NCJ Number
173785
Date Published
1996
Length
403 pages
Annotation
This book illuminates hundreds of moral problems faced regularly by police officers and managers.
Abstract
The first chapter describes personal character and shows how morality concerns good character and right actions, followed by a chapter that describes the ideals of a constitutional republic and the mission of police in such a republic. The third chapter expands on the nature of the police mission by explaining the concept of public trust and describing the kinds of people who are qualified to serve the public. Chapter 4 focuses on the nature, place, and limits of discretion in policing; and Chapter 5 discusses corruption, hypotheses about its causes, and the power of individuals to resist it. The sixth chapter discusses effective uses of authority for reform, followed by a chapter that addresses departmental leadership, personnel policies, burnout, and affirmative action. Other chapters included in the first edition consider the moral dimensions of public policy debates; police training in relation to good character and good judgment; issues in facing the death of a friend, partner, or loved one; the aftermath of the use of deadly force; and the morality of aspiration. One chapter added in the second edition addresses the threat to ethics in policing posed by the cynical insistence that police departments are mere microcosms of society in general. Another chapter added in the second edition focuses on ethics in policing pertinent to juvenile crime, gang recruitment, and gang predation. This third edition adds two new chapters. One of these chapters is entitled, "Police, the O.J. Simpson Trial, and Race." It explores the destructive practice and perception that individuals are nothing more than undifferentiated members of groups with stereotypical characteristics. The second chapter describes the sense of obligation and purpose that makes individuals especially well suited to policing and law enforcement. Appended guide to the further study of ethics in policing, a discussion of internal affairs and integrity, chapter notes, and a subject index