Police ethics

SIGNIFICANCE: The conceptualization of what constitutes “proper” behavior in a wide variety of law-enforcement situations has heavily influenced both public attitudes toward police and the legal system’s response to allegations of unethical police conduct.

The parameters defining acceptable and unacceptable police behavior are as old as law enforcement itself and have evolved continuously. Police ethics touch on many issues, such as intentional deception in investigations and court proceedings, the use of deadly force, selective law enforcement, and corruption.

The development of formalized codes of police ethics in the United States can be traced back to O. W. Wilson’s work with the Wichita, Kansas, police during the late 1920s. However, the first statewide ethics code was developed in California in 1955. Two years later, the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) adopted it as the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics. With minor revisions drafted in 1989 and unanimously adopted in 1991, along with a newly prepared Law Enforcement Code of Conduct, the IACP's ethics code has served as the model for many police departments. Central elements of the code include a statement of the officer’s basic service mission, the obligation to “respect the constitutional rights of all to liberty, equality, and justice,” and a charge that one’s private life and public actions exemplify honesty and integrity. The code also enjoins officers to enforce the law without any biases arising from “personal feelings, prejudices, political beliefs, aspirations, animosities, or friendships”; to avoid unnecessary force; and to reject bribes and other forms of corruption.

Police ethics codes serve multiple purposes. They assure the public that officers who are granted unique powers to further their investigative work are nonetheless required to behave in ways that meet at least minimal acceptable standards. They may be seen as providing a “moral compass” that guides officers’ decision making in uncertain situations, while contributing to the development of a police culture and a cohesive work environment. Having such codes can improve the public image of police and serve as an alternative to external review and regulation, although this is true only to the extent that such codes are publicly seen to be rigorously and consistently enforced.

In early 2020, following such incidents as the death of George Floyd, an unarmed Black man who died while in police custody after a White officer knelt on his neck for several minutes, in May of that year, ongoing debates about police ethics and the issues of police brutality and lethal force were especially prominent. While some argued that such unethical behavior exhibited by police officers did not represent the institution of policing as a whole, others claimed that such instances of police brutality provided further evidence that systemic issues such as racism existed that could only be solved by large-scale reforms. As weeks of protests followed in the wake of Floyd's death, and reports circulated of police officers in some cities responding to peaceful protesters with force, commentators and activists highlighted the extent of distrust of police and their commitment to adhering to a code of ethics felt by many communities. In June 2020, a draft of the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act that had recently been introduced passed the House of Representatives, but it stalled in the Senate. Introduced again in early 2021, it was again passed by the House, this time in March, and many, including President Joe Biden, advocated for its passage in the Senate. Debates over such proposed reforms intensified after a trial jury in a state case found the officer who had knelt on Floyd's neck, Derek Chauvin, guilty on counts of murder in April. The George Floyd Justice in Policing Act was introduced again in 2024. At the state level, by 2021 some state governments had begun introducing or passing bills aimed at reconfiguring police training to better address such ethical issues as use of force and bias.

Interrogations

While ethics codes provide laudable blueprints for police behavior, the actual everyday work experiences of officers present many stressful ethical challenges. One broad category that invites unethical behavior is the use of deception during interrogations of suspects. The courts have clearly outlawed physical abuse of suspects, and the Supreme Court has ruled that police officers must read suspects their Miranda rights before any interrogation; however, deceptive behaviors are handled on a case-by-case basis.

Police may employ a variety of deceptive tactics during interrogations. For example, some officers try to convince suspects that they are not really being held in custody and that their interrogations are merely “interviews.” Adoption of this tactic may officially relieve the officers from having to issue Miranda warnings to the suspects, even though the officers’ actual agendas may be to elicit confessions so that they can commence arrest procedures.

Sometimes police read the Miranda warnings to suspects in such a perfunctory manner that the suspects mistakenly conclude that they can waive their rights without serious consequences. Another tactic is for police to attempt to lessen the actual severity of offenses in murder suspects’ eyes by leading them to believe that one or more murder victims are still alive and able to testify. At other times, police may try to increase the perceived severity of offenses so that suspects will admit to lesser offenses. Yet another tactic is for officers to pretend to be investigating one crime while actually gathering information about another. Officers also sometimes express sympathy toward suspects, while trying to convince them that confessing is the best way for them to resolve matters. Promises of more lenient judicial treatment after confessions cannot be guaranteed, but they often produce confessions.

Confronting suspects with falsified evidence pointing toward their guilt is another frequently used tactic for eliciting confessions during interrogations. Confessions resulting from deceptive interrogation techniques are a major ethical concern and must be balanced against their usefulness in finding and convicting guilty suspects. Deceptive tactics may also undermine police credibility.

Prospects for the Future

During the first decades of the twenty-first century, it was expected that the movement toward community-oriented policing and the escalating fight against terrorism were likely to influence the development of police ethics. For example, a central tenet of community policing is the empowerment of foot-patrol officers by assigning them to “quality of life” community projects. However, their increased power may cause them to lose some of their sensitivity to civil liberties in police-citizen interactions. Similarly, a national concern with preventing future terrorist acts in the United States has already led to a reduction in civil liberties, exemplified most prominently by the USA PATRIOT Act that was enacted shortly after the terrorist acts of September 11, 2001.

While the ends in both cases may be noble, they cannot be used to justify the reduction of individual liberties. Community policing poses new moral challenges that will need attention. For example, closer interactions with members of the community may lead police to discover law violations committed by their new “citizen partners.” The police will then have to decide whether such violations should be vigorously prosecuted and thus imperil police-citizen collaboration. On the other hand, as citizens become more involved in law-enforcement practices, should they have a greater voice regarding police responses to violators? Will citizens want to take justice more in their own hands, through vigilante-type actions? Finally, what is the proper police reaction if their associated citizen groups adapt racist or otherwise unacceptable agendas? Twenty-first-century law-enforcement personnel must take specialized intensive training programs to best confront all types of traditional and new ethical dilemmas.

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