Assignment Instructions
The Tidewater Police Department is a small rural department that consists of 22 police officers, 4 detectives, a criminal intelligence analyst and 3 secretaries. The mayor just hired you as Chief of the department. About half of the officers have 20+ years of experience and the other half have less than 3 years of experience. You learn that there have been 4 civil cases filed against the department for police officer misconduct within the last year.
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Write a 2-3 page, APA style paper addressing the issues of Code of Conduct and Ethics Policies for Police Departments. Include in the body of the paper a Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy for the Tidewater Police Department. Please include 2-3 references. Only one reference may be from an internet source (not Wikipedia) the other references must be located in the Grantham University Online Library. Only the body of the paper will count toward the page requirement. Include a title sheet. Please see the rubric below.
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Sample Tidewater Police Department Code of Conduct and Ethics Policy
Introduction
The fundamental duty of a police officer is to serve mankind by protecting live and property, protect the innocent from deception, the weak from intimidation or oppression, and the peaceful from disorder or violation and more importantly to abide by and respect the constitutional rights of all to justice, equality and liberty(Barath, & Sherriff, 2011). Code of ethics requires police officer to keep their private life unsullied, act courageously and calm even when faced with danger, ridicule or scorn as well as develop the culture of self-restrain and always be mindful of others(Delattre, 2011). Police employees should be exemplary in obeying the regulation of Tidewater police department and the law of the land. They should conduct themselves in a professional manner by not allowing their personal feelings, friendship, animosities and prejudices to influence their decisions.
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Code of conduct
All police employees are expected to conduct and behave in a manner that public will build their trust in them. These code of conduct include:
- Integrity and honesty: Police officers should be honest and carry out their duties while observing integrity at all time without allowing compromise to come in between or abuses their position.
- Courtesy, Respect and Authority: They should exercise self-control and tolerance as well as treating colleague and members of the public with courtesy and respect. They must use their authority and powers proportionately and lawfully as well as respecting the rights of all individuals.
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- Equity and diversity: They should discharge their duties impartially and fairly by not discriminating unfairly or unlawfully.
- Use of force: They should only use force as part of their responsibility and roles, and only to the extent that is required, reasonable and proportionate in all the situation
- Order and instruction: They are required to abide by police regulation by giving and carrying out only lawful orders. They should follow and give out reasonable instructions.
- Duties and responsibilities: They should carry out their duties diligently and responsibly.
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- Confidentiality: They should respect confidentiality of the information, treat with respect and disclose or access it using the proper course of their duties.
- Fitness for work: They should ensure at all times that they are fit to perform their duties and responsibilities.
- Conduct: They should behave in way that does not discredit police service or undermine public confidence whether on or off duty.
- Challenging and reporting improper behavior: They should take action, challenge or report against colleagues who have misconducted or their professional behaviors have fallen short of set standards.
Considering that most police officers carry out their duties without close supervision, the responsibility of proper conduct lies squarely on the individual officer. The officer is tasked with the responsibility of ensuring that the community is safe and fellow police officers operate in a safe environment (Haberfeld, 2013). Therefore, a police officer is expected to discharge his/her duties faithfully and diligently. Anything short of this code of conduct and ethics violates the trust bestowed by the public and belittles the qualities of professional conduct as a police officer.
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