Ethics and Professional Code of Conduct - Essay Example

Ethics and professional of conduct Ethics and professional of conduct Introduction Police Chief or County Sherriff are held to high standards of behavior by the citizens they serve since are expected to maintain law and order. The professionals are expected to make ethically sound decisions and act responsibly in their duties. The police chief has the powers to decide when to investigate a person and conduct the duties within the framework of the existing laws (Hess & Orthmann, 2011, p 211). There are numerous reasons as to why ethics and integrity are important to police chief or county Sherriff.

Ethics and integrity ensures that such persons conduct their fundamental duties of safeguarding life and property without intimidation or oppression. Integrity ensures that such persons respect the citizens’ constitutional rights, liberty and adhere to the values of justice and fairness in their duties to the citizens (Gaines & Kappeler, 2011, p 345). In this case, the professional is capable of ensuring fairness in his or her duties and refraining from unjust use of authority. Secondly, ethics and integrity ensures that police chief exercises reasonable courtesy while interacting with the public.

In this case, the police chief or county sheriff is able to refrain from mocking, embarrassing, ridiculing or humiliating subordinates or fellow officers in order to incite them to violence. Thirdly, ethics and integrity will enable such professionals to observe confidentiality of information that is available to them in their capacity as senior law enforcement officers (Gaines & Kappeler , p 343). The officers should not willfully violate any legal restrictions that restrict the dissemination of the private information and should not disclose information that may endanger the life of a complaint or victim to a crime.

Differences between ethics, morality and law as pertains to law enforcement officers There is a clear difference between ethics, morality and law as pertains to the duties of law enforcement officers. Ethics are external standards that are set by the law enforcement profession and are regarded as the social system or framework that should offer the acceptable behavior in the execution of duties of the law enforcement officer (Hess & Orthmann, 2011, p189). Morality refers to the law enforcement officer’s own principles regarding what is right or wrong.

Morality is internal as it reflects the habits, beliefs, culture, and religion of an individual while ethics are external since they are set by the profession. Morality is guided by the existing cultural norms while the ethics are guided by the legal and professional guidelines. Dutelle (2011) asserts that the morals are geared at maintaining self-respect and dignity while ethics is an expression of shared values of the members of the law enforcement agencies and provides the guidelines for the best practices (p 59).

The ethical guidelines have persuasive authority in court proceedings against a law enforcement officer, but the courts are not bound to follow the ethical and professional framework in court rulings. On the other hand, the law refers to the legal system of rules and principles that govern the affairs of citizens in the country and are set by the legislative arm of the government. There are laws on privacy and confidentiality that require the law enforcement officers to respect the inherent dignity and human rights of citizens while conducting searches and interrogating suspected criminals (Hess & Orthmann, 2011, p 215).

The laws provide for punishments and repercussions for violation unlike morals and ethics that may not attract heavy fines and jail terms other than condemnation from the members of the society. The law offers a mechanism of enforcement and compliance with expected relationships in the society and reflects the general beliefs and moral values of the society (Dutelle, 2011, p 57). Recommendations on how police chief or county sheriff can use ethics and the code of conduct in decision-making Police chief or county sheriff should use ethics and code of conduct in decision-making by promoting the values of fairness, respect and honesty in all the decisions.

The police chief or county sheriff should prioritize his or her fundamental duty of serving humanity through safeguarding life and property while at the same time respecting the human rights of equality and justice to all citizens. Secondly, the police chief or county sheriff should not allow emotions, negative feelings, prejudices, or friendships to influence decisions and his or her office should be a symbol of public faith. Conclusion Police chief or county sheriff should incorporate ethics and integrity in their duties in order to protect life and property without prejudices and biasness.

Police chiefs and county sheriffs should be a symbol of public faith due to the authority entrusted in their official capacity and should endeavor to promote the values of equality, justice and fairness. References:Dutelle, A.W. (2011). Ethics for the public service professional. New York: CRC Press.Gaines, L.K & Kappeler, V.E. (2011). Policing in America. New York: Elsevier.Hess, K & Orthmann, C.H. (2011). Introduction to law enforcement and criminal justice. New York: Cengage Learning.