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8/22/2019 WSURCPI Ethics Fundamentals
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Ethics in Policing
Richard N. Holden, Ph.D.
Central Missouri State University
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Crisis in Law Enforcement
According to Human Rights Watch, an
international public watchdog group, federal
prosecutors in 1998 brought charges againstpolice officers in less than 1% of the cases
investigated by the FBI involving allegations
of police abuse.
Earl Ofari Hutchinson The Plain Dealer
March 23, 1999
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Crisis in Law Enforcement
The tragic killing of Amadou Diallo, shot41 times by four New York City police
officers, has focused attention on policebrutality. This attention has revealed thepolice practice of racial profiling, whichincludes stopping and searching
people--mostly blacks and Latinos--because they fit a certain profile. TonyNewman USA Today
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Crisis in Law Enforcement
the perception of too many
Americans is that police officers cannot
be trusted. Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States
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Ethics in Policing
Professional Police Conduct
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Primary Responsibilities
Serving the Community
Safeguarding Lives and Property
Protecting the Innocent
Keeping the Peace
Ensuring the Rights of All to Liberty,Equality, and Justice
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Philosophy of Minimalism
Best Approach to Law Enforcement.
Principle of Least Intrusive Action.
Select the Option that Solves the
Problem While Doing the Least Amount
of Harm.
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Professional Standards of
Behavior Police Officers Will Be Responsible for
Their Own Professional Conduct.
The Necessity for Professional Growthis Prevalent in All Professions,Especially in Policing.
Officers Will Seek Opportunities ForExpanded Learning and ContinuousDevelopment of Relevant Skills andConcepts.
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Police Deviance
How Bad is the Problem?
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Police Deviance
Brutality
Abuse of Authority
Lying
Sexual Misconduct
Theft Alcohol/Drug Abuse
Deliberate Inefficiency
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Brutality
Individual police brutality is a often aproduct of immaturity. It is caused by
fear. Institutionalized brutality is a by-product
of:
Poor training.
Peer support.
Lax/incompetent supervision.
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Abuse of Authority
Legal.
Physical
Verbal.
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Lying
Falsifying Reports
Falsifying Evidence
Cover-ups.
Lying in Court
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Sexual Misconduct
The patrol car has been referred to as a
rolling bedroom due to its heavy use
for sleeping on duty and illicit sexualencounters.
Sexual Bribery/extortion.
Sexual liaisons.
Voyeurism.
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Crimes for Profit
Theft of Property
Bribery
Extortion
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Alcohol/Drug Abuse
Drinking on duty is more common than
most people suspect.
Drug abuse among police officers hasbeen a growing concern for over a
decade.
Officers have ready access to bothalcohol and drugs.
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Deliberate Inefficiency
Sleeping on Duty
Shirking Duty
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Organizational Pathology
Causes and Symptoms
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Mismanagement by Budget
Public agencies are not punished for
inefficiency; they are rewarded.
An agency failing to spend its annualbudget will lose funding for the following
year.
Overspending the budget is oftenrewarded by an increased budget.
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Parkinsons Law
Work expands to fill the time allocated
for it.
C. Northcote Parkinson
There is no relationship between
organizational growth and
organizational effectiveness.
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Peter Principle
In any organization, people rise to their
level of incompetence.
Lawrence Peter
Ultimately, all management positions
may be filled with incompetent people.
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Organizational Life-Cycles
Five stages in the life of an organization
Adolescent
Prime
Maturity
Aristocratic
Bureaucratic
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Adolescent Stage Time of organizations creation.
Productivity is low.
Original policies formulated.
Training cliques develop.
Value system begins to form.
Morale is high.
Strong informal interaction.
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Prime Stage Organization is results oriented
System is stable.
Productivity is optimal. Organization acutely aware of external
demands.
Support services are predictable and tuned to
the needs of line elements. Emphasis on planning but coupled to high
expectations.
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Maturity Stage Organizations sense of urgency declines.
Risk taking declines; less emphasis on
research and development. Aspirations are held low as both labor andmanagement enjoy past success.
Procedures and policies become more
important as formal climate develops. Birth of internal political systems seeking
power at organizations expense.
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Aristocratic Stage Business as usual.
Organization becomes backward looking.
Ritual becomes important. Tenure becomes important.
Dress codes are developed and understood.
Jargon stagesubculture language fully
developed . Training focuses on organizational symbols
and getting along on the job rather than doingthe job.
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Bureaucratic Stage Production falls as organization slips
into stagnation.
Research and development ignored. Management paranoia, political
infighting, and blame placing.
Guiding principal: Put it in writing. Unit isolation enforced.
Private organization bankruptcy!
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Trained Incapacity Trained incapacity refers to that state of
affairs in which ones abilities function as
blind spots. Training a person to do a job one way
simultaneously trains that person to not do
the job any other way.
Training for one set of conditions becomesdysfunctional when conditions change.
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Occupational Psychosis
Occupational psychosis is a product of
the socialization process.
