Asynchronous Assignment:
Ethical Dilemmas (pages 131 and 132): 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.
(Minimum 1-2 pages, typed, and double spaced)
Situation 1
As a patrol officer, you are only doing your job when you stop a car for running a red light. Unfortunately, the driver of the car happens to be the mayor. You ticket her anyway, but the next morning you get called into the captain's office and told in no uncertain terms that you screwed up, because of an informal policy extending "courtesy" to city politicians.
Several nights later, you observe the mayor's car weaving erratically across lanes and speeding. What would you do? What if the driver were a fellow police officer? What if the driver were a high school friend?
Situation 2
There is a well-known minor criminal in your district. Everyone is aware that he is engaged in a variety of crimes, including burglary, fencing, and drug dealing. However, you have been unable to make a case against him. Now he is the victim of a crime-he reports that he is the victim of theft and that his neighbor stole his riding lawnmower. How would you treat his case?
Situation 3
You are completing an internship with a local police agency. The officers you ride with are great and let you come along on everything they do. One day, the officer you are riding with takes you along on a drug raid. You are invited to come in when the house is secure, and you observe six young men sitting on two sofas in the living room. The officers are ransacking the house and asking the young men where they have hidden the drugs. Four of the youths are black and two are white. One of the officers walks behind the sofa where the black youths are sitting and slaps each one hard on the side of the head as he walks past.
He ignores the two white youths sitting on the other sofa. You are shocked by his actions, but you know that if you say anything, your chance of being hired by this agency will be very small. You desperately want a good recommendation from the officers you ride with.
What would you do?
Situation 4
You are a police officer in New Orleans. During the flood following Hurricane Katrina, you are ordered to patrol a section of the downtown area to prevent looting. The water is waist high in some places, and sections of blocks are, for the most part, inundated with floodwater. You come upon one shop where the plate-glass window has been broken, and about a dozen people are coming out of the shop with clothing in their arms. The stores' contents will be written off anyway by the owners and covered by insurance. Should that make a difference in your decision? What if the store was in an area of the city that wasn't flooded and the contents were not ruined? What if the people said they were desperate and didn't have any clothes because their belongings were under water? What if the items being taken were televisions and other electronics?
Situation 5
You and your partner have been working together for more than five years. He has seen you through the serious illness of your young child, and you have been there for him during his divorce. After the divorce, though, you have become increasingly anxious about him. He is obviously not taking care of his health, he drinks too much, and he has been consistently late to roll call. Now you can smell alcohol on his breath during the day and suspect that the ever-present cup of coffee he carries has more than a little whiskey in it. You've tried talking to him several times, but he just gets angry and tells you to mind your own business.
Today, when the two of you responded to an accident scene, a witness drew you aside and said, "Aren't you going to do something about him?" pointing to your partner. Unfortunately, you knew what she meant, for he was literally swaying, trying to keep his balance in the hot sun. To make matters worse, he insists on driving. What would you do?