WSURCPI Ethics Fundamentals

8/22/2019 WSURCPI Ethics Fundamentals

1/56

Ethics in Policing

Richard N. Holden, Ph.D.

Central Missouri State University


2/56

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


3/56


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


4/56


the perception of too many

Americans is that police officers cannot

be trusted. Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States


5/56

Ethics in Policing

Professional Police Conduct


6/56

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


7/56

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.


8/56

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.


9/56

Police Deviance

How Bad is the Problem?


10/56

Police Deviance

Brutality

Abuse of Authority

Lying

Sexual Misconduct

Theft Alcohol/Drug Abuse

Deliberate Inefficiency


11/56

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.


12/56

Abuse of Authority

Legal.

Physical

Verbal.


13/56

Lying

Falsifying Reports

Falsifying Evidence

Cover-ups.

Lying in Court


14/56

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.


15/56

Crimes for Profit

Theft of Property

Bribery

Extortion


16/56

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.


17/56

Deliberate Inefficiency

Sleeping on Duty

Shirking Duty


18/56

Organizational Pathology

Causes and Symptoms


19/56

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.


20/56

Parkinsons Law

Work expands to fill the time allocated

for it.

C. Northcote Parkinson

There is no relationship between

organizational growth and

organizational effectiveness.


21/56

Peter Principle

In any organization, people rise to their

level of incompetence.

Lawrence Peter

Ultimately, all management positions

may be filled with incompetent people.


22/56

Organizational Life-Cycles

Five stages in the life of an organization

Adolescent

Prime

Maturity

Aristocratic

Bureaucratic


23/56

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.


24/56

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.


25/56

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.


26/56

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.


27/56

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!


28/56

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.


29/56

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.


30/56

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


31/56

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.


32/56

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.


33/56

Fear A by-product of the sanctification

process is organizational fear. The

values become so accepted no onedares challenge the system.


34/56

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.


35/56

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.


36/56

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.


37/56

Police and the Minority

CommunitiesOvercoming History


38/56

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.


39/56

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.


40/56

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.


41/56

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!


42/56

Ethics

Ethics is a Management Issue!


43/56

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.


44/56

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.


45/56

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.


46/56


47/56

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.


48/56

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


49/56

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.


50/56

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.


51/56


52/56

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.


53/56

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.


54/56

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.


55/56

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.


56/56

Department Ethics

A police department has as much

misbehavior as it is willing to

tolerate.

Documents

WSURCPI Ethics Fundamentals