The Future and Challenge to Police Ethics - Essay Example

Dellatre points out the culpability of poor recruitment methods and why many men who are not suited to become public servants enter into public service. In plain language, it meant that some people are just bad to the core that when they get into public service such as law enforcement, they will most likely be involved in illegal activities because they are morally weak (2003). A typical example of this ethical challenge is the politicization of the hiring process in a police force where recruitment accommodates the endorsement of political patrons of certain individuals even if the applicant is not qualified.

The set standard of qualifications is not imposed nor did any background checks done. Most likely, rotten apples would be able to get into the organization and when they do, will be engaged in illegal activities or the organization’s bad apple. Another common challenge to police ethics is the kind of value system that leadership will provide to the organization. Dellatare’s structural or affiliation hypothesis posits that the value system of an organization begins from the top of the organization which will eventually trickle down to the organization as a whole.

It is the leaders of that organization that set the standard of ethics among its subordinates. If the top brass of an organization is corrupt, it is said by the structural or affiliation hypothesis that their corrupt behavior will eventually cascade to the rank and file. This hypothesis also classified leaders as corrupt when they do not have control over their subordinates who are engaged in their corrupt behavior. It posits that such inefficacy promotes a culture of corruption. Dellatre defines the structural or affiliation hypothesis of corruption among police officers as not the exclusive deviance of the men in uniform but rather to the organization they belong to.

For example, if the organization is corrupt, it is inadvertent that the individual members will also become corrupt (2002). A typical example of this hypothesis is a police organization whose top brass are accepting protection money from syndicates to turn a blind eye to their illegal activities. This corrupt value will eventually trickle down to the whole organization which will eventually make the entire police force corrupt. Another most common challenge to law enforcement ethics is the “slippery slope” or moral career hypothesis that “corruption [that] begins with apparently harmless and well-intentioned practices and leads over time – either in individuals or in departments as a whole-to all crimes for profit (2002).

Lode hypothesized that once an individual is on top of a slippery slope, it would be inevitable for the individual to slide to the bottom (1999). For Wilson, this practice usually starts with small tokens and seemingly innocuous acts until it progresses to corruption (Dellatre, 2002). The future of the ethical practice of the police force is determined largely by the public that it serves. If the society at large demands and practices a high ethical standard among its police force, it follows that the law enforcement agency will conform to the public that it intends to serve.