Strategy #5
Ethics
Departments must continue to identify and improve their policies and procedures that promote sound ethical judgment, actions and decisions made by law enforcement personnel.
Background
Ethics is a standard by which individual and organizational performance can be judged. The profession of law enforcement has standards, as do individual agencies and their individual officers. Ethical standards that are incompatible will cause controversy at the agency level and eventually lead to disciplinary action. The more these standards are compatible, the more they will improve performance by all involved.
The public holds law enforcement personnel to a high standard of responsibility and demands that they remain true to their profession and oath. Law enforcement personnel are expected to protect and serve all in a fair and impartial manner. Therefore, law enforcement officers should abide by this trust and make a concerted effort not to abuse or misuse their authority and position. Additionally, unethical behavior may be costly to the department.
Actions
- Ensure that ethics is the foundation for departmental policies, procedures and training.
- Ensure a selection process that selects applicants with ethical standards that are the most compatible with agency standards.
- Create systems for training, supervision, evaluations, and other departmental procedures that will mold compatible ethical standards.
- Lead by example throughout the organization.
- Conduct ongoing training of personnel regarding acceptable and unacceptable behavior in the workplace.
- Develop and implement policy that ensures, and continues to emphasize, that all law enforcement contact is free of any type of discrimination, harassment and political incentives.
- Ensure all persons are treated in a fair, impartial and uniform manner through policy, procedure and ongoing training.
- Investigate all allegations of unethical behavior thoroughly and completely.
- Focus traffic safety and law enforcement policies on saving lives and reducing injury and property damage.
Benefits
- Once a department and its personnel acquire a reputation for high ethical standards, they may be subjected to fewer citizen complaints and criminal and civil lawsuits.
- When an agency successfully establishes a culture of moral and ethical behavior, close supervision of employees may not be necessary and could be spent on other issues.
- Employee morale and productivity improve and there is less stress and tension in the workplace.
Other Considerations
- There are additional costs associated with personnel taken from work to conduct or attend training.
- Traffic enforcement may require a review of policies and procedures to ensure that they are applied in a fair and equitable manner.
- Refer to the IACP guiding principles for law enforcement.