NCJ Number
195380
Date Published
April 2002
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This paper describes a survey methodology developed by the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) of Queensland, Australia to monitor the ethical climate of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) and its viability for other organizations.
Abstract
It has been noted that measuring the ethical climate of any large organization can be a challenging exercise. Since 1995, the Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) has conducted surveys of the Queensland Police Service (QPS) that contain a series of scenarios based on situations that police might find themselves in that would result in some form of disciplinary action such as off duty officer attempts to avoid random breath test, officer strikes youth in cells who assaulted a female officer, skimming from drug exhibits, and words added to a suspected rapist’s statement. This paper describes the survey methodology used by the CMC and its attempt to evaluate the general standard of integrity in the QPS and for the QPS to make a judgment from at least one perspective about their own standards. Over the last several years the surveys have indicated that there has been a significant increase in awareness of ethical issues and a willingness to report the misconduct. The survey methodology was viewed as applicable to determining the ethical climates in other organizations, including non-policing organizations. The scenarios should illustrate situations that employees may find themselves in and written in a language seen as realistic by the target group. References