Law enforcement agencies and their staff are usually confronted with scenarios or situations that require them to make a difficult decision while carrying out their criminal justice duty. There are usually two competing values and one must choose one. Such scenarios are made more complicated when the society and a police agency clash as in the case presented here. The police agency dilemma and its confrontation with community groups and politicians create a philosophical framework from which they will all derive a final decision.
Identifying the actual dilemma, recognizing it as a problem and selling the idea to community groups and politicians is the work of the police agency. It is upon the police agency to prove to community groups that stopping the controversial practice is ultimately beneficial to them. Politicians usually follow the community’s wishes. Kantian ethical philosophy guides us to confront practical dilemmas with ethical theory.
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The chief and the police agency should first assess the conflict, identify key values and principles involved, rank the values in their order of relevance, develop an action plan consistent with the identified ethical priorities, implement the plan, and finally reflect on the outcome. Facts, skillful negotiation, being sensitive to social concerns is essential throughout the whole process.
The legal obligations and duties should be determined. All interested parties should be established and contacted. The ethical values of all participants should be determined and the normative ethical theory (theories) to guide the course of action. The course of action should be ethically sound and its positives and negatives weighed. Following this procedure will enable the police agency, the community groups, and the politicians to find a solution that everyone can live with. It may not make all participants happy but ultimately they will all gain from the agreed arrangement. The police chief was right to hold back and look at the situation from an ethical perspective.
