Ethics, Terrorism, and the Future of Policing - Essay Example

? Ethics, Terrorism and the Future of Policing (Add (Add (Add Ethics, Terrorism and the Future of Policing Policing in the US has changed significantly as a result of the recent terrorist threats. Though the police mission and operation had a relatively insignificant role in the federal security arena, the recent terrorist attacks like the one on September 11 acted as a wake up call for the police department in realizing its role in countering terrorism. As a result, there has been considerable degree of variation in police strategy and aim at all levels of policing. First of all, police have undertaken the responsibility of analyzing, sharing, and collecting information which are important for public safety. According to the Police Executive Research Forum study named ‘Learning from 9/11: Comparative case studies of the law enforcement response in New York’, the police departments in the US have understood the need to renew their four major elements of counter-terrorism tasks: prevention/preparedness, response/crisis management, consequence management, and prevention (cited in National Institute of Justice, 2007). Similarly, the study by the Council of State Governments (2006), named ‘Impact of terrorism on state law enforcement: adjusting to new roles and changing conditions’ points out the various practices and procedures the police have adopted in communication, cooperation, and collaboration. For example, various police departments have started improving their communication and collaboration with Arab-American communities. Though it has become evident that Arab-Americans are still highly suspicious of the federal agencies, generally, all law enforcement agencies expressed the desire to improve relations with the Arab-American communities. A look into the renewed attitude of the Los Angeles Police Department in meeting terrorism will prove that the agency has well understood its role in preventing terrorism. To illustrate, according to Downing (2009), the Deputy Chief and Commanding Officer of the Counter-terrorism and Criminal Intelligence Bureau, the police have adopted such a policing culture that cooperates with all other federal agencies in the fight against terrorism through proper intelligence gathering and community interaction. An example of the efforts by police to improve communication with communities is the Muslim Community Forum hosted by the Los Angeles Police Department Chief William J. Bratton. The forum aims at improving communication, reducing friction, and promoting collaboration. However, the mere fact is that various strategies adopted by the police as a way to prevent terrorism are considered as an invasion into the privacy and liberty of people. In other words, such measures are often against the common notion of data protection, data privacy, and individual liberty. Some such policing strategies that are criticized for being anti-privacy are racial or ethnic profiling, creation of privacy-intrusive databases, body scanners, and so on. To illustrate, the Los Angeles Police Department reveals that it has developed a technological tool named Regional Public Private Infrastructure Collaboration System (RPPICS) that enables the police department to have access to private information of people in order to harden targets. In addition is the improved cyber investigation initiated by police forces in their effort to identify radicalization and terrorist activities on the net. There are various people and agencies that raise their concern about the increasing racial profiling in the US in the name of counter-terrorism activities. The American Civil Liberties Union has been raising voice against the increasing racial profiling after the 11 September attack. It is alleged that the Obama administration has inherited a shameful legacy of racial profiling, and got it codified in FBI guidelines. This profiling that considers Arabs and Muslims as suspects is a serious violation of their right to presumption of innocence and equal protection under the federal law. The second serious issue as put forward by the Union is the increased numbers of unprecedented raids of immigrant communities by the local police in collaboration with federal agencies. As reported by the American Civil Liberties Union, most of the time, this regular police raids result in alienating immigrant communities as the general population start developing fear about the immigrants; and this, in turn, leads to issues like hate crimes. The issue of body scanning in airports too is considered as a serious attack on individual liberty. According to Harwell (n. d.) from Lancaster University, the governments have rushed into the use of this ‘naked body viewers’ without giving a second thought into the effectiveness of them in preventing terrorism. This is so because reportedly, the scanners are unable to detect plastics and chemicals. In addition is the negative effect of such scanners on pregnant women and children. According to Harwell, the benefit of viewing people naked for a very limited purpose is questioned. Admittedly, police ethics is highly influenced by social stigma. As police officers are members of the general society too, they will be prone to influences from the various happening in the society around them. The National Research Council (2008) reports that according to their consciousness and family background, the police officers are likely to possess prejudices and stereotypes regarding various people, races, classes, and religions. For example, after the September 11 attack, many police officers tend to hold the belief that Muslims are the ones to be suspected, and as a result, many immigrants had the experience of getting humiliated by police officers. Though police is supposed to be free from prejudices and stereotypes, they too tend to get moved by what the society thinks. Admittedly, there is difference between corruption and abuse of power. Admittedly, lack of supervision and too much of power are the reasons behind both these evils (National Research Council 2008). It becomes evident from studies that police officers tend to engage in corruption mainly as a result of peer influence, for money, or for fun. On the other hand, the abusive police officers use their power to humiliate people. Thus, it becomes evident that while corruption is a matter of personal gain, abuse of forces is not aimed at personal gain; but is the result of the prejudices and stereotypes one developed as a result of ones existence in the mainstream society. That means, the ethical forces behind both the activities are, to a great extent, different. In the former case, the ethical consideration is the misuse of power for ones own personal gain when there is excessive power or lack of supervision. In the latter case, the ethical consideration is abusing the people one does not like because of the preconceived images. From the discussion, it becomes evident that individual conscience has an important role in deciding how an individual police officer handles an issue. Good policing can be termed as the sum of moral seriousness, integrity, a spirit of service, good relations, and intolerance to cheating. When the profession requires dealing with such a large number of factors, it is highly likely that the officers, at one time or the other face such dilemmas where individual conscience has an important role in deciding the course of action. To illustrate, a police officer has the responsibility to be loyal to his or her colleagues, and at the same time, to punish those who violate law. Thus, when a police officer comes to know that a colleague is engaged in an illegal practice, there is an ethical dilemma. On the one hand is the need to punish the culprit, and on the other, there is the need to protect ones colleague. Thus, individual conscience plays an important role in policing. If this is the case, there is a lot that can be done through ethical training. Training will make the ‘would be’ officers aware about the various people, races, classes, and religions that exist in the society. This ensures that the officers give up all the prejudices they possess and become multicultural resistive in taking decisions. In addition, training can be utilized to make them aware about the impact social stigmas can have on their decision making abilities. That means, the police officers will remain aware about the likely effects of various social happenings around them. A report from the Ethics Training Subcommittee of the IACP Ad Hoc Committee (2012) proves that ethics training has a great impact on the quality of policing. References American Civil Liberties Union. (n.d). Racial profiling. Retrieved from http://www.aclu.org/racial-justice/racial-profiling Council of State Governments: Eastern Kentucky University. (2006). The impact of terrorism on state law enforcement: Adjusting to new roles and changing conditions, 1-97. Retrieved from https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/grants/216642.pdf Downing, M. P. (2009). Policing terrorism in the United States: The Los Angeles police department's convergence strategy. The Police Chief, LXXVI (2). Harwell, C. (n.d). Ethical issues surrounding the use of biometric body scanners in airports. Gleube. Retrieved from http://www.gleube.eu/polemics-3/the-use-of-biometric-body-scanners-in-airports-42.htm International Association of Chiefs of Police. (2012). Ethics training in law enforcement. Retrieved from http://www.theiacp.org/PoliceServices/ExecutiveServices/ProfessionalAssistance/Ethics/ReportsResources/EthicsTraininginLawEnforcement/tabid/194/Default.aspx National Research Council. (2008). Protecting individual privacy in the struggle against terrorists: A framework for assessment, 1-376. Retrieved from http://epic.org/misc/nrc_rept_100708.pdf National Institute of Justice. (2007). Improving the criminal justice response to terrorism. 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