Ethics and Professional Code of Conduct
Michelle Kelley
Strayer University
Ethics and Professional Code of Conduct
Michelle Kelley
Professor Clearfield
Ethics and Leadership in Criminal Justice
July 20,2013
Ethics and Professional Code of Conduct 3
There are several reasons why ethics and integrity are important for a police chief or county sheriff. One reason that ethics and integrity are important in this position as they set the model for what all the officers underneath them should act like. They should be completely above reproach …show more content…
Ethics are the moral philosophy that a person has when going about their daily life, such as doing good things or acting in a manner that a person would want to be treated in. Morality is the beliefs that a person should have about the proper kinds of behaviors. Law is the written rules that society has which are enforced by law enforcement officers. Something may be unethical or morally repugnant to one person, but are not illegal and something that a law enforcement officer is unable to do anything about. For instance, homosexual relationships are considered by some to be immoral, but they are currently not breaking the law in themselves. Therefore, there would be no call for law enforcement to try to break an all female couple up or arrest them for their sexual orientation itself. Law enforcement officers are concerned with the law of the area that they are working within rather than the ethics or mores that could be found there. There are some laws that may have to do with unethical behavior, such as defrauding people out of money with a fake cancer diagnosis, or laws that have to deal with morality as some places still have sodomy laws where a male homosexual couple could be charged with this if they were caught in the