Ethics in Law Enforcement essays

Ethics in Law Enforcement essays One of the biggest problems affecting ethics, values and diversity in law enforcement is racial profiling. Racial profiling has existed since the end of slavery. In the Southern states laws called Black Codes were created, and these made it illegal for African Americans to be unemployed, to be drunk, or to be in debt. Any offense by an African American was punished by imprisonment or indentured servitude. The laws were said to aim at maintaining an unpaid labor source in the South now that slavery was outlawed. Recently, the War on Drugs has escalated racial profiling to new heights. Today, racial profiling is used by some police department for similar purposes. Police will often use this method based on stereotypes of African Americans and supposed connections to drug and gang activity. This can have a negative impact on sound practices in ethical standards in various ways. First, it prevents African Americans from getting the equal rights they deserve in the community, and just infringes on basic rights such as privacy. Randomly being stopped and frisked when a person is innocent can cause great resentment and embarrassment. Also, by employing these tactics the police are telling the community that their color can determine their guilt or innocence before they even do anything. People cannot be expected to uphold the laws and be ethical in the community if law enforcement officials are not doing it themselves. Racial profiling can also put stigmas on people. If an innocent person is pulled over, or frisked in front of his peers, they make think he did something wrong and avoid him. The practice of racial profiling also leads the minority community to distrust the police, and if any crimes occur in the neighborhood they will be less likely to follow orders or give any information to the police, and this could severely hurt investigations. The practice of pulling over a black person driving a...