Student Post and Response Week 6 (for Hifsa Shakaut)

Canada’s Combined Forces initiative (CF) is an example of ethical challenges faced by law enforcement superagencies. Put shortly, Canada combined its military forces in the 1960s recognizing that it was too small a nation to have separate military forces. Under the CF, service members from different military branches were cross trained. However, the effects that the new CF culture would have on the service members both old and new was not adequately addressed. Infighting based on organizational culture led to incidents and ethics violations i.e. the Somalia Affair where a young Somalian was tortured and killed by Canadian paratroopers.

The lessons learned from the failure of CF are that organizational culture matters; that the capacities of generational cohorts must be capitalized and that ongoing learning and the celebration of ethical, professional behavior, critical thinking and decision making must be promoted (Fitch, 2014).

2. What do you believe are the key challenges and/or effective strategies for recruiting ethical people to work in law enforcement?

One of the key challenges to recruiting ethical people to work in law enforcement is that people have personal values and beliefs. Sometimes, those values and beliefs fall in line with a department’s code of ethics. Sometimes, not so much. Finding the warning signs prior to hiring individuals is difficult and not an exact science. There are several strategies used for recruiting ethical people including: background investigations; medical assessments; structured interviews; psychological evaluations; drug screenings; physical fitness testing; and polygraph examinations (Fitch, 2014). These strategies not only help in identifying values and beliefs that are contrary to those of a department’s, but they help identify “poor decision-making skills, prior unethical or criminal conduct, or a predisposition toward violence” (Fitch, 2014) which can help a department avoid spending resources on a less than ideal employee.

3. Describe the importance of the link between law enforcement training and ethical behaviors?

It is not enough for departments to simply provide lecture and require rote memorization of rules and policies regarding the importance of ethical behavior. Adults are less likely to display ethical behavior with only that type of training. An active and holistic approach incorporating higher order thinking and reasoning skills is required. Departments must depart from the traditional pedagogical approach beginning at the academy level and incorporate a more “adult learning philosophy and corresponding training curricula that emphasize the critical thinking, decision making, emotional intelligence, and other soft skills necessary to empower officers to behave ethically” (Fitch, 2014).

4. What are some of the best practices or industry standards on the topics you are auditing (Research paper)?

I’m not entirely sure there are “best practices” or “industry standards” on my topic unless they exist for policy formulation. In which case, in the policy process, hindsight is 20/20. Policy makers can do their best to address a certain issue through policy as they did with Proposition 47, but there are almost always unintended consequences. In the case of Proposition 47, the unforeseen consequence was a spike in property crime. In order to address that problem, it is up to all the stakeholders to recognize first that there is a problem with the policy and then to gather the data necessary to analyze and make resolution recommendations. Then, policy makers may adopt recommendations and implement them. Hopefully, they work.

5. What are some of the possible training or policy recommendations that you identified in your audit (Research Paper)?

Sadly, in my opinion, there are not many recommendations out there which address the property crime problem associated with Proposition 47. There is one that I believe has the potential to have a positive effect on the problem that was created. To me, it sounds a bit like the now fairly unpopular three strikes law:

The effort aims to modify Proposition 47, which passed in 2014 and raised the felony-shoplifting threshold in the state to $950. If successful, the new measure would make repeat offenders eligible for felony prosecution after a third theft valued at $250 or more. (Sievold, 2017)

References

Fitch, B. D. (2014). Law enforcement ethics: classic and contemporary issues. Los Angeles: SAGE.

Seivold, G. (2017). California Campaign Seeks to Fix Prop 47 by Making Serial Theft a Felony. Loss Prevention Magazine. Retrieved from: https://losspreventionmedia.com/california-campaign-seeks-fix-prop-47-making-serial-theft-felony/