You are a sergeant in a community relations unit in a mid-sized metropolitan police department. Your division commander sent you off to a 1-week ethics school run by the Justice Department. You have returned with all kinds of new knowledge about ethics, community relations, and discretion. In your after-action report to the division commander about the training, the chief of police liked what he heard. The chief wants a position paper on ethics as they apply to customer and community relationships, discretion, and operational confidences so that it can be incorporated in the continual ethics and legal guidelines training sessions.
Address the following in 10–12 pages:
Explain the importance of legal and ethical guidelines for the police department.
Why should ethical guidelines and legal training be a continuing process for all personnel in their annual training cycle? Explain in detail.
When police make ethical or unethical decisions in the public eye, how does it impact the police department as a whole? Explain in detail.
Concerning 2 categories of customers contacted by the police on a routine basis, how are ethical issues important to their relationships with these customers? Explain in detail.
Police officers must exercise discretion in a number of interpersonal relationships.
How can this impact the police department for both the good and the bad? Explain.
Close-hold information and operational confidences are critical to any police agency. Relate the importance and impact of operational confidences for administrative issues as well as tactical law enforcement missions.
What subcultures are the most influential within a law enforcement agency? Explain.
What benefits can police subcultures provide for a law enforcement agency? Explain.
What challenges exist with regard to police subcultures within a law enforcement agency? Explain.
What ethical dilemmas can be problematic because of police subcultures? Explain.
