CHAPTER II

Code of Ethics Definition

The Code of ethics is a moral standard that the company expects employees to follow.
At a minimum, ethics guidelines are established by the laws and industry regulations. A
business can exceed minimum ethics guidelines to ensure that employees feel safe,
avoid situations where they feel harassment or discrimination. Conflicts of interest are
also addressed in a code of ethics. A well-written code of ethics that adhered to builds
trust among employees and establishes credibility with partner companies and
consumers.

Sometimes it is referred to as a Value Statement, it behaves like the Constitution with

general principles to guide behavior; outlining a set of principles that affect decision-
making. For example if an organization is committed to protecting the environment and
“being green”, the Code of Ethics will state that there is an expectation for any
employee faced with a problem, to choose the most “green” solution. It works on the
bases of “treat others as you would like to be treated.” When faced with ethical
dilemmas or debatable situations, what’s articulated in the Code of Ethics can help
guide decision making.

“Code of Ethics” as such standards as are reasonably necessary to promote:

1. Honest and ethical conduct, including the ethical handling of actual or apparent
conflicts of interest between personal and professional relationships.
2. Full, fair, accurate, timely and understandable disclosure in the periodic reports
required to be filed by the issuer.
3. Compliance with applicable governmental rules and regulations

Definition of Code of Conduct

A Code of Conduct applies the Code of Ethics to a host of relevant situations. A

particular rule in the Code of Ethics might state that all employees will obey the law, a
Code of Conduct might list several specific laws relevant to different areas of
organizational operations, or industry, that employees need to obey.

The Code of Conduct outlines specific behaviors that are required or prohibited as
condition of ongoing employment. It might forbid sexual harassment, racial intimidation
or viewing inappropriate or unauthorized content on company computers. Codes, along
with other measures, have helped many companies dig themselves out of scandals,
and have helped many companies build a healthier work climate and reputation.
Another code of conduct example might require everyone to protect consumer data.
This is a law and sets a general guideline for all employees. However, the accounting
department might follow a higher set of privacy protocol set forth in the code of conduct.
A call center might require that all personal items be left in a locker to prevent
accidentally capturing or removing consumer personal information.

Every business should have a clear vision, when it comes to ethics and conduct. What
that happens, then employees work better as a team, job satisfaction increases and
performance improves when companies set the tone with meaningful ethical and
conduct standards. The result is a positive corporate culture, in which people want to go
to work and that consumers enjoy working with these employees.

Either way, whatever type of Code an organization chooses to employ, it’s critical that it
is treated consistently in every instance of wrongdoing. The Code needs to apply to
every employee from the ground up, and no matter how small the violation, appropriate
discipline needs to take place. For example, if your Code stipulates that theft of
company property is prohibited, and an employee takes home one pack of post-it-notes
from the supply inventory, that’s theft, and should treated as such.

A great Code and a strong company culture is the heart of a successful organization.
This code helps the organizations to build a culture of integrity, transparency, and
accountability. An organization’s culture is different in all industries: there’s no one-size-
fits-all solution for building and adopting a strong organizational culture. One step in
building a successful culture is with the integration of a strong compliance program,
including a whistleblower hotline. This is a powerful tool for any organization to
implement in their proactive measures to ensure their business success and grow their
strong culture where employees can thrive.

Each entity implements local employee codes of conduct. These codes are intended for
all employees to help them develop their activities while respecting the Group’s ethical
principles.

In compliance with local uses and regulations, they are based on 10 fundamental
themes.

Difference of Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct

It is easy to see why a code of ethics and a code of conduct may be confused or used
interchangeably. Both have goals of setting a standard of behaviors from employees.
Both Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct are similar as they are used in an attempt to
encourage specific forms of behavior by employees. Ethics guidelines attempt to
provide guidance about values and choices to influence decision making. Conduct
regulations assert that some specific actions are appropriate, other inappropriate. In
both cases, the organization’s desire is to obtain a narrow range of acceptable
behaviors from employees.

