Nspf Ethical Dilemmas

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The New South Wales Police Force (NSWPF) professional reputation relies on integrity and ethical conduct of all police officers within the organisation. In the course of work, an officer may face a broad range of ethical dilemmas in which he or she may not know the right course of action to take, when a course of action is too difficult to follow, or when a course of action appears tempting. These ethical dilemmas are further explored through issues such as conflict of interest between officers and the public, an officer’s misconduct through releasing confidential information and professional conduct of an off-duty officer. The key NSWPF policies that all police officers abide by include the Statement of Values, Code of Conduct and Ethics and…show more content…
(Davids, 2008, p. 249). Whether or not a police officer knowingly understand the right course of action, they may find it difficult to follow when a conflict of interest is apparent. This can be depicted in the situation where NSW senior police officer, Inspector Hawkins, was investigated by the Professional Standards Command as she was accused of having an affair with a member of an outlaw motor cycle gang (OMCG) (Auerbach, 2015). This issue created a conflict of interest between a NSWPF officer and an OMCG member. It becomes evidently unethical as the NSWPF established a task force called Strike Force Raptor in 2009 to target OMCG activity (New South Wales Police Force, 2012). When a police officer is associated, to varying degrees with a person, group or organisation or perceived to be involved in, activity that is incompatible with activity conducted on behalf of the NSW Police Force (Standard of Professional Conduct, 2008) it creates a conflict of interest. The NSWPF Code of Conduct and Ethics (2008) states that police officers to take reasonable steps to avoid conflicts of interest, however, as perceived by the media in this scenario, the…show more content…
Ethical misconduct occurred in 2013 when the Victorian Police department discovered that 1,000 confidential files were leaked and found in premises with direct link to bikies (The Australian, 2013). The officer involved should not have had access to the information, however, the information was obtained and released to the bikies using a method to access it which, assumingly, believed he wouldn’t get caught (ABC News, 2013). This led to the wrong course of action being very tempting for the officer to obtain and release the information without the idea of getting caught, however, after an investigation the detectives raided three houses where they found a significant number of police files, including details of informers who had assisted with investigations (The Australian, 2013). According to the Code of Conduct and Ethics (2008) a police officer is privileged to sensitive and confidential information that can only be accessed, and/or disclosed if required by their duties. This misconduct behavior forms an ethical dilemma that impacts the policing environment as it creates a reputational risk to the organisation where trusted police officers do not act in a manner to preserve confidential information. The release of information in this media article can be seen as an ethical issue as the confidential police information has been
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