CRJS420 DB1

CRJS420-DB1

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CRJS420 Discussion Board Week One

Police officers are public servants that have a legal and ethical duty to follow the law and obey the policies of their policing agency. When a criminal justice professional is confronted by their supervisor with an ethical dilemma the only option they have is to follow their moral principles as well as the law. The new police officer should refuse to drink beer and instead stay sober in order to drive the police car. It is wrong of the police supervisor to drink beer while on duty but it would be even worse if the new police officer drank beer and then drove the police car.

There are many different ethical dilemmas that can face the criminal justice professional. As a police officer one ethical dilemma would involve arresting a family member. Police officers have a legal obligation to obey the law and to make arrests when they see citizens commit a crime. If a police officer observes his wife’s cousin commit a crime he has a legal and ethical obligation to arrest the cousin. Even though the police officer does not want to arrest his wife’s cousin he cannot show any citizen in society favoritism. The police officer should report the crime and have his cousin arrested by another police officer.

In this situation the police can ignore the crime committed by his cousin and speak to the cousin later or they can call in another police officer to arrest the cousin for committing the crime. If he does not arrest his wife’s cousin then his wife will not be mad at him but if he does not arrest his wife’s cousin then he could commit further crimes plus the police officer has failed to do his duty. The ethical principle that applies to this situation is deontology. Deontology is the ethical principle that finds an ethical action is right if it is accordance with moral rules or principles (Brown, 2001). By arresting the wife’s cousin the police officer would be doing what is considered legal and ethical.

References

Brown, C. (2001). Ethical Theories Compared. Retrieved June 11, 2013 from

http://www.trinity.edu/cbrown/intro/ethical_theories.html