Code of ethics is a written guide to the principles that every member of the policing profession is expected to uphold and the standards of behavior they are expected to meet. The code of ethics guides organization on how they should carry on their duties (Flores, 2008). The code of ethics is used day to day basis to guide the worker's behavior and decision-making. The code of ethics applies to police forces directly; the code of ethics applies to police officers, police staff, Special Constabulary, police volunteers, police health professionals, and those who want to join the police service. The code of ethics is essential as it helps in guiding the behavior of everyone in police service it helps in help in controlling unprofessional behavior and misconduct of the police as they have to adhere to the code of ethics.
The code of conduct emphasis on what good policing looks like and how ethical police officers and staff behave rather than on managing misconduct (Ladd, 2011). The code of ethics helps every individual in the policing to do what is right and in the right way; the code of ethics spells out what the profession expects from all the officers, staff, and every person working in policing. The code of ethics plays a vital role as it ensures that people in policing are reminded that unprofessional behavior damages the reputation of the police service. If the police officers and the staff misbehaves or acts wrongly this means that the people that are the public will see the whole police service in a negative way due to a single or several individuals in the force who misbehaved thus damaging the police reputation. The code of ethics acts as a warning to police officers and its staff as it indicates that any unprofessional behavior or misconduct will not be tolerated or ignored but will be dealt with promptly. The code of ethics states that it is the duty of the police officers and the staff to challenge any behavior that is not in line with the code of ethics.
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The code of ethics purpose in the police agencies is to ensure that the police reputation is not damaged and also ensure that proper services are offered to the public. The public should be able to trust the police competent and for the public to do this the police should act ethically. The code of ethics allows the public to assess what they expect from the police both the officers and the staff. With the code of ethics, the police ensure that proper services are offered to the public and this increases the trust and relationship between the police agencies and the citizens. With trust, cooperation is also built as due to the trust the public has for the police agencies they feel free to report anything they feel suspicious for the police to take action.
With the code of ethics the public is encouraged to demand the highest standards from the police; the code of ethics allows the public to demand anything they think is missing and also it encourages the citizens to suggest what improvements should be made in the police forces. To maintain public trust and confidence towards the police service every individual in the policing must ensure that the principles and the standards in the code of ethics are followed and not in any way betrayed. The code of ethics allows everyone to challenge or report any behavior that does not meet the expectations set by the code of ethics; due to this police officers and staff ensures they perform their duties in line with the code of ethics to avoid being summoned or punished for misconduct. Challenging and taking action against misconduct helps an organization to build its integrity as it promotes consistent behavior across the policing profession.
With the code of ethics being a code of practice everyone in the police force must adhere to the principles and standards of the set code; this ensures that the officers and the staff act accordingly and no one is discriminated. With the code of ethics, discrimination within the police force is avoided as everyone is treated with equality; the code of ethics also plays a vital role when it comes to promotion or recruitment. With the code of ethics promotions are done without discrimination or favor as only the most qualified individual is promoted and cases of favor are avoided; when it comes to recruiting new members to the police force equality is also ensured as no one is recruited in favor. The code of ethics main purpose is to ensure good policing by setting rules and regulations that promote good governance.
The way the officers interact with the public contributes to the public trust and confidence; when the public sees the officers acting accordingly this encourages the public to adhere to the law and cooperate with the police thus making it easy for the police to perform their duties. The code of ethics helps police officers and staff not to follow their personal feelings, prejudices, animosities or be influenced by friendship while making their decisions. This ensures that proper decisions are made and no cases of discrimination are encountered as police officers will act as required. The codes of ethics also ensure that the police officers when dealing with criminal cases they do not act in favor, malice, fear or ill will but rather act appropriately. The code of ethics also assists the police to recognize their office as a symbol of public faith and work hard to build the trust by achieving the objectives entitled to.
The code of ethics is also essential to the police agencies as it teaches them to keep confidential of what they hear, see or anything that is confided to them as a secret unless revelation is necessary for the performance of their duties. The code of ethics is essential to the police force as it makes it clear to the officers that it is their fundamental duty to serve mankind by safeguarding lives and property, protecting the innocent from deception, the weak from intimidation or oppression, the peaceful against violence or disorder, and ensuring equality and justice. The code of ethics urges the officers to keep their lives as an example to all for example by maintaining courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule; the officers should be mindful of the welfare of others. According to the code of ethics honest is important and both thoughts and deeds of an officer should be filled with honest. The officer should also be obedient by ensuring that he obeys the laws of the land and the regulations of the department; an officer should know that despite being a law enforcer he/she is not above the laws but under them thus obedience to the law is expected from them. Additionally one cannot protect the law when he/she is not obeying it or acts against it; this is why a police officer I expected to lead by example; for instance, if proper actions are taken to the officers who undermine the laws it means that other people that are the public will also act accordingly as they will know that if legal actions can be taken on officers they cannot be an exemption if they break the law.
Police profession is one of the professions that demand high ethical standards; law enforcement is not an easy task this is because as a police officer one comes into conduct with many types of people and also from people who come from different communities. Some things which happen to the accepted by a particular community may happen to be nonacceptable from another community and when the two collide conflicts develop and the police have to play a role in reuniting the two and solving the conflicts. Officers face lots of challenges, for example, an officer may have to decide on a criminal case, the officer may encounter problems such as the person involved in the crime is either a drug addict or a mentally affected person who does not even remember that he/she committed the crime thus becoming a problem. The code of conduct helps the office to maintain self-esteem and be calm and not to act out of anger but find other reasonable solutions to the cases.
The code of conducts promotes good policing in the police service such and does not allow misconduct such as excessive use of force, misuse of public office, abuse of authority; with code of conduct all these misconducts are avoided and officers are able to live by example by doing the right thing the right way and avoiding behaviors which can lead them to problems. With the code of ethics, ethical behavior such as integrity, honesty, hard work, obedience, bravery, and justice is seen in policing agencies and that's why the code of ethics has been of the essence in the police agencies.
References
Flores, Albert (2008). The Philosophical Basis of Engineering Codes of Ethics . Cambridge University Press.
Ladd, John. (2011). The Quest for a Code of Professional Ethics. Prentice Hall Publishers.
