Training & Ethics

 

When discussing ethics as it relates to criminal justice, I often wonder what type of “training” is provided to those men and women who are police officers and faced daily with situations where they are required to make the right ethical decision.  I came across an article; “Ethical Challenges Faced by Law Enforcement Regularly”, which describes the different scenarios that are provided to not only street level cops but also the upper management, one of which I found particularly fascinating.

The situation is a 16 year police officer who happens to be gay, is partnered with a police officer that is not gay. The not gay partner approaches his supervisor and requests a transfer because he does not want to work with this known gay police officer.

This is an extremely difficult situation for the manager because there are so many layers to this one issue both with the civil rights aspect as well as the moral dilemma. In all professional capacities not just law enforcement, managers, owners, or any person of authority knows and understand that discrimination is not tolerated. This includes the equal treatment of homosexuals also.

Another concern this manger is now faced with is overall job safety. What if the complaining officers chooses not to conduct himself in a proper manor while at work and worst case scenario the two officers engage in sometime of conflict where they will need to rely on each other for protection. Is the officer that has a dislike for his partner really going to help keep him safe on the job?

Clearly, this manager cannot re-assign a partner to the gay officer simply because his partner requested this, but what is the right thing to do here? Today, we are faced with so much diversity in race, gender, religion, and sexual preference, it’s really insane to think there are two people unable to work together based off of one’s sexual preference but these situations do exist. How are they supposed to be handled? The idea is, with proper training and updated guidelines, these challenges should be easily met with the correct response.

Reference-

Hall, E. Ethical Challenges Faced by Law Enforcement. Criminology and Justice. Retrieved from http://criminologyjust.blogspot.com/2013/02/ethical-challenges-faced-by-law.html.