Issues When The Use of Professional Discretion Cross Ethical Boundaries

Law Enforcement

In the public service mission, law enforcement, above all protects the rights of every citizen. Officers enforce the laws that are created by legislators and have discretionary power. Police officers have the power to remove people of their liberty (arrest), the power to decide which citizens to investigate, and most importantly the power to decide if lethal force is needed. Since law enforcement officers have these certain “powers” over individuals, we have constitutional laws that protect us from police agencies as well as government agencies. Law enforcement, prosecutors, defense attorneys, and corrections officials face different dilemmas, however they do have a common interest in the following elements:

• Discretion – “the authority to make a decision over citizens and the deprivation of liberty, life, or property”.
• The responsibilities of enforcing the law – “this dilemma is more so focused on law enforcement officers, however the other professions listed also have responsibilities to enforce all laws and even in their own personal lives’.
• Protect the constitutional safeguards of the legal system; due process and equal protection – Due Process states “that the government must abide and respect all legal rights owed to an individual according to the law”. This protects us from errors in any type of governmental deficiency of life, liberty, and property”. If not abide by, this is a violation of the Fifth and Fourteenth Amendment. Equal protection ensures that no matter the color of skin, gender, religion, or nationality will not determine what type of punishment to be received.
• Public servants – have specific duties involving the trust of the public. Having the trust of the public helps elect your judges, legislators, and public officials. Unfortunately for public servants, some take advantage of their positions, which is why these professionals of course are held to a higher standard because they are the leaders of those under them.

Discretion in law enforcement, especially within policing, is serious to both the functioning of police departments and to the relationship with the citizens (people) the police department serves. When an officer makes a decision that is not justifiable, or ethical, it is considered as discretionary. reference Sanders and Young (2007) view of management when it comes to law enforcement and the ability to control discretion. If there is no control with law enforcement discretion can:

• Lead officers to fabricate evidence – officers are the first responders on scene when responding to a call. Which means depending on the situation, they are normally the ones that will document and collect evidence to be later used in a criminal prosecution trial. If an officer mishandles, suppresses, or fabricates evidence for any reason, this can result in wrongful convictions, and even over throw any conviction on an appeal.
• Looking for guilt in a person rather than the truth – In certain situations, people that get pulled over for a traffic stop, or even questioned by an officer get very nervous. Some officers “prey” on that nervousness and automatically assume that the person is guilty of “something” or not telling the truth.
• Summarizing statements with bias – As with all types of bias, implicit bias can misrepresent one’s perception and subsequent treatment either in favor of or against a group or an individual. In policing, this has resulted in widespread practices that focus undeserved suspicion on some groups and presume other groups innocent.
• Handling exhibits poorly and failure to disclose/log evidence. The U. S. Supreme Court ruled “that prosecutors have an affirmative duty, as a matter of constitutional law, to disclose all known evidence to the accused in a criminal proceeding”. If evidence is suppressed it violates due process as guaranteed by the Fourteenth Amendment.

When discretion increases in department, whether it be law enforcement or government, the feeling of professionalism increases. Law enforcement officers are given vast discretions to choose which laws to enforce and when to enforce these laws. While discretion may enable them to decide when and what to investigate, this causes issues to arise and then an officer’s decision may be questionable within the department or when going to court. Officers often refer to the “ways and means act” to explain “their reasons” why a person was “legally” punished in a way that is unethical not justified. Several certain ethical problems and issues can arise for professionals in the CJ System. These issues might be concerned with how to use authority, how to deal with conflicts between the person and professional, or ethical issues confined within one part of the system: juvenile justice. Just to name a few describes how ethical issues cross professional discretion:

• The use of authority – promote personal values, avoid accountability for wrongdoing, and receive gratuities, free food, and discounts on certain purchases.

• Relationships between professional interests and personal interests – use professional status to promote religion or financial interests; use work time and materials for personal gain that is unrelated to work; engaging in or promoting professional activities that is conflicting to personal values; engaging in public or private personal activity (drug usage, driving while intoxicated) that is conflicting to personal values.

• Personal/professional commitments to clients – behaving or having unethical relationships with clients. This is a major issue within the criminal justice department. Law enforcement engage in these types of relationships for personal gain as well as the clients.

• Criminal justice and public policy – War on drugs: Opinion I do not see why there is still a “war” but then again, I believe this is how the United States gets most of its money from all the drugs coming into the states. Capital punishment for certain crimes committed; policies that implement the war on terrorism and policies involving harsher punishments; governments imposing mandatory sentencing for crimes (three strikes laws); increased surveillance for citizens and truth sentencing policies.

• Issues from police policies resulting in ethical issues – policies in domestic violence cases, racial profiling cases, use of force cases, and use of discretion for law enforcement.

• Problems in sharing information – withholding information from the courts, law enforcement, or even a client; problems with confidentiality and privileged communications with client-counselor relationships.

• Ethical issues with human rights – violation of the eighth amendment (cruel and unusual punishment); equal rights for everyone no matter race, or gender; It is very important to get an understanding of ethics and how it corresponds with decision making from CJ professionals and for the system to work in a proper manor. Ethical dilemmas are situations in which the decision the individual makes are unclear or difficult or the decisions carries some sort of negative consequent. Officials in the criminal justice profession, must be sensitive in order to understand the ethical duties and obligations to the system. According to the text explains in detail how important it is for CJ professionals to study ethics:

1. Professionals are known as such in part because their profession includes a set of ethical requirements as part of its meaning. Professions of all levels of the CJ systems must depend on their ability to administer policy correctly and morally in a respectable manner. When it comes to policy training or any type of job training, you want to make sure your approach and deliverance is professional. You want to be firm, but respectable when it comes to the trainees and let them know how important and serious their job is when it comes to helping the public.

2. Training in ethics can help a trainee progress in critical thinking and develop analytical skills to understand theoretic aspects of the CJ system. Ethical training is very important because it can help employees understand their job and show them how they should handle certain situations and how to conduct themselves in a professional manner.

3. CJ professionals should be able to identify ethical consequences of various actions and violation of moral principles committed by the employee. If an employee is in violation of the department code of ethics or committing an unethical act, it is the job of that supervisor to take disciplinary action.

4. Ethical deliberations are essential to decision making involving discretions, force, and due process which entitle people to make rational moral judgments.

5. Ethics is relevant to most management and policy. these decisions discuss disciplinary issues such as rehabilitation, deterrence, and just deserts. Before a decision is decided on how to punish someone, you make to make sure that your decision is based on the facts and evidence collected. You also want to make sure that person has been treated fairly and received all options weighed to the person.

6. Ethical deliberations are important aspects of criminal justice when it comes to research. This can happen when it comes to changing or adding to a policy. You want to make sure you research, and everyone is on the same page and in agreeance to what is change and agreed upon.