They are, in fact, two unique documents. Code of ethics, which govern decision-making,
and code of conduct, which govern actions, represent two common ways that
companies/organizations/agencies self-regulate. They are often associated with large
companies/organizations/agencies, and provide direction to employees and establish a
public image of good behavior, both of which benefits businesses of any size.

The primary difference is that a code of conduct is less morally driven than a code of
ethics. For example, the code of conduct might require all employees to wear a specific
color or a company shirt when in the office. This is not an ethical issue, but it is a
conduct issue designed to create cohesiveness among employees.

Take a look for our table of Difference:

Code of Ethics Code of Conduct

Ethics rules help people make decisions
A moral standard that the company
expects employees to follow
Every code of ethics scenario should have
a corresponding set of rules
Ethics are higher level concepts
Code of ethics might state that all
employees must obey all safety protocols
Ethical standards generally are wide-
ranging and non-specific, designed to
provide a set of values or decision making
approaches that enable employees to
make independent judgments about the
most appropriate course of action
Conduct rules require specific behaviors
Code of conduct states how the company
expects employees to behave
Code of conduct may not always be
ethically driven
Code of conduct gets down to specific
action expectations.
A code of conduct explains for example,
the distance from an oxygen tank
employees are allowed to smoke.
Conduct standards generally require little
judgment; you obey or incur a penalty, and
the code provides a fairly clear set of
expectations about which actions are
required, acceptable or prohibited.

Key principles of Code of Conduct

These codes are intended for all employees to help them develop their activities while
respecting the Group’s ethical principles. In compliance with local uses and regulations,
they are based on 10 fundamental themes.

1. Respect for laws and regulations

The group upholds the highest standards in how it runs its activities, notably by
respecting human rights, labor laws and the environment.
 2. Respect for people

Safety and healthy in the workplace, Prevention of discriminatory actions and Respect
for third parties.

Safety of employees is one of the priorities, and safety will never be compromised for
the sake of efficiency. Each employee gas the right to work in safe and healthy
conditions, and has a duty to ensure this by behaving responsibly in the workplace;
Safety policy extends to all employees, sub-contractor and service providers. Each
employee must exercise their professional activities by abiding with the safety, hygiene
and health rules applicable in his or her workplace, and by participating in appropriate
training sessions that might be planned in these areas.

Prevention of discriminatory actions

The Group is determined to offer personnel equal opportunities for recognition and
career advancement, regardless of their ethnic origins, gender, beliefs, sexual
orientation or physical condition and will not tolerate any form of discrimination, or
harassment.

Respect for third parties

It is forbidden for any employee to discuss or agree with a competitor an arrangement

which prevents, restricts or distort fair competition. Agreements, for example, to fix
prices, exchange price information, share markets or limit productions are strictly
prohibited.

3. Respect for the environment

Respect for the environment and the preservation of natural resources in its operations
and those of its customers is a major priority.

4. Respect for competition law regulations

Competition law is applicable to every aspect of a company’s commercial activity:

negotiations with customers and suppliers, contacts with competitors, marketing and
sales promotion.

5. Respect for rules on insider trading

Any employees holding sensitive information could influence the smooth operation of an
agency if it is made public. The employee must keep this information confidential and
must not undertake, or recommend that a third party undertake or have undertaken, any
operations. The employee concerned must abide by the measures in the memorandum
on the prevention of insider trading issued by the agency.
 6. Prevention of conflicts of interest

Each employee must commit avoiding any situation that involves a conflict between
their personal interests and those of their organization.

For example, a case where an employee may work simultaneously for a customer,
supplier or competitor or holds a major interest in these latter, either directly or
indirectly. Any employee who could potentially be in a conflict of interest is encouraged
to inform his or her immediate supervisor of this situation.

Respect for rules on corruption

It is prohibited to pay for, offer or grant unwarranted advantages, in any form

whatsoever, directly or through an intermediary, to a private party or a representative of
the public authorities in any country, with the purpose of obtaining favorable treatment
or influencing the outcome of a negotiation in which an organization is involved.

7. Protection of Activities

Each employee must properly protect and keep confidential any strategic, financial,
technical or commercial data or documents that are not public and whose disclosure to
third parties could be harmful to the interests of the organization.

