The Purpose of a Code of Ethics within Police Agencies

Abstract
Ethic is one of law enforcement’s greatest training and leadership needs never has it been more vital then now that leaders in law enforcement confront the ethical issues that are facing the profession of law enforcement. This is a summary of law enforcement and ethics today. The major topic discussed are leadership, recruitment training and the police code of ethics. Also discussed is the alternatives and suggestions for impacting ethical misconduct such as modeling ethical behavior and the way ethics are taught by leaders in education.

Introduction
Integrity, courage, responsibility and honesty are all words that have been used to describe the term ethical. Ethics has become a popular topic in law enforcement. Law enforcement should represent the highest level of ethical conduct in a community, today the view of what is considered acceptable police behavior by society has changed. Throughout the country there is a decline of the public’s confidence in police and the entire law enforcement community. Most men and women in law enforcement hold the public’s trust as sacred they are hardworking police officers who are proud to serve their community with the highest standards of ethical behavior. The focus of this paper is to define ethics and its role in the law enforcement community. The areas of leadership selection and recruitment and training will be discussed along with the officer code of ethics.

In police departments the code of ethics is usually separate from formalized rules and regulations of the department. The code of ethic is usually found within department rules however over the past several years law enforcement has seen a shift when it comes to which police departments are instituting a code of ethics in their departments. (Terrence p. Dwyer)The code of ethics is made up of a