Ethical Dilemmas : Read the following scenarios 1-5. Answer the questions listed at the end of each scenario.When possible, refer to some of the concepts you have learned in your text to support your responses.
Situation 1
You are a rookie police officer on your first patrol. The older, experienced officer tells you that the restaurant on the corner likes to have you guys around, so it gives free meals. Your partner orders steak, potatoes, and all the trimmings. What are you going to do? What if it were just coffee at a convenience store? What if the owner refused to take your money at the cash register?
Situation 2
There is an officer in your division known as a "rat" because he testified against his partner in a criminal trial and a civil suit. The partner evidently hit a handcuffed suspect in the head several times in anger, and the man sustained brain injuries and is now a paraplegic. Although none of the officers you know supports the excessive use of force, they are also appalled that this officer did not back up his partner's testimony that the suspect continued to struggle, in an attempt to justify his use of force. After all, punishing the officer wasn't going to make the victim any better. Now no one will ride with this guy, and no one responds to his calls for backup. There have been incidents such as a dead rat being placed in his locker, and the extra uniform in his locker was set on fi re.
One day you are parking your car and see your buddies in the employee parking lot moving away from his car; they admit they just slashed his tires. Each officer is being called into the captain's office to state whether he or she knows anything about this latest incident. Your turn is coming. What are you going to do?
Situation 3
You are a waitress (or waiter) in an all- night diner and are not too happy about pulling the midnight shift. Every evening, luckily, police officers drift in for their coffee breaks. You have been told that the diner does not offer gratuities and that you are not to give free coffee or meals to anyone, including police officers. But it's 2:00 a.m., and there are a lot of scary people out there. You figure that the pot of coffee might cost only a couple of bucks, so it's worth it to keep officers coming in.You suspect that the owner of the diner wouldn't be happy (because he doesn't like police), but he's not here, so you fall into the habit of giving all the officers free coffee. Then it escalates to free pie (it was going to be thrown out anyway), and now when no one is around, you'll let the officers go without paying for their meal. Do you see a problem with your actions? Who should make the decision-the owner or the employee who is on site? If you were to stop giving free coffee and pie, do you think the officers would stop coming in?
Situation 4
You are a police officer testifying in a drug case. You have already testified that you engaged in a buy- bust operation, and the defendant was identified by an undercover officer as the one who sold him a small quantity of drugs. You testified that you chased the suspect down an alley and apprehended him. Immediately before you caught up with him, he threw down a number of glassine envelopes filled with what turned out to be cocaine.The prosecutor finished his direct examination, and now the defense attorney has begun cross- examining you. He asked if you had the suspect in your sight the entire time between when you identified him as the one who sold to the undercover officer and when you put the handcuffs on him. Your arrest report didn't mention it, but for a couple of seconds you slipped as you went around the corner of the alley and fell down. During that short time, the suspect had proceeded a considerable distance down the alley.
You do not think there was anyone else around, and you are as sure as you possibly can be that it was your suspect who dropped the bags, but you know that if you testify to this incident truthfully, the defense attorney might be able to argue successfully that the bags were not dropped by the suspect and get him acquitted of the much more serious charge of possession with intent to distribute. What should you do?
Situation 5
You (a female police officer) have been working in a small- town police department for about six months. During that time you have been dealing with a fellow police officer who persists in making comments about how pretty you are, how you don't look like a police
officer, how you shouldn't be dealing with the "garbage" out on the streets, and so on. He has asked you out more than a dozen times even though you have told him every time that you are not interested and that you want him to stop asking you out and to stop making
comments. Although he hasn't made any derogatory or offensive comments, his constant attention is beginning to make you not want to go to work.
You have a romantic partner,and you are definitely not interested in your fellow officer. You have mentioned it to your FTO, who is a sort of father figure, but he likes the guy and tells you that you should be flattered. You want to fi le a sexual harassment charge against him but hesitate because, although you do feel harassed, you don't feel especially threatened; further, you know that
you would encounter negative reactions from the other officers in the department. What should you do?