 Protection of information

Likewise, professional and private information concerning a named person is

confidential and must be subject to all the precautions needed to prevent inaccurate or
inappropriate modification or disclosure. This duty on confidentiality continues even
after the departure of an employee.

 Protection of property and resources

Each employee must properly protect and keep confidential Group property and
resources such as intellectual property and resources such as intellectual property
(patents, trademarks and copyrights), installation, equipment and financial resources or
cash. These resources and property must be used in accordance with their professional
purpose and in the established framework.

 They may not be used for personal ends except if explicit authorization has been
granted by a duly authorized individual in the framework of established
procedures.
 Lastly, it is the responsibility of each employee to protect the property and
resources of the Group against any damage, inappropriate alternation, fraud,
loss or theft.
 8. Transparency and integrity of information

Each employee who takes part in the production, analysis, filing or communication of
this information must carry out these operations honestly and transparently.

1. Internal control and audit

Internal control systems set up within the Group (respect for laws, regulations, policies
or procedures, asset protection and reliable financial information) help control its
activities, operational efficiency and the efficient use of its resources.

2. Implementation of the Code of Conduct

If there is any doubt about the interpretation or application, in a given situation, of the
rules presented in this document.

Each employee has the right to inform his or her immediate supervisor, or his or her
unit’s Human Resources Department, Legal Department or Corporate Governance
Officer, the Group Personnel Department or the Group Ethics Officer about it.

In addition, an employee who has, in good faith, pointed out a breach in the rules
pointed out in this document will not be subject to any disciplinary measures.

Professional ethics

Professional ethics encompass the personal, and corporate standards of behavior

expected by professionals.

The word professionalism originally applied to vows of a religious order. By at least the
year 1675, the term had seen secular application and was applied to the three learned
professions:

1. Divinity
2. Law
3. Medicine

The term professionalism was also used for the military profession around this same
time. Professionals and those working in acknowledged professions exercise specialist
knowledge and skill. How the use of this knowledge should be governed when providing
a service to the public can be considered a moral issue and is termed professional
ethics.
It is capable of making judgments, applying their skills, and reaching informed decisions
in situations that the general public cannot because they have not attained the
necessary knowledge and skills. One of the earliest examples of professional ethics is
the Hippocratic oath to which medical doctors still adhere to this day.

A 12th century Byzantine manuscript of the Hippocratic oath

Ethics in Law Enforcement and Policing

It’s often said that no other profession demands a higher ethical standard than that of
law enforcement. Regardless of whether or not there are other careers that require a
similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is an
understandably tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers.

Professional Codes of Ethics

General rule is to ethically act in accordance with approved standards of conduct and
responsibility or according to the respective ethical code of behavior

Importance of Professional Codes of Ethics

 Many ethical dilemmas in criminal justice

 Complicated relationships in the field
 Requirement of professionalism

Areas of Ethical Concern for Decision Making

The three areas below are not “static.” They, at times overlap at times are mutually
exclusive, and numerous varieties in between.

Making Ethical Decisions: Process

Ethical decision-making refers to the process of evaluating and choosing among

alternatives in a manner consistent with ethical principles. In making ethical decisions, it
is necessary to perceive and eliminate unethical options and select the best ethical
alternative.

The process of making ethical decisions requires:

1. Commitment: The desire to do the right thing regardless of the cost.

2. Consciousness: The awareness to act consistently and apply moral convictions
to daily behavior.
3. Competency: The ability to collect and evaluate information, develop alternatives,
and foresee potential consequences and risks.
Good decisions are both ethical and effective:

Ethical decisions generate and sustain trust: demonstrate respect, responsibility,

fairness and caring; and are consistent with good citizenship. These behaviors provide
a foundation for making better decisions by setting the ground rules for our behavior.

Effective decisions are effective if they accomplish what we want accomplished and if
they advance our purposes. A choice that produces unintended and undesirable results
is ineffective. The key to making effective decisions is to think about choices in terms of
their ability to accomplish our most important goals. This means we have to understand
the difference between immediate and short-term goals and longer-range goals.

