Ethical Decision-Making Process

Ethical Decision-Making Process

Dominique Patterson

Unit 5- Project

Ethics in Criminal Justice (CJUS261-1701B-01)

Russ Pomrenke

March 23, 2017

I believe that ethics can be taught. Growing up as a kid it’s your parent’s job to teach you from right and wrong. In some cases it doesn’t happen like that but it comes naturally to some kids about the different ethics and what is right and wrong. In school we are also taught right and wrong.

After reading this scenario it touched me. To be honest if I was in the officers shoes I would of did things differently. I would have done everything I could to force my partner to be in the front seat. Yes the criminal did the crime but I feel like the officer should have let the court deal with his punishment not the officer. Now I understand that there are ethics and oaths about loyalty in the police department but this was just totally unethical. I am sorry would I would have to tell the truth about what had happened in the back of the police car due to the fact that I keep warning my partner to get into the front seat. Taking the oath as an officer means to treat other people even criminals with respect as a human being.

The partners intentions where wrong and it was unethical for the way he acted. There are better ways to handle the situation then to be forceful when the criminal wasn’t retaliating. The officer was using a seemliness act to gain respect from the other officers and the criminal but actually to gain respect is to do the right thing and show respect. I was always taught in order to get respect you have to give it. The officer that was in the back seat didn’t proportionality like he was supposed to. He didn’t use fairness and justice the right way. He took it in his own hands to give the criminal justice like he thought. The officer also didn’t use minimization in the right way. He was supposed to use the smallest amount of force or degree because the criminal wasn’t rejecting the arrest. He also wasn’t practicability because in a situation like this one he should have stopped and thought hard about his actions before he reacted. But in this case he didn’t think of the consequences of his actions.

Standard of objectivity is taught in the academy and ongoing training. A lot of officers are being sued for sometimes unusual or uncommon actions. Some officers react without thinking or even react out of anger or frustration. In this case the officer reacted on both. He didn’t think before he reacted and he acted out of anger. In situations like this you are taught to think before acting. Yes the criminal was in the wrong but it doesn’t give the officer right to take the law in his own hands and abuse the criminal.