Ethical Guidelines for Law Enforcement Officers

Posted: March 27th, 2020

Ethical Guidelines for Law Enforcement Officers

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Ethical Guidelines for Law Enforcement Officers

Law enforcement officers that operate in the city of Glendale, California are expected to abide by ethical values and principles in their daily operations. In this respect, the document responsible for establishing this framework constitutes the Employee Code of Ethics for the respective city. It focuses on the provision of ethical guidelines and principles that are expected from the members of the municipality. Under the document in question, public sector employees are expected to abide by a section of values and principles while performing their assigned occupations and obligations to the rest of the citizens that inhabit the city of Glendale. Since the police department constitutes an essential employee of the City of Glendale, the Code of Ethics functions effectively as a guiding manuscript by establishing the specific tenets, values, and behaviors that law enforcement officials must exhibit at all times.

The values and principles that are listed in Glendale’s Code of Ethics possess a rather imperative correlation to the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor. Recommended by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor is a document that provides all law enforcement officers with a holistic and succinct procedure that facilitates and influences the implementation of ethical values and convictions in the application of their duties and obligations (IACP, n. d.). After all, ethics in police work ensures that officers maintain a stern code of conduct that accentuates professionalism as far as the field of law enforcement is concerned (Conser, 2012). One of the comparative elements present in both manuscripts involves the emphasis on integrity. Under the Oath of Honor, law enforcement officers are expected to uphold integrity in their line of work consistently.

The emphasis on integrity is also illustrated in the Employee Code of Ethics for the City of Glendale. Under the Code, law enforcement officers – as employees of the municipal government – are expected to commit to the value of integrity. In both manuscripts, it is evident that law enforcement officers are expected to illustrate constancy in terms of their values, beliefs, actions, approaches, tenets, and results (City of Glendale, n. d.). Aside from the inclination towards integrity, the documents also place emphasis on the aspects of accountability and honesty. In the Oath of Honor, law enforcement officers should hold themselves as well as involved personnel accountable for their respective actions (IACP, n. d.). Similarly, Glendale’s Code of Ethics expects law enforcement officers to admit responsibility for the outcomes or consequences that are derived from the services that they provide. In both Codes, law enforcement officers must exercise liability for their actions.

To this end, the guidelines listed under the Employee Code of Ethics for the City of Glendale compare to the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor recommended by the International Association of the Chiefs of Police (IACP). Accordingly, the guidelines in question place emphasis on commitment towards ethical behavior by law enforcement personnel. Foremost, the guidelines necessitate the observation and integration of integrity into the routine services performed by law enforcement officers employed by the City of Glendale. The Oath of Honor comparatively expects law enforcement officers to uphold the value in question at all times by expressing constant commitment towards it on a daily basis. Consequently, the guidelines compare to the Oath of Honor by necessitating the significance of accountability, especially in terms of the outcomes that arise from the law enforcement personnel’s actions. Based on these illustrations, it is clear that the Code of Ethics established by the city of Glendale abide by the Law Enforcement Oath of Honor.

References

City of Glendale. (n. d.). Employee code of ethics. Retrieved from http://www.glendaleca.gov/government/departments/human-resources/employee-code-of-ethics.

Conser, J. A. (2012). Law enforcement in the United States. Sudbury, MA: Jones & Bartlett.

International Association of Chiefs of Police. (n. d.). Oath of honor. Retrieved from http://www.theiacp.org/oathofhonor.