Police Ethics Brought Up to Date

This chapter examines the importance of police ethics, mainly in the context of the police organisation, but also its importance to the safety and security of residents in the community. Most people assume that codes of ethics are within the exclusive domain of professions such as medicine or the law, and that would be the correct interpretation of the situation in its precise meaning. However, it has long been recognised, indeed at the very birth of the modern police force, that guides for professional conduct and behaviour of high integrity would be required of police officers to ensure they carry out their judicial and public functions with diligence, fairness, and without prejudice and discrimination. There have been discussions over many years about the ‘professionalisation’ of the police service, and this chapter continues the discussion to enable the assessment of progress to the current environment (Beckley, 1999a, b, 2018a). In the text, various aspects of police ethics and codes of conduct are identified and explained, along with some common examples of dangers or problem areas for corruption in police work.