Law Enforcement Profession - Free Research Paper Example

Introduction

Discretion involves speaking and behaving in a specific manner that ensures no confidential information is leaked, and consequently, whatever is spoken is not offensive. Operational decision-making should always be considered to ensure the controlling of officers so that they can’t make discretionary mistakes. Discretion can be exercised by various parties depending on the situation at hand. For example, if an officer caught a person driving on dim lights during rainy and foggy weather, they then stop them to find out the reason. The driver says that the lights were in good condition but currently are not, the offer might decide to solve the issue formally by issuing a warning and telling the driver to ensure that they are fixed and in good condition.

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Say the case of a trial where a judge has to maintain discretion on whether evidence is excluded in a trial. In the criminal justice professions, lies several domains that one may want to undertake among them; victim advocacy, rehabilitation, investigative works, defense counsel, law enforcement, among others. Often, individuals who want to help the community tend to join these professions to ensure they make a difference.

Police

The police are in between lawful acts and illegal acts. Their purpose is to protect lives, safeguard property, protect the peaceful against violence, among other factors (Okafor & Aniche, 2015). In their line of duty, they have to exercise certain levels of discretion as they are always given the freedom to decide and are not allowed to cross certain lines; otherwise, they will be termed unethical. There are various situations in which an officer could be required to use discretion ranging from if to draw their weapon, to make an arrest, search, a gun, among others.

The police usually have a unique and robust view of their occupation often characterized by elements such as danger, efficiency, authority, police milieu, among others. Consequently, the police believe that the public's expectations of police officers are unrealistic and misplaced as they can never really understand what police officers go through. However, police misconduct has happened in the past and is continuing to occur despite the numerous structural changes. A good example is that aid curbing corruption in officers, they became more centralized, and emphasis was placed on procedural activities, limited discretion, and impersonal authority. There has been a continuous practice of the police institution relying on skills and knowledge as a closed institution rather than the reasons behind everything they practice.

Code of Ethics

Every profession has it’s code of ethics that employees should follow while exercising duty. According to (Zuliyah, 2019), Integrity, honesty, reinforcing good behavior, among other factors, should be seriously followed while exercising law enforcement or otherwise unethical scenarios will arise. Further, an officer should be able to reach sound decisions ethically without the influence of factors such as personal feelings, aspirations, and or friendships. There are standards that ethics should meet ranging from those of just & fairness, public trust, teamwork, transparency & accountability, among others to ensure that everything is in place. However, officers are provided with the ability to rationalize excuses in their line of work, justify their unethical behavior amid protecting their image.

Hypothesis

Reward expectancy highly influences the behavior of officers in their line of duty. It is likely for an officer to act in the way that those in power direct either formally or informally as it could be more rewarding. Concerning this, it could be unethical if officers do not perform their duty simply because they have not been rewarded well. Further, their beliefs, attitudes, and values define their attitude towards work. However, it would be highly unethical for an officer to decide to ignore an illegal action, to gain community acceptance. Officer's selective enforcement gets to an unethical point when they choose to be corrupt and exempt those that corrupted them, leaving out the others to face the law. Additionally, it could be unethical if they selectively served people according to race, age, or financial status.

Literature Review

Officers, just like every other human being, have instincts, and they are informed by what they believe, value, and attitude towards something. In addition to their training, they can detect suspicious people by simply observing their behavior, appearance, the information they have, among others. According to (Prysmakova & Vandenabeele, 2019), when officers have the motivation to contribute to society positively, then they find satisfaction in their jobs.

Culture, beliefs, the attitude, among other factors, manifest themselves in human behavior. When such conduct is detected in officers, they formulate strategies that block external inquiry into their personal affairs. It then gets hard to administratively hold them accountable for their actions amid trying to understand the outcomes of police-public interactions. The moral values of an organization, those of an individual, and an ethical system are interrelated all geared towards helping people make the right decisions. Right judgments, doing things right, and for the right reasons are some of the concerns around ethics. Additionally, there should be a consideration to not only the way decisions are made but also on how they are taken.

