ETHICS IN POLICING

Ethics in Policing (your name (your University /Academy

2007

The Paradigm of Noble Cause Corruption

The concept of `noble cause corruption ' was introduced by Carl Klockars and for which he coined the term as `the Dirty Harry Problem after the movie `Dirty Harry (Sunahara , 2006 . The concept gained popularity and usage when it found its way in print the first time in 1989 , in the book by Delattre entitled Character and Cops : Ethics in Policing ' Thereafter , it has become the characterization and of behavior in which , in to carry out their

mandated and legitimate objectives , the police exceed their authority and powers It is the use of corrupt means to achieve valuable ends (Sunahara 2006 . Today , the police are faced with such a dilemma between the means and the end

In Chapter 11 of his book , Delattre explains that noble cause corruption arises when one fails to realize the highest goods , strongly felt duties , or most important principles . It occurs when it becomes impossible to satisfy the rights of the innocent victims and at the same time observe and respect the rights of the suspects . Albeit , he recognizes the complexities of human situations and occupational stressors he is also baffled as to the reasons for its abusive exploitation . According to him noble cause corruption is linked to arrogance or cowardice . Arrogance for those who believe that the end justifies the means and cowardice , for those who recoil back in silence to withdraw from making the hard decisions (Delattre , 2005 Corruption in its well established context is understood to mean as the use of public authority by police officers for their personal and private gain (Goldstein , 1997 ) while noble cause corruption largely differs in its motivation . Noble cause corruption is based on public good motivation , i .e . securing conviction , public safety , criminal justice , etc (Kleinig , 2002 . It is usually associated with perjury or testimonial deception to secure conviction . For instance , fabrication of material evidence , twisting truth about events under which evidence was obtained , suppression of evidence and presentation of selected evidence are few of the characterizations made (Kleinig , 2002 This type of ethical formulation is inappropriate in all instances . The only thing that varies would be the degrees of inappropriateness . For instance , the use of excessive force is employed on a drug suspect by the police investigators to be able to force out a confession and to name his other cohorts . During trial the police will claim that regular investigation procedure was observed . This conduct of the police is considered within the purview of the meaning of `noble cause corruption ' The duty of police during investigations is to observe the Miranda warnings which were established by case law in Miranda vs . Arizona . This ruling is also supposed to protect the right of the suspect under the Fifth Amendment . Another example would be is when the police are in pursuit of a suspect of robbery . The police during the chase , saw the suspect throw something in the dark alley . The...