The Potential Disciplinary Sanctions Essay Examples

Discussion 2

There are a few methods that can be used as disciplinary sanctions to police officers who are deemed unethical or who have violated their codes of conduct. One of the best way to offering the disciplinary sanctions includes the proper ethical training. All of the police officers have to be trained in the ethics that come with their job. All the circumstances that they find themselves in terms of ethical dilemmas’ have to be taught. According to Pollock (2012), this enables the police officers to deal with the ethical dilemmas in a manner that is expected of them. The second step is the training on methods of preventing misconduct. The police should be informed that there are mandatory sentencing laws or penalties in the case that they are found guilty. When the police officers are at work, they already know the potential consequences of their actions due to the policies of preset punishments. In the film, Serpico, all the police officers are aware of the preset disciplinary actions.
Suspensions are the other potential disciplinary sanction that the police officers face in the case that they violate their codes of conduct. He unethical police officers are suspended for a period of time during which their code of conduct is investigated. In the film, Serpico, one of the police officer is suspended and in that period, the conduct that one of them is under is investigated. The police officers may also lose their pay over the incidents. During the time the time that the police officers investigated, their pay may be reduced. They are then reimbursed if they are found not guilty. The fourth disciplinary action is the sacking from the police workforce. Ultimately the final disciplinary action that the officers may face is the prosecution for their actions and serving time in the correctional facilities.
A whistleblower is an individual who exposes any alleged dishonest misconduct or any illegal activity that occurs in any organization (Alford, 2001). The Knapp Commission identified grass eaters and meat eaters. The grass eaters in this instance are those police officers who accept any form of corrupt funds that come in their way. On the other hand, the meat eaters are those police officers who actively seek instances to be corrupt or gain in any unfair way.
Bribery is one of the most common examples of police corruption. The process normally involves the use of money in return for the police protection from any instance of law enforcement. The police can set up a bad case for one of their ‘friends’ and the case may be thrown out of court due to bad evidence. The other form of police crime is favoritism. The police may tend to favor some of their cronies so that they do not face the criminal investigations. The police may decide to look the other way especially if the case involves some of their family friends. The police may also use their connections to influence the way the case proceeds or get an illegitimate assistance from their friends.
The third form of police misconduct is the implementation of kickbacks. In this instance, the police officers pay each other some fee so that they are awarded some specific jobs that they know will benefit them. The police officers may pay someone who is tasked with assigning certain tasks to the police officers so that they are transferred from areas that have high crime rates to areas that have specifically low crime rates. This is evident from the film, Serpico.

References

Alford, C. F. (2001). Whistleblowers: Broken lives and organizational power. Ithaca, N.Y: Cornell University Press.
Pollock, J. M. (2012). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Cengage Learning.