Norms that give a feeling of how a person should behave often play a considerable role in policing, not forgetting the values which speak of the aspirations of an individual to behave in a certain way. They inform the standard way of people acting human and are intrinsic elements of all cultures. The community, courts, counsel among other bodies encompass and define the habit of doing things in the law enforcement agencies and procedures. Often, officers are caught up in a decision-making dilemma where they could be having inadequate information or could be relying on evidence brought by other officers. Officers have shared values that are in-built in their culture, which is influenced by information and ideas that are experienced as meaningful.

It is crucial to ensure proper screening while recruiting officers, especially on matters to do with decision-making skills. These skills determine the course of action they make for every situation and if they are not well equipped, then could end up making wrong or unethical decisions. Considering how much professional discretion is crucial for efficiency, recruiters should take matters of screening, training programs, among others with the seriousness they deserve to leave no room for loopholes in the entire process. Further, officers in their human nature could have a particular way of thinking towards certain people which can favourably contribute to how they judge and enforce the law on them. Police can cross ethical boundaries when they show brutality, shoot against suspects of a different race, gender, etc., which is a clear indication of biasness and professional discretion.

Reward Expectancy

When individuals are considering any job, they always look at the reward that comes with it. It is a cognitive model that involves a worker’s perceptions in a certain situation concerning motivation and performance. Good rewards and motivation lead to positive outcomes with regards to work, whereas the opposite leads to poor performance. There has been a low number of people joining the law enforcement units due to increased focus on factors such as shootings that occur, fatalities, among others. However, officers that are already in the force engage with these every day, and at this point, they are forced to decide on discretion.

According to (Wallace, 2016), when employees are well motivated, they tend to ensure that their performance is top-notch and in line with every ethics of the organization. Mentoring programs, for example, ensure that officers know their role in the society, there is increased co-worker support and overall increased retention. Further, it ensures that wages and other immediate needs are met for example, through promotion as a direct result of personal development. However, when such factors are not attended to, officers tend to engage in unethical ways for them to achieve rewards. Further, when officers are understaffed, they appear to be overstressed and overworked in their posts of duty. Inadequate salary structures and lengthy hours lead to the inability to meet profession and family connections. It is at this point that unethical behavior comes in when officers break specific rules to achieve certain goals. A good example is when officers violate severe seizure and search laws to arrest a pedophile as they consider the high stakes with the end goal in mind.

Effective policing and law enforcement is brought about by a lack of visionary schemes. Police-community information sharing, police partnerships with important communities, and agencies among others lead to stagnation and unprofessionalism in the polices’ mode of operation. Lack of in-depth knowledge of their mission, vision, and inner workings of the positions they hold demotivate them and create a grooming ground for unethical behavior.

Selective Enforcement

The police at all times should always consider themselves as the public, and the public should view themselves as the police. What this means is, the public should be able to inform the police whenever suspicious activities are going on. The police should listen and answer to the call of the public whenever they report any suspicious behavior (Parent & Parent, 2018). Further, they need to note that during their line of duty, they should always preserve public favor, ready to protect life, and offering of individual service regardless of age, wealth, or social standing. However, it is important for police officers, prosecutors, etc. to know when and how to use selective enforcement of the law as to some cases, it is inevitable.

At times, the police are controlled by the public, and in the process, they are corrupted (Jeppesen, 2019). Police are given room to connive in their illegal activities, for example, crime grafts where people get something of value through dishonest means. Often, political connections and community relationships play a huge role in facilitating a grooming ground for such activities. The police become unethical when they make arrests using unconstitutional means and intentionally ensure that processes are thrown out of court.

Conclusion

According to (Jeppesen, 2019) widespread favoritism where the poor and minority groups have to ensure that they are out of police sight. Why? Most of the law enforcement operations center on the behavior of the poor and less privileged in the society. The unethical practices proceed to when they offer favoritism to the upper class and privileged in the community because they are connected with syndicates. Negative energy is brewed between the public and the police forcing a clash with the power of the state as the police strive to maintain law and order. Communities’ negative perception informs the police's inability to remain focused and maintain professionalism. It is the idea that they are allowed to use force to maintain law and order that helps them correspond to the negative character and police officer’s attitudes in many situations.