The new member must replace values andbeliefs with those of the subculture.
In policing this is known as the John
Wayne or Wyatt Earp Syndrome.
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Occupational Psychosis
Symptoms
Dualism-viewing the world as good vs.
bad. You are either for or against me.
Loss/warping of sense of humor.
Distancing from outsiders. Preoccupation with organizational value
system
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Fundamental Ambivalence
A form of occupational blindness or
tunnel vision.
A way of seeing becomes a way of notseeing anything different.
Every event is screened through the
value laden viewpoint of the subculture.
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Sanctification Sanctification is the process wherein
bureaucratic norms become sacred
values. Agency members develop an over-
reliance on organizational symbols and
provide these symbols a legitimacy oftheir own.
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Fear A by-product of the sanctification
process is organizational fear. The
values become so accepted no onedares challenge the system.
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Goal Displacement Adherence to rules, originally devised
as means, becomes transformed into
ends. Ends become obscure or lost.
Means become sacred.
People/organization lose sight of theirmission.
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Espirit dCorps Group cohesiveness, necessary for
successful military operations, has a
destructive component for civilianagencies.
It is the belief that the worst of us isbetter than the best of them.
We have bad cops because goodcops protect them.
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Organizational Arrogance
Caused by a perceived powerdifferential.
The organization is powerful, thereforethe member is also powerful.
The citizen, representing no one, is notpowerful and not worthy of respect.
The result is institutionally sanctionedrudeness.
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Police and the Minority
CommunitiesOvercoming History
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Police-Minority Relations
There is a history of discrimination
against minorities by all aspects of
society. This history is centuries old.
The problem is compounded by the
absence of economic power in minoritycommunities.
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Police-Minority Relations
Minority frustrations with policepractices are compounded by a lack of
support from the majority community. Police support derives mostly from the
majority community, thus increasingminority community isolation.
Minority communities have few meansto obtain redress for concerns withquestionable police practices.
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Improving Police-Minority
Relations Open communication between the
police and minority communities.
Establish community task-forces toidentify problems and proposesolutions.
Initiate changes in departmentprocedure based upon task-forcerecommendations.
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Improving Police-Minority
Relations Ultimately, it is the behavior of individual
officers towards members of the
minority community that will determinethe departments relationship with the
minority community.
No amount of good will can overcomeimproper police conduct!
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Ethics
Ethics is a Management Issue!
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Ethics Department value statements and
public relations initiatives are useful.
Police conduct, however, determinesthe publics perception of lawenforcement.
Ethics is about behavior.
Behavior is determined byaccountability.
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Ethics and Accountability
"Police departments like to claim thateach high-profile abuse is an
aberration, committed by a `rogue'officer. But these human rightsviolations persist because theaccountability systems are so
defective." Kenneth Roth executive director of the
human rights watch.
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Accountability The greater the officers ability to avoid
accountability, the greater the amount of
police misconduct. The police subculture often defeats
accountability.
We have bad cops because good copsprotect them.
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Experience vs. Procedure
Many officers rely more heavily onexperience than department procedure.
Personal experience is inherently
flawed; it rests on subjectiveimpressions filtered through biasedexpectations.
Officers often remember when atechnique to a problem works, but forgetthe many times in which a similarapproach did not work.
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Police Information Sources
Over reliance onemotional sources: War stories
Personalexperiences
Rumors
Fictional crime
stories. Organizational
mythology
Under reliance on
factual sources:
Establishedprocedures
Training
Case law
Research Reports Professional
Journals
Text books
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Police Subculture Corrosive influence.
Emphasizes collective experience over
training and procedure. Emphasizes group loyalty over duty.
Built on distrust of outsiders.
Alters definition of police success.
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Views of Police Success
Department view
Community focus.
Problem addressed. Appropriate approved
procedure used.
Accurate record of event.
Actions takenlegally/morally
defensible.
Subculture view
Officer focus.
Problem masked. Least demanding
procedure used
(shortcuts).
Self-serving record ofevent.
Actions often
questionable, sometimes
illegal.
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Ethics and the Line Officer
People are responsible for their ownbehavior.
Each officer must make it clear tocolleagues that improper behavior willnot be tolerated in his/her presence.
Each officer must intervene quickly toprevent/stop improper conduct fromfellow officers.
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Ethics and Supervision
Too many supervisors are moreinterested in being liked by officers than
in holding them accountable for theirbehavior.
Supervision is not a popularity contest.
Supervisors must make expectationsclear and hold subordinatesaccountable for their behavior.
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Ethics and Middle
Management Mid level managers must clarify and
solidify department expectations.
Managers must hold supervisorsaccountable for the behavior of theirofficers.
People who will/can not superviseothers must be removed fromsupervision.
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Ethics and the Chief
The chief creates the ethical climate of
the department.
Internal affairs is only as effective as thechief wants it to be.
The chief must be fair, but abuses of
authority and inappropriate conductmust be handled quickly and firmly.
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Department Ethics
A police department has as much
misbehavior as it is willing to
tolerate.