Ethical Dilemmas in Law Enforcement Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Ethical Dilemmas in Law Enforcement - Essay Example Ethical dilemmas often result in such situations making the police officers rely on moral knowledge to determine their next step. Law enforcement ethics are codes of conduct or the expected behavior among law enforcers. Police officers have two basic roles or expectation from the public and their employers. Firstly, police officers are peacekeepers. This role requires them to be on the service of the public. On the other hand, police officers are law enforcers. This role requires them to be active in identifying and prosecuting lawbreakers. Peacekeeping and law enforcement are the basic duties of police officers in any country. However, it has been established that most police officers are more comfortable with peacekeeping or policing than law enforcement. The crash between law enforcement and society laws is the source of ethical dilemma in law enforcement. A police officer on patrol will be faced with a dilemma on whether to take a bribe for a minor traffic offense or to take the offender to court. Ethical dilemmas in law enforcement are directly related to lack of appropriate training for law enforcers. This essay will, therefore, analyze available literature and scholars who have contributed to the subject. The paper will also give a discussion on different categories of law enforcement dilemmas or situations that promote dilemma in law enforcement. ... Generally, most of the available literature tackles the issue from a law enforcement perspective with the intentions of establishing the conflicts between law enforcement and ethics. Another interesting issue tackled by most literature is whether ethics should be incorporated into police training. There has also been a growing debate over a classroom versus academy version of training for law enforcers. All these issues are captured by Pollock in his work on the ethical dilemma in law enforcement. Another discussion tackled by the same scholar is whether ethical training for law enforcers should be carried out during the recruitment process or it should be conducted as an in-service training. Pollock argues that ethical dilemma in law enforcement would take a different dimension if the training mechanism of law enforcers is changed. Finally, the author suggests that cases of ethical dilemma in law enforcement can be minimized by increasing in-service training. Kleinig (1990) is also among the authors who have greatly contributed to the existing literature on an ethical dilemma in law enforcement. In his article â€Å"Teaching and Learning Police Ethics† that was published in the Journal of Criminal Justice, Kleinig begins by stating that ethics are relevant to law enforcers. In this article, Kleinig identifies various factors that cause a dilemma in law enforcement. Kleinig goes on to classify these factors into police authority, police expectations, peer pressure, the crisis within a situation, temptation, and imperfect nature of humanity. The article goes on to explain various elements in police training program and their significance in the ordinary role of a law enforcer.