Ethics and Professionalism in Law Enforcement
Ethics and professionalism for a two-year associate degree in criminal justice, built on the IACP Law Enforcement Code of Ethics, agency general orders and state certification standards, the Constitution, Brady and Giglio disclosure, Whren and Floyd v. City of New York, the duty to intervene, civilian review, decertification, section 1983 and qualified immunity. The course covers following the fictional Port Ardent police service, a cohort of students and their instructor, a retired officer: why police power makes ethics central and how legitimacy and procedural justice depend on fair treatment, the consequentialist, duty, virtue and justice frameworks, a five-step decision-making model with the PLUS questions and quick tests, rationalizations and psychological traps, codes of conduct, oaths and orders, fair and consistent discretion, noble cause corruption, tunnel vision and wrongful convictions, gratuities, the slippery slope and the forms of corruption and abuse of authority, honesty in notes, reports and testimony, bias, racial profiling and how to measure fairness in stop data, the code of silence, the duty to intervene and early intervention systems, complaints, discipline, oversight and legal accountability, and a capstone ethics case portfolio with a trust dashboard, with runnable Python examples throughout.
LES-105 Year 1 3 credits 12 lessons · 4 h 4 min ▶ Video lessons coming soon
Offered by HSM University · Engineering Core
This is the American version of this course. See the Canadian version.
What you'll learn
- Explain why the extraordinary powers of police make ethics central to the job, and how legitimacy and procedural justice depend on fair treatment.
- Describe the consequentialist, deontological, virtue and justice frameworks and use them together to analyze a policing dilemma.
- Apply a five-step ethical decision-making model, the PLUS questions and quick tests, and recognize common rationalizations and psychological traps.
- Describe the layers of standards that govern police conduct, including the IACP Law Enforcement Code of Ethics, agency general orders, state certification standards and the oath of office.
- Exercise discretion consistently, distinguishing legitimate from illegitimate factors, and explain how laws, policies and data structure discretion.
- Recognize noble cause corruption and tunnel vision, and explain their role in wrongful convictions and their costs for officers and the justice system.
- Classify forms of misconduct and corruption, assess gratuities and conflicts of interest, and describe how services prevent corruption.
- Keep honest, complete notes and reports, explain disclosure obligations under Brady and Giglio, and give truthful testimony.
- Identify explicit and implicit bias and racial profiling, and use disparity, outcome and veil of darkness measures to assess fairness in stop data.
- Explain the code of silence and the bystander model, carry out the duty to intervene and report misconduct, and describe early intervention systems.
- Describe how officers are held accountable through internal affairs, civilian review, state investigation, decertification, criminal law and civil liability.
- Build an ethics case portfolio that analyses cases with the course tools, states specific professional commitments and proposes a measurable change to strengthen public trust.
Course content
12 lessons · 4 h 4 min total · final exam
- 1 Why ethics matters in policing: authority, power and the public trust 21 min · quiz
- 2 Ethical frameworks: duty, consequences, virtue and justice 21 min · quiz
- 3 Ethical decision-making models for police officers 21 min · quiz
- 4 Codes of conduct, oaths and professional standards 21 min · quiz
- 5 Discretion: using judgment fairly and lawfully 20 min · quiz
- 6 Noble cause corruption: when good ends tempt bad means 20 min · quiz
- 7 Misconduct and corruption: gratuities, the slippery slope and abuse of authority 20 min · quiz
- 8 Honesty in notes, reports and testimony 20 min · quiz
- 9 Bias, fairness and equal treatment 20 min · quiz
- 10 The code of silence, reporting misconduct and the duty to intervene 20 min · quiz
- 11 Accountability: complaints, discipline, oversight and the law 20 min · quiz
- 12 Capstone: an ethics case portfolio and a plan for earning public trust 20 min · quiz
- E Final exam 20 questions
Description
Ethics and professionalism for a two-year associate degree in criminal justice, built on the IACP Law Enforcement Code of Ethics, agency general orders and state certification standards, the Constitution, Brady and Giglio disclosure, Whren and Floyd v. City of New York, the duty to intervene, civilian review, decertification, section 1983 and qualified immunity. The course covers following the fictional Port Ardent police service, a cohort of students and their instructor, a retired officer: why police power makes ethics central and how legitimacy and procedural justice depend on fair treatment, the consequentialist, duty, virtue and justice frameworks, a five-step decision-making model with the PLUS questions and quick tests, rationalizations and psychological traps, codes of conduct, oaths and orders, fair and consistent discretion, noble cause corruption, tunnel vision and wrongful convictions, gratuities, the slippery slope and the forms of corruption and abuse of authority, honesty in notes, reports and testimony, bias, racial profiling and how to measure fairness in stop data, the code of silence, the duty to intervene and early intervention systems, complaints, discipline, oversight and legal accountability, and a capstone ethics case portfolio with a trust dashboard, with runnable Python examples throughout.
Part of the Engineering stream, typically taken in year 1.