Ethics and Ethical Leadership in Law Enforcement

Ethics and Ethical Leadership in Law Enforcement

Ethics are defined as moral principles and well-founded standards that direct humans on what is right and wrong, usually when benefiting society, helping people in need, and making decisions on other important things (University, 2022). Ethics are important as they help maintain peace by guiding peoples’ behaviour within societies and organizations, and they also enable secure good employment opportunities as employers consider one’s past behaviour before employing them. Therefore, in all organizations, ethics should be one of the important things employees need to run the organization smoothly. When it comes to law enforcement, unethical behaviour can cause unfortunate reality because one of the first features carefully considered is moral integrity and behaviour. A failure to demonstrate an ethical lifestyle will prevent one from being a law enforcement officer without considering other factors unless dealing with rare special cases (McCartney, n.d.). On the other hand, Ethical beliefs involve leadership controlled by the belief in practising ethical behaviour. A moral leader has the characteristics of being honest to their followers, fair, and just as well as trusting in their workers and followers.

Reasons why Law Enforcement Personnel must Demonstrate Ethical Behavior

Notably, people worldwide from different countries and communities trust their law enforcement organizations for protection from any criminal activities and offer safety. With all these responsibilities, law enforcement officers must persevere and ensure they do not perform unethical behaviour. If just one law enforcement officer performs unethical behaviour, it affects the whole organization negatively and forms a bad image of it. For Instance, if a police officer from a certain city is found guilty of mistreating a suspect without proof, it will reflect a negative image for all the police stations within that city even though the mistake was committed by one of them. For that reason, citizens will no longer respect and trust them since they have obeyed them before and abided by the rules to make it easier for the officers to target the wrongdoers (Caldero and Crank, 2004).

Law enforcement officers should also demonstrate ethical behaviour because they have several duties for which moral behaviour is mandatory. First, they can judge and determine whom to arrest or question. They also have the power to arrest, question suspects, perform searches and seize. In countries where civilians are protected from government agents, law enforcement personnel should act morally according to the situation (McCartney, n.d.). In addition, ethical and moral behaviour is important as law enforcement officials are entitled to make important decisions that are fair and just. Ethical behaviour also allows law enforcement officials to respect other people accordingly.

Strategies to Encourage Ethical Behavior by Law Enforcement Personnel

To prevent consequences caused by unethical behaviour, it is best to imply strategies that will help with better results, such as seniors being role models, offering ethical training and openly rewarding ethical behaviour, and punishing unethical behaviour (“Alvernia University Online | Franciscan. Catholic. Fully Online.”, 2022). When employees are first employed, it is only natural that they look up to their seniors to learn more and head in the right direction as they are eager to become like them(“Alvernia University Online | Franciscan. Catholic. Fully Online.” 2022). Therefore, seniors and employers should be the first to lead by example and show the employees the right ethical behaviours to portray(“Alvernia University Online | Franciscan. Catholic. Fully Online.” 2022). The chain will go on when other new employees join, thus encouraging ethical behaviour and preventing unethical behaviour from happening.

Secondly, offering ethical training is a major helpful strategy as it helps the employees to have more control over their behaviour and bring out the best in them. Some factors to be trained include training them to consider their aftermath or consequences, especially in today’s world where social media is filled with all information. Law enforcement personnel should understand that police misconduct can lead to nightmares such as losing their jobs and careers, going to prison, and general mental torture from the people and embarrassment. Also, thinking before action is a good training method since employees are trained not to rush into making decisions they may regret later. They can be trained on actions to take when uncertain before making decisions.

Lastly, rewarding ethical behaviour openly is a strategy that will make others improve so they can be rewarded next time, and punishments make those punished ashamed and want to work their way up. The rest of the officers know they do not want to be in such positions. Rewards can be done by giving medals and promotions, while punishments can include losing one’s job or going to jail in severe cases.

