STUDY OF ETHICS INSTRUCTION IN POLICE ACADEMIES IN TEXAS

• NCJ Number: 144345
• Author(s): L J Redlinger
• Date Published: 1993
• Length: 50 pages
• Corporate Author: Southwestern Law Enforcement Institute
• Sale Source: National Institute of Justice/; NCJRS Photocopy Services
• Publication Format: Document
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This document reports the results of a survey of Texas police academy personnel on the significance of ethics training in their programs.

Abstract

The directors of 101 police training academies throughout Texas were surveyed about their training units in general, about their current ethics training, ethics instruction planned for the future and their thoughts on what types of training were needed. A representative sample of 33 directors responded. It was found that the majority of responding academies devoted 1.6 percent or less of total recruit training time on ethics training. Respondents were asked to rank a number of ethical issues as to whether they were always, sometimes, or never discussed. Only two items were reported as always discussed by more than 50 percent of the respondents, both of which concern the use of force. Other areas addressed always by more than one third of respondents include: examples of ethical police conduct, maintaining excellence of character, police discretion, professional code of ethics, issues related to abuse of authority, fairness in enforcement and report preparation and testimony. In the academies that had training for Field Training Officers, the number-one ranked item was maintaining excellence of character followed by professional code of ethics, issues regarding the use of force and ethical issues related to report preparation and testimony. Many of these same items were ranked high in training programs for first line supervisors. Among the most notable items rarely touched on at any level are issues concerning employee rights, poor leadership, treatment of informants, use of deceptive practices and policies with regard to drug testing. More than 84 percent of the respondents indicated their academies planned to increase the amount of ethics training. Eighty-two percent felt that more training was needed both for recruits and inservice trainees while another 6 percent felt that only recruits should have more training. The conclusion of this study is that while ethical issues are of great importance to police officers, they are given secondary importance in training programs. 24 tables, bibliography, glossary