Wanted! Ethical dilemmas

[crimprof]

Hi,

I'm authoring a policing textbook and hope to include some ethical dilemma scenarios. I thought this forum may be an interesting place to start. Please, if you're up for it, briefly share your biggest ethical dilemma of your career, whether on the job or off. Thanks in advance!

[jebtcop]

mmmmm....I'll pass.

[Ursao]

Should I have the chicken or the fish?

[1042 Trooper]

Regular or diet. Hmmmmm.

[Ursao]

Regular or diet. Hmmmmm.

My ethics won't allow me to have anything with nutrasweet....blech.

[SA13]

Hi,

I'm authoring a policing textbook and hope to include some ethical dilemma scenarios. I thought this forum may be an interesting place to start. Please, if you're up for it, briefly share your biggest ethical dilemma of your career, whether on the job or off. Thanks in advance!

So how are you going to author a textbook on policing, and teach about law enforcement work, when you've never actually been a police officer?

Are You Employed in the Law Enforcement Industry:
No

Are You a Sworn Police Officer:
No

Occupation:
Criminologyy Professor

Location:
Dallas

If you were ever actually a cop you'd be able to draw from your own experience for many examples of ethical dilemmas.

This is what's wrong with higher learning in the US, and not just in CJ/Criminology/Public Admin. We have people that have no real world experience in the field they are teaching about, but because they have a bunch of theoretical education leading to a PhD, suddenly they are "experts" and worthy of teaching/publishing as experts on the subject matter.

Despite the fact that the profs at my University that had real world experience were known for being the toughest on the students I actively sought out them for classes, because they actually knew WTF they were talking about from something more than a theoretical perspective.

[Sleuth]

Well, Professor, looks like you need to DO SOME RESEARCH. You could start by buying some books on Police Ethics and reading them.

[Ursao]

So how are you going to author a textbook on policing, and teach about law enforcement work, when you've never actually been a police officer?

Didn't you know that people are born knowing how to be cops. This is why the media and the city council tell us how to do our jobs....

Now, to write a book on policing, he/she doesn't need to have been a police officer if the class is related to political science or a study of morality. This is akin to saying that people have to have been a police officer to teach ethics. He/She could very well just be teaching ethical philosophy based on something like the evolution of natural law from Justinian to Grotius and the Hanseatic League, etc. There's a bit too little information to answer his/her question or to let loose the K-9's of war with criticism.

[Sleuth]

BTW, Professor, how do you feel about your students skipping the research phase and coming to these forums for quick answers to your questions?

Here is an ethical question for YOU:
'Is it ethical to go on-line to obtain research materials, rather than doing the research myself for my book?"

[JSD73]

My biggest ethical decision:


Do I have the chocolate cake or don't I? If I do, then some would say I'm racist as I didn't order the vanilla ice cream to accompany it. Others would say, if I didn't order the chocolate cake, but instead ordered a plain ol' cheesecake, that I'm not celebrating diversity and am probably a racist.

So can someone tell me? Should I get the chocolate cake?

[NE75]

My biggest ethical decision:


Do I have the chocolate cake or don't I? If I do, then some would say I'm racist as I didn't order the vanilla ice cream to accompany it. Others would say, if I didn't order the chocolate cake, but instead ordered a plain ol' cheesecake, that I'm not celebrating diversity and am probably a racist.

So can someone tell me? Should I get the chocolate cake?

Get the Black and White cookies like I do, I figure it's a safe middle ground

[Tessaract]

my only ethical dilemma is why would anyone help you make a quick buck providing you with free information when they could write there own book being actual LEO's and keep all the royalties

[Charlie705]

Hi,

I'm authoring a policing textbook and hope to include some ethical dilemma scenarios. I thought this forum may be an interesting place to start. Please, if you're up for it, briefly share your biggest ethical dilemma of your career, whether on the job or off. Thanks in advance!

Now that the kids have shouted you down, here was mine.

A while back I had a fellow LEO pulled over downtown. There was not a LEO there onscene that wanted to be. Because you see, the LEO had been drinking.

In the past LEO's turned a blind eye and got their brother home.

I got angry. I processed him for DWI and gave him the same treatment as I would Joe citizen.

I got angry because we, as LEO's, know better. As hard as it was to become LEO's and to throw it away on a bad decision. Not only that, place your brothers in the terrible position of having to arrest you.

I caught a little flack from the old hands but I was comforted in the fact that these same old hands would have turned their backs on me if I would have taken the officer home and got caught.

And yes, I sleep at night.

C705

[Softscrubb]

In all honesty, the professor is technically doing reach by asking us our samples. He simply is using us as a a research tool for a 'statistical set'. I'm sure he would have encapsulated everything into a written form.

The difference with the students who come onto the forum is they are looking for us to answer for them.

I do agree that I would prefer he have some actual experience in law enforcement if he is going to write a textbook, but remember... colleges teach Police Theory they don't teach policing....

Not going to tell specifics.. but my biggest dilemmas came from the appropriateness of my response to the action(s) of coworkers or supervisors.

scrubb

[Ursao]

Not going to tell specifics.. but my biggest dilemmas came from the appropriateness of my response to the action(s) of coworkers or supervisors.

scrubb

True to that. Some of the nonsense I see makes me want to jump into a woodchipper.