Leader Influence on Ethical Behavior or Corruption

Ethical behaviour is not effective if the leaders are not ethical themselves. Therefore, moral behaviour within an organization starts first with the leader. Effective, well-mannered leaders must be employed, and other employees must follow ethical behaviours. They should always serve as role models as they are looked up to and required to influence the employee’s behaviour. Research also shows that workers behave ethically if the leaders make ethical choices (Amore, Garofalo & Guerra, 2022).

Leaders also have a major influence on corruption as it is a major unethical behaviour practised by law enforcement personnel daily in today’s world. Corruption is defined as the abuse of power by a public official for their gain (“Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy,” 2022). Ethical leadership can reduce the number of followers for corruption due to the decisions they can make and what they are teaching their followers and vice versa.

Role of Consequences in Creating an Ethical Environment

There are consequences in creating an ethical environment in a law enforcement area, as consequences are the results of an action. When Law Enforcement Personnel commits unethical behaviour, they have to face the results of their action. For Instance, if a police officer shoots an innocent citizen for personal reasons, they have to face the consequences, including even going to jail. On the other hand, consequences should not only be negative; there should also be positive reinforcement resulting from ethical behaviour. Law Enforcement Personnel who have portrayed their best behaviour and conducted themselves best get results like public acknowledgement, pay raises, and more, making them proud and happy about their self-conduct.

Conclusion

In summary, ethical behaviour and leadership are very important and useful in today’s world as they help make each community and country a better place for society. This is only possible if ethical behaviour is demonstrated at its best. Law enforcement personnel learn from each other how to control their behaviour to maintain the trust they get from citizens; therefore, all the efforts they make to ensure the citizens’ safety and protection should be much appreciated.

Ethical Leaders also play an important role as they are the ones who guide the other employees on the way to behave. They also help improve ethical behaviour by rewarding the employees and pushing them to improve their behaviour. Without Ethical Leaders, unethical behaviour such as corruption will continue to worsen the state of the world, feeding corrupt leaders only to their benefit and not to citizens.

Furthermore, applying strategies to improve ethical behaviour plays an important role and provides law enforcement officers opportunities to learn ways to enhance their moral behaviours. They know how to work together and deal with tough situations without making rushed decisions. Moreover, consequences are critical in improving ethical behaviour since everyone gets to pay for their good or bad actions. This helps law enforcement personnel think twice before they perform any action, bearing in mind the consequences of their action. In addition, law enforcement officials also become more determined to improve their behaviour since they want to receive rewards, and none of them would like to get negative praise or punishments related to their actions. Hence, every effort to improve law enforcement personnel’s ethical behaviour and actions is helpful and improves the world.

References

University, S. (2022). Santa Clara University: The Jesuit University in Silicon Valley. Retrieved 28 September 2022, from https://www.scu.edu/

McCartney, S. Ethics in law enforcement.

Caldero, M. and Crank, J. (2004). Police ethics: The corruption of noble cause. (2nd ed.). Mathew Bender and Company.

Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. (2022). Retrieved 28 September 2022, from https://plato.stanford.edu/

Amore, M., Garofalo, O., & Guerra, A. (2022). How Leaders Influence (un)Ethical Behaviors Within Organizations: A Laboratory Experiment on Reporting Choices. Journal Of Business Ethics. doi: 10.1007/s10551-022-05088-z

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Much discussion about ethics and leadership theory can seem separate from real life. However, law enforcement personnel of every rank encounter ethical issues every day, and their actions and decisions often have a long-lasting impact on not only their own lives but also the lives of others. Law enforcement leaders are responsible for their conduct and setting a standard for the organization and the profession.

In your Final Paper,

Identify the reasons that law enforcement personnel must demonstrate ethical behaviour.
Evaluate the implications of unethical behaviour by even one officer in the organization.
Discuss strategies that can be implemented to encourage ethical behaviour by law enforcement personnel.
Identify how law enforcement leaders can influence ethical behaviour or corruption.
Identify the role of consequences in creating an ethical environment in a law enforcement organization.