Diane City law enforcement agency is tasked with the primary role of maintaining law and order in the city by preventing crime, apprehending law offenders, and protecting the life and property of residents of Diane City. To achieve its objectives, the agency is governed by a set of ethics that are mandatory to all officers. They include:
Each officer should uphold their fundamental role which is to protect lives and property as well as serve their community diligently especially in regard to the weak and oppressed.
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The badge symbolizes the trust and faith accorded to officers by the public. Therefore should not engage in unethical behavior like corruption and bribery.
An officer should not allow personal feelings, political beliefs, or friendships to influence their decisions.
Law enforcement officers should uphold integrity even outside their workplace.
All officers are obliged to act impartially without favor or prejudice
An officer should ensure they practice confidentiality as they access vital information of different persons in society.
Sobriety during duty is a must for all officers.
Each officer is supposed to ensure reasonable of force while making arrests.
The reason I included the specific elements of integrity, confidentiality, sobriety and impartial decision making in Diane city law enforcement code of ethics is because these principles help to improve the cooperation between members of the public and the agency by increasing the trust levels among the members of the community. Confidentiality allows the community to believe and trust law enforcement officers which makes it easier for them to cooperate. The ability to be impartial promotes justice while integrity is portrayed during off duty discipline. The necessary use of force is also vital in ensuring that officers use their power in the rightful manner to avoid unnecessary deaths of either police officers or members of the community (Klockars et al., n.d., p. 13). The code of ethics is mainly essential to Diane law enforcement agency as the officers frequently interact with members of the community and their actions are of great influence to the community and how law enforcers act is mainly reflective of the entire criminal justice system hence the need to ensure that that the law enforces maintain professionalism as much as possible while executing their duties.
From an officer's point of view, a code of ethics is vital in providing guidelines on how to behave in the line of duty. For example, the code of ethics shows the limits to which officers should exert their power (McCartney & Parent, 2018, p.29). The code of ethics also entails the methods that officers should follow to deal with members of society. As a result, the code of ethics aims at maintaining a good relationship between the officers and the members of the community. Officers who follow the code of ethics gain trust in the community and are considered reliable. As an officer, the code of ethics is vital since the community ought to believe in the law enforcement officers so that law and order can be achieved in society.
From an agency standpoint, the codes of ethics are the rules and principles that are designed to ensure honesty and integrity amongst the officers in the agency. These principles are vital as they enable an agency to have control of its members which is vital in guiding them to achieve their main agenda of upholding the rule of law in the community where it serves. The code of ethics also helps to maintain discipline among the officers which makes it possible to govern them. Just like in any organization, the code of ethics in agencies helps regulate the behavior of members of the agency. For example, in law enforcement agencies a code of conduct helps avoid cases of conflicts of interest that may entail misuse of power by police officers or police brutality. Society consists of diversity in population, ideas, and world views and the code of ethics in an agency upholds the perspective of inclusivity for all. It ensures that officers are fair and just to all members of the society despite their backgrounds or status in the society.
It is essential to train the officers to follow all the codes of ethics. I think training officers should entail giving detailed information in regard to each code of ethics. This means that the officers should be taught the importance of following these principles and clear explanation and illustration the application with sample scenarios for each. The training period should also allow the officers to ask any questions or clarifications in every principle. The consequences of failing to comply with any principle in the code of ethics should also be clearly explained during the training session. I also think that after training the officers should be examined on how much they understand through answering questionnaires. This would show that they fully understand each principle and the consequence of failing to follow it. The training of the code of ethics is vital and should take approximately twenty twelve to twenty-six weeks during preserve academy training. However, in the agency, the follow up training should entail training of officers through actual real-life happenings (Wyatt-Nichol & Franks, 2009, p. 42). They should be accorded partners who are a guide in following the principles in the code of ethics. This would ensure that officers in the agency portray their leadership qualities by teaching their colleagues how to deal with different dilemmas in their line of duty.
References
Klockars, C. B., Ivković, S. K., & Haberfeld, M. R. (n.d.). Enhancing police integrity. Enhancing Police Integrity , 251-270. https://doi.org/10.1007/0-387-36956-2_12
McCartney, S., & Parent, R. (2018). Ethics in Law Enforcement.
Wyatt-Nichol, H., & Franks, G. (2009). Ethics training in law enforcement agencies. Public Integrity , 12 (1), 39-50. https://doi.org/10.2753/pin1099-9922120103