police departments have recognized new recruits early in his or her career who they feel may compromise the police department’s integrity (Martin, 2011).

The latest technological advances that have been made within law enforcement have been to help police departments test police cadets regarding his or her tendency to act in an ethical manner and to test how ethical a police cadet may or may not be. But, no matter what technological advances have been
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This research is conducted with the hope of rooting out this unethical behavior on the part of police officers across our nation. This unethical behavior on the part of some police officers diminishes the role of a police officer and diminishes the integrity of law enforcement across our nation (Martin, 2011).

Police corruption makes people speculate about the role of law enforcement in our society. The negative effect and influence of corrupt police departments and a person’s natural propensity to act in an unethical manner have been some of the explanations given as to why police corruption exists (Martin, 2011).

The debate and dialogue over unethical behavior committed by corrupt police officers should begin with the definition of the word integrity. One researcher described integrity as being “the sum of the virtues required to bring about the general goals of protections and service to the public (Martin,
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A good police officer ultimately has to depend on his or her own level of knowledge, rationality, and have a very strict devotion to moral excellence. If a police officer’s actions result in anything less than perfect ethical conduct it can be catastrophic for a department and the community that he or she promised to serve and to protect. And in some instances a police officer’s unethical conduct can affect the entire nation. Police agencies must possess three basic principles to guarantee ethical behavior among their police officers. The agency must set the tone regarding the high level of ethical and moral behavior that they expect from each of their police officers. Each agency has to have a policy in existence that explains it ethical standards and set high ethical standards that the police officers under their command much without a doubt adhere to. The department leaders must lead by example and he or she must never choose the east route in lieu of the ethical one. And third, police departments must absolutely guarantee that they hire ethical people and then deal with the unethical police officers and people in his or her department in the most appropriate way (Martin,

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