Criminal justice official faced scrutiny surrounding an incident that questioned his or her ethical decisions. The article you review must be at least two pages in length. This does not need to be a criminal incident.
For this assignment, you must locate one article from the CSU Online Library in which a criminal justice official faced scrutiny surrounding an incident that questioned his or her ethical decisions. The article you review must be at least two pages in length. This does not need to be a criminal incident.
Discuss the incident, the ethical dilemma, and what you think the outcome should have been. Also, what training may have helped this individual and this department?
Describe the types of ethics and conflict resolution training that the agency should implement to prevent future ethical issues in the department.
Your article review must be at least two pages in length. A title page (if used) or any reference pages do not count toward the page requirement. You must use at least two peer-reviewed or academic sources to support your article review. All sources used must have APA style citations and references. APA formatting of the article review is otherwise not required.
*I will post the article from the library*
*this MUST be written from the perspective of someone who is pro law enforcement *
This section explains the ways in which internal and external control and oversight mechanisms contribute to police accountability taking into consideration UNODC’s conceptual framework of ‘accountability before, during and after the act’. Throughout the section, the terms ‘ex-ante, ongoing, ex-post oversight’ will also be used to reflect these three stages of accountability.
The first degree of control in any police accountability system is the internal control mechanisms within the police service. Effective internal control mechanisms have an essential role to play within a police accountability system, both from a preventive and reactive perspective. Such mechanisms have three main components:
As mentioned in the previous sections, all police actions should be based on law. However, legal stipulations in the laws may be insufficient when it comes to day-to-day exercise of policing powers.
It is imperative, therefore, that police services develop comprehensive professional standards (codes of conduct), providing clear guidance on the exercise of policing duties and powers in practice.
By way of example, having clear professional standards, guidelines and instructions on arrest and detention procedures would be a good first step for preventing police officers from breaching the law during arrests.
Nonetheless, professional standards are not enough. As stated earlier, in the framework of laws, police officers often have a wide degree of discretion in exercising their powers.
There may be circumstances where police officers face ethical dilemmas such as the tendency for bending certain laws to achieve what they perceive as greater law enforcement objectives, or the tendency for applying deceptive interrogation tactics to extract crucial information or confession from suspects (ICRC, 2013, p. 140).
Precisely for such situations, police services need to establish a code of ethics which sets overarching integrity standards that are built upon the values of impartiality, fairness, equality, justice, honesty as well as principles for respecting, human rights and dignity (Costa and Thorens, 2015).
Depending on the administrative system of the country, such professional and integrity standards may be developed by, or in consultation with, the Ministry that the police are reporting to. Evidence also shows that if integrity standards are developed in a participatory approach, with the police and other actors, there is a higher chance that they will be taken on board and implemented by the police.
If well promoted, a code of ethics setting out integrity standards has the potential to: give guidance for action to police officers facing ethical dilemmas; contribute to a better identification, analysis and resolution of ethical problems; and assist the exercise of leadership and management throughout the organization and enhance public trust in the police (CoE, 2001, Explanatory Memorandum).
There is no prescriptive international standard on what a code of ethics should include. Nevertheless, the European Code of Police Ethics (2010) is widely recognized and promoted as a model code internationally. Consisting of 66 articles, the Code is organized under the following sub-headings:
Similar standards are articulated in: the Seoul Declaration (AGN/68/RES/4), adopted by the INTERPOL Group of Experts on Corruption; the Harare Resolution on the Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials (2001), adopted by the Southern African Regional Police Chiefs Cooperation Organisation (SARPCCO); and the United Nations Convention against Corruption (2003) adopted by General Assembly resolution 58/4 (see article 8).
Developing professional and integrity standards are not sufficient by themselves for ensuring compliance.
Police services should widely promote the code of ethics and integrity standards across the organization; and should incorporate the implementation of integrity standards into recruitment, training, and promotion processes.
Developing and effectively implementing integrity standards are important preventive tools for internal control and thereby contribute to ‘accountability before the act’. ( Module 14 on Professional Ethics of the E4J University Module Series on Integrity and Ethics provides more information on integrity standards and ethics for specific professions.)