Kansas police department score unit corruption case

Ethics In CJ

Your final project, an ethics case study analysis, is due at the end of this module. In this assessment, you will use the provided information in the case study to evaluate the unethical behaviors, the contributing factors, and the role of leadership, and you will reflect on how the case study example impacts your own practices, the profession, and the criminal justice system. Careers within the criminal justice field require personnel to have high ethical standards in order to minimize the risk of engaging in corrupt activities. This is especially true for officers wishing to become involved with specialized units where they may become part of a subculture within the overall culture of the agency. In the late 1990s, more than 70 officers from the Los Angeles Police Department’s Rampart Division CRASH unit were implicated in one of the most widespread cases of police misconduct in American history. This should have been a signal to law enforcement officers everywhere that this type of conduct would be thoroughly investigated and would not be accepted as a common practice by organizations and the citizens they represent. However, this case alone has not served to deter others from getting caught up in a web of unethical decisions. Prompt In this assessment, you will use the provided information in the case study to evaluate the unethical behaviors, the contributing factors, and the role of leadership, and you will reflect on how the case study example impacts your own practices, the profession, and the criminal justice system. Provided below are an overview of the function of the Kansas City, Kansas Police Department SCORE Unit, the criminal indictment of some of its members in 2011, and subsequent trial and resolution involving members of this elite unit. Be sure to completely read through all the materials before you begin to craft your response to each critical element of the prompt.  Kansas City, Kansas Police Department SCORE Unit  The Criminal Indictment: United States of America v. Jeffrey M. Bell, Darryl M. Forrest, and Dustin Sillings  News coverage on charges and resolution: o KCTV 5 News: New Details Arise About Sting That Busted KCK Officers o KCTV 5 News: Three Members of KCK Police Department’s SWAT Team Indicted o KCTV 5 News: 3 KCK Officers Plead Guilty as Part of FBI Sting Operation Keep the following guiding questions in mind as you read through the materials:  What ethical considerations should be made when selecting officers for this unit?  What responsibility does the organization have to put the right personnel into this type of unit? This analysis will assess your mastery of the course concepts with respect to the following course outcomes:  Justify the importance of ethics to the profession and criminal justice system  Describe the ethical responsibilities of criminal justice professionals in the decision-making process  Assess factors that contribute to unethical behaviors in personal and professional performances in the criminal justice field  Evaluate criminal justice leadership decision making for its implications on the resulting acts of subordinates  Employ ethical practices in one’s own decision making to establish a pattern of professional conduct as a participant in the criminal justice system Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed in your analysis: I. Unethical Behavior(s) A. Describe the unethical behaviors evident in the case study materials. Support your response with examples. B. Considering the actions of the criminal justice professionals (e.g., officers and superiors) in the case study, discuss their ethical behaviors in relation to their ethical responsibilities. Did each criminal justice professionals’ decision-making process uphold their ethical responsibilities? Why or why not? Note: When referring to ethical responsibilities, consider how the unethical behaviors you identified in part A relate to professional standards, such as those found below: i. CALEA Law Enforcement Program Standards ii. American Correctional Association (ACA) Code of Ethics iii. American Bar Association Model Rules of Professional Conduct II. Contributing Factors A. Describe the contributing factors, implicit and explicit, that may have influenced these officers. B. Analyze how this conduct impacted the officers’ personal lives. III. Role of Leadership A. Describe the role of leadership within the unit and within the department as it may relate to this specialized unit. Where did the system fail? B. Evaluate what could have been done differently. Describe specific actions that could have made a difference. IV. Your Practices: Put yourself into a position within this unit, working with these three officers. Given what you know about yourself and the expectations of this profession: A. Describe a potential course of action that adheres to your own high ethical standards and that would have influenced your involvement with the unit. B. What risks do you face in establishing this pattern of conduct? V. Conclusion: Given your analysis, address the importance of ethics in the demands of the profession and criminal justice system. A. Why are ethics important in the daily demands of the profession? B. What is the significance of ethics in the public’s perception of the criminal justice system?