Police Ethics: A Matter of Character

Police officers make thousands of important, life-changing decisions everyday. In order to promote and ensure justice, these decisions must be fair and even-handed. Police officers cannot think or act as if they are free to define what is legal and what is illegal or to decide who is inherently good and who is inherently bad. They must act in an ethical manner. Yet, police officers are given a limited amount of training in police ethics. Often times, it consists solely of a list of do's and don'ts. This book was written to emphasize the importance of police ethics. The authors seek to treat police officers as the intelligent and knowledgeable people that they are, instead of discussing what to do and what not to do. This book discusses various schools of ethical thought in a way that works from the ground up, moving from a general understanding toward practical applications. Readers will gain a workable understanding of ethics that can be applied to the entire gamut of situations they encounter on the street every day.