NCJ Number
82841
Journal
PFA Schriftenreihe der Polizei-Fuehrungsakademie Issue: 4 Dated: (1980) Pages: 285-293
Date Published
1980
Length
9 pages
Annotation
The preparation of officers for successful police work requires a blend of training and education. While the former constitutes the specific skills and knowledge of the law enforcement field, the latter is founded in ethics and guides an officer's behavior in the performance of duty.
Abstract
Because the police are an agency of the State, the fundamental norms of policework derive from the underlying ethical principles of government as expressed in the Constitution. Human dignity, worth of the individual as a member of society, is the guiding concept by which police officers should approach others, including lawbreakers, and by which they should gauge their own self-concept and behavior. Personal dignity is the object of police service; it is this concept which police officers are called upon to protect in others and embody in themselves. The individual person remains the supreme goal and never the means to an end. There can be no such thing as a police ethic, only the fundamental human one, to be applied to the specific conditions and challenges of police work. This requires a blend of training and education in preparing officers who recognize the responsibilities and the limitations of their profession. Police instruction must be such that the ethical dimensions of police work are evident in all the practical disciplines in which training is given.