You must respond to 3 students post and each post shall be at least one paragraph long (five sentences) supported by literature where appropriate. You are responding to the students paper I will send
Abstract
This week’s reading assignments touched on a very serious subject throughout law enforcement in the United States. We read about the relationship between social learning, differential association and the roles they can play in unethical behavior among law enforcement professionals. There is no denying the presence of a police sub-culture, but developing an understanding of our social relationships and how human beings imitate their surroundings is important so that bad apples and marginal employees can be recognized and approached before they influence others. A lot of damage can occur if these red flags go unchecked and it is the agency you while be responsible. When no action is taken bad apples can lead to a bad barrel, or a bad barrel can result in spoiling any new apples added into the mix (Sage Publications, 2014).
Bad Apple, Bad Barrel
Law Enforcement agencies throughout the country face the dilemma of deviancy within their ranks. While great effort is exerted to screen out the bad apples and marginal prospective employees through selection criteria, background investigations, and probationary periods, it is the spoiled fruit that garners the most attention and inflicts the most harm on agency legitimacy and loss of the public’s trust. Chapter seven of our text breaks down the importance of maintaining an ethical and values centered agency that begins with senior leaders and is supported throughout the rank and file. If ethical behavior is the norm, then the barrel is more resilient against the rare bad apples. The opportunity for unethical behavior takes root however when those bad apples are allowed a place within the barrel. When good conduct is not properly reinforced and deviant behavior goes unpunished, agencies risk the spread of this behavior through the social learning of agency coworkers and staff. This is why maintaining the good barrel is imperative to organizational health and legitimacy (Sage Publications, 2014).
Marginality
Our text identifies marginality as exerting the minimal amount of effort necessary to get by without suffering any disciplinary action (Eduardo Calderon, 2013). As discussed above, agencies go through great effort to identify marginal employees during the initial phases of the selection and hiring process. Additional probationary periods provide agency supervisors the opportunity to witness employee work ethic and possible red flags before an employee is tenured within a department. Unfortunately, senior leaders are still dealing with the negative impacts of marginal employees throughout the entire structure of their departments and understand how extremely difficult it is to realign values and behavior back to the high standards the public expects of their protectors. Whether a bad apple slips through the cracks during officer selection, or a veteran officer effected by job stress, trauma, or substance abuse; marginal behavior opens agencies up to an unreasonable amount of risk. In orders to mitigate this risk it is imperative that senior leaders, managers, supervisors, and officer alike support efforts in battling marginal behavior. No agency should have to experience the tragedy between Nagy and Lantych in our reading, but the risk is real. The stigma the police sub-culture has created between supervisor and officers cannot endorse the acceptance of marginality when it involves the lives, values, and image of an entire agency (Sage Publications, 2014).
Marginality and the Key Ingredients to a Bad Apple Pie
We read and explored the dangers and risks law enforcement agencies face through the existence of bad apples and marginality amongst the ranks, but are they one in the same or separate ingredients to a receipt of unethical behavior? Analyzing the text I think they are separate factors that embolden and compound unethical behavior. We look at bad apples as a bad ingredient, accidentally using salt instead of sugar. When the community we hire from is a shelf of unlabeled jars, agencies put forth their due diligence to select the right ingredient. Salt and sugar look so similar though, sometimes agency supervisors can take a sour bite when they examine the end result. Marginality however, can present itself at any time. Without proactive efforts and leadership that walks through the kitchen and gets their hands dirty, even a pie baked with a perfect recipe spoils when left out on the counter for too long. Combine these issues and agencies have a recipe for disaster (Sage Publications, 2014).
We can see the results of bad apples amongst agencies when we look to the media. It required little effort to read about former San Francisco Police Sergeant Ian Furminger. An officer sworn to uphold the law, yet was fired from his department and sentenced to 41 months in federal prison for stealing money and property from drug dealers. But when you dig a little deeper you can see the results of social learning as his peers began to imitate his deviant behavior (KTVU San Fransisco, 2015). Another case of marginality amongst the ranks led to a corruption bust and charges for Officer Bobby Engle. Engle was a veteran officer with the Jonesboro Police department when an informant alerted authorities and news media to his taking of bribes, collusion with drug dealers, and corruption (KAIT 8 Jonesboro, 2003).
Ethical Dilemma
The social climate across the United States concerning law enforcement remains tense as agencies wrestle with keeping officers safe and maintaining order while also maintaining public approval. One dilemma is officer safety and the use of force. With deviancy becoming a socially acceptable pattern of conduct, regular ambushes on police and mass shootings; officers have hardened their warrior mentality and approach toward dangerous situations and patrols alike. As a result, there have been more officer related shootings appearing in news headlines and agencies are caving to the pressure of public outcry on use of force policies. As an administrator within my own agency, this dilemma sits close to the vest as I have had my own experiences fighting for my life and experiencing the internal investigation into my actions. Despite every investigation returning justified, the experiences were extremely stressful and negative. Knowing I will carry those negative experiences for a long time, I am apt to support my officers in utilizing the force necessary, albeit within policy rather than allowing external public opinion to navigate agency policy. I do not wish for my officers to have to ensure the experiences I went through because of weak leadership on sensitive issues. I say this with the understanding that additional public outreach and education is needed to mitigate negative responses and foster a humanistic and transparent approach to agency policy.
Another dilemma relates to this week’s reading and discussion on marginality. When officers allow complacency to creep into their work performance and fail to maintain impartiality, investigation integrity suffers. When officers deal with repeat customers, small town social environments, and the curse of experience it can be a challenge to remain the impartial fact finder they are charged through his or her oaths of office to embody. When this marginality bleeds into conduct it can result in unprofessional assumptions, conclusions, and a personal investment into a normally clear cut investigation. Impartiality is essential and reporting the facts rather than conclusions is how officers maintain credibility. If officers face a dilemma on impartiality, he or she risks tarnishing their credibility and ruining the weight their voice carries at prosecution. Without that weight, you are useless as a law enforcement professional.
De-Conflicting a Conflict of Interest
Conducting an audit on federal and state hiring selection standards involves some conflict of interest as I abide by one of those standards for my own hiring actions. Remaining impartial and transparent throughout the audit and fact finding portion will be crucial. I have to allow the data and statistics to feed the findings and support recommendations. I plan on de-conflicting this issue within the methodology portion of the paper where a neutral position will be the guiding light throughout the audit. Additionally, the research paper outline serves as a road map of how the audit should be conducted and mitigates conflict by providing a set course to follow through the conclusion of the assignment.
Reference
KAIT 8 Jonesboro. (2003, September 22nd). Jonesboro Cop Goes Bad. Retrieved from KAIT 8 News: https://www.kait8.com/story/1453012/jonesboro-cop-goes-bad/
KTVU San Fransisco. (2015, February 23rd). Former SF cop sentenced to more than 3 years in jail in corruption case. Retrieved from FOX KTVU News: http://www.ktvu.com/news/former-sf-cop-sentenced-to-more-than-3-years-in-jail-in-corruption-case
Sage Publications. (2014). Chapter Seven: Bad Apple or Bad Barrel. In Fitch & Jones, Law Enforcement Ethics; Classic and Contemporary Issues (pp. 139-157). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Sage Publications. (2014). Chapter Nine: Psychology of Marginality. In Zipper & Adams, Law Enforcement Ethics; Classic and Contemporary Issues (pp. 181-203). Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
