Private Security And Integrity In The Police Department

Ethics defined by the book, Private Security Today, is “the general principles a person uses to decide whether an action is good or bad, and involves the critical and structured examination of how we should behave in a given situation” (Smith, Schmalleger, & Siegel). Ethics is the system and/or a philosophy that a person uses when making a decision. By using ethics, you analyze internally if the decision you make is right or wrong and if the reason and results of this decision are good or bad.
I work at a police station and integrity is a word used all the time. The simplest way to explain integrity would be doing what is right when no one is looking. Someone who has good integrity has string ethical and moral principles and is very honest.
As I previously stated, integrity is a big word used around the police department because everyone who works here understands the importance of having integrity.
This goes along with ethics as well. Law enforcement are expected to protect and uphold the laws and the rights of the citizens. To do this correctly you must have a high ethical standard. You are deciding how to handle calls, people’s lowest and most horrifying moments and they need your help, and you must be able to complete these calls by doing everything right and upholding ethical standards of the department and yourself. Sometimes it becomes easy to think of the easy way out of some situations law enforcement and security often find themselves in. However, they must keep their integrity and ethics in mind when making every decision. Just because it would be easier to do something one way does not make it ethically sound. Everyone counts on law enforcement to do the right thing and that is what they must
do. The decision here is easy to me. I, of course would not let this officer leave. I would never let someone drive away when they are intoxicated, I am not even an officer yet and I take away people’s keys and threaten to call the cops if they leave while drunk. In the situation given, I would take his keys, have him lock his car, and drive him home. Nothing about my decision to do this is because of the ramifications from fellow officers at work. The officer does not deserve to have his career ruined because of a decision. This is the same for anybody, I have watched officers do the same thing for strangers. I also cannot help but think of the high rates of alcoholism in law enforcement because of what they must deal with. So, I would rather drive him home and then start talking to him about getting help if he has a problem.