Ethical decision making and policing ‐ the challenge for police leadership
| Published date | 01 October 2003 |
| Date | 01 October 2003 |
| Pages | 331-335 |
| DOI | https://doi.org/10.1108/13590790310808871 |
| Author | Anne Mills |
| Subject Matter | Accounting & finance |
Ethical Decision Making and Policing Ð
The Challenge for Police Leadership
Anne Mills
Any attempt to challenge the many complex ethical
problems and dilemmas which an organisation faces
is a dicult undertaking to pursue. It is easy to list
the many arguments for refusing to engage in the
debate on ethical issues. They are seen as nebulous,
personal, passive, intrusive, irrelevant or just too dif-
®cult to tackle. Even where there is an awareness of
ethical problems the diculty arises when attempts
are made to translate this awareness into meaningful
strategies which organisations can implement in
attempting to address these ethical challenges.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a frame-
work that will increase awareness of ethical issues
within the organisation and help to enhance the
process of ethical decision making in the police
service.
POLICE RESPONSES TO ETHICAL
ISSUES Ð THE CURRENT PICTURE
There can be little doubt that there has been a signi®-
cant reluctance or at best apathy within the police
service, as an institution, to embrace the ethical chal-
lenges facing their organisation. Whilst there have
been positive responses and attempts to address
some of the complex ethical dilemmas with which
the institution has been faced, the nature of these
responses has often been misguided. They have, at
best, been bolted on to the outside of the organisation
and thus perceived as external to it, or associated only
with prominent individuals within the service. At
worst, responses have been apologetic, compliant,
and procedural. They are frequently characterised
by strong reactive response to such situations rather
than a proactive strategy, which would embrace
some of the fundamental ethical problems that the
police service faces as an organisation.
Legal is not necessarily ethical
In the past, it might have been acceptable for the
police service not to engage in the debate on ethical
issues surrounding their role in society. This response
is understandable where institutions, authority and
the prevalent societal structure were stable and
relatively unchallenged. However, in the light of a
rapidly changing society where so many institutions
and traditions are being challenged, the view that `I
am upholding the law therefore I am ethical' is no
longer a suciently valid response to negate the
necessity for ethical debate.
Ends and means
Within policing, it is easy to understand why ends are
often used to justify means. This is very much due to
the attitude of society, which primarily judges the
eectiveness of policing on the achievement of
goals. It has been formalised through legislation
leading to the development of a performance
culture judged on its outcomes. However, with that
legislation has come a plethora of procedures and
systems which has led to the criticism that, in terms
of processes, the means have overtaken the ends
they were designed to attain. It is true that the rela-
tionship between means and ends is a complex one,
which in the context of policing is not easy to
balance. Nevertheless, despite the problems of the
performance culture outlined above, it should not
detract from the fundamental principle of ethical
decision making that the ends do not always justify
the means, and that the means must be shown to be
transparent, fair and just in the decision-making
process. The ends and means debate in decision
making must transcend prescriptive practice and
process to become a way of thinking, not simply
another means of doing. Indeed, if eectively
developed and internalised within the organisation,
more ethical decision making could lead to fewer
procedures rather than more.
THE WAY FORWARD
In order to develop an ethical decision-making
framework, there must be a reference point or
`ethos' from which to garner those values which
will underpin the decision-making process. The
notion of `ethos' within policing is well de®ned by
Villiers as `a collective ethic, a sort of higher
common factor of what everyone believes. The
Page 331
Journal of Financial Crime Ð Vol. 10 No. 4
Journal of Financial Crime
Vol.10,No. 4,2003,pp. 331 ±335
#HenryStewart Publications
ISSN 1359-0790
To continue reading
Request your trial