Making Ethical Decisions: Model

The “Character-Based Decision-Making Model” model, developed by the Josephson

Institute of Ethics, can be applied to many common problems and can also be used by
most individuals facing ethical dilemmas.

It involves three steps:

1. All decisions must take into account and reflect a concern for the interest and
well- being of all affected individuals (“stakeholders”).

The underlying principle here is the Golden Rule- help when you can, avoid harm
when you can.

2. Ethical values and principles always take precedence over non-ethical ones.
Ethical values are morally superior to non-ethical ones. When faced with a clear
choice between such values, the ethical person should always choose to follow
ethical principles.
3. Perceiving the difference between ethical and non-ethical values can be difficult.
This situation often occurs when people perceive a clash between what they
want or “need” and ethical principles that might deny these desires. If some
rationalization begins to occur, this situation is probably present.
It is ethically proper to violate an ethical principle only when it is clearly
necessary to advance another true ethical principle, which, according to the
decision-maker’s conscience, will produce the greatest balance of good in the
long run.
Some decisions will require you to prioritize and to choose between competing
ethical values and principles when it is clearly necessary to do so because the
only viable options require the sacrifice of one ethical value over another ethical
value. When this is the case, the decision-maker should act in a way that will
create the greatest amount of good and the least amount of harm to the greatest
number of people.

7 steps to help you make ethical distinctions between competing options when
you are faced with a difficult choice. (According to Josephson Institute of Ethics)

Making ethical choices requires the ability to make distinctions between

competing options. Here are seven steps to help you make better decisions:
1. Stop and think: This provides several benefits. It prevents rash decisions,
prepares us for more thoughtful discernment, and can allow us to mobilize our
discipline.
2. Clarify goals: before you choose, clarify you short-term and long-term aims.
Determine which of your many wants and “don’t wants” affected by the
decision and the most important. The big danger is that decisions that fulfill
immediate wants and needs can prevent the achievement of our more
important life goals.
3. Determine facts: Be sure you have adequate information to support an
intelligent choice. To determine the facts, first resolve what you know, then
what you need to know. Be prepared for additional information and to verify
assumptions and other uncertain information. In addition:
a. Consider the reliability and credibility of the people providing the facts.
b. Consider the basis of the supposed facts. If the person giving you the
information says he or she personally heard or saw something, evaluate
that person in terms of honesty, accuracy and memory.
4. Develop options: Once you know what you want to achieve and have made
your best judgment as to the relevant facts, make a list of actions you can
take to accomplish your goals. If it’s an especially important decision, talk to
someone you trust so you can broaden your perspective and think of new
choices. If you can think of only one or two choices, you’re probably not
thinking hard enough.
5. Consider consequences: Filter you choices to determine if any of your options
will violate any core ethical values, and then eliminate any unethical options.
Identify who will be affected by the decision and how the decision is likely to
affect them.
6. Choose: Make a decision. If the choice is not immediately clear, try:
a. Talking to people whose judgment you respect.
b. Think of a person of strong character that you know or know of, and ask
yourself what they would do in your situation.
c. If everyone found out about your decision, would you be proud and
comfortable?
 d. Follow the Golden Rule: treat others the way you want to be treated, and
keep your promises.
7. Monitor and modify: Ethical decision-makers monitor the effects of their
choices. If they are not producing the intended results, or are causing
additional unintended and undesirable results, they re-assess the situation
and make new decisions.

Ethical dilemmas, also known as a moral dilemmas, are situations in which there is a
choice to be made between two options, neither of which resolves the situation in an
ethically acceptable fashion. A moral dilemma is a conflict in which you have to choose
between two or more actions and have moral reasons for choosing each action. Learn
more about moral dilemmas from examples and test your knowledge with a quiz.

Characteristics of Ethical Dilemmas

 A choice must be made between two (or more) courses of action

 Significant consequences for taking (or not taking) any action
 Each action is supported by one or more ethical principles
 Principles supporting the unselected courses (s) of action will be compromised.
 Fundamentally ethics is knowing what is right and doing it.
 The heart has reasons that reason will never know (Pascal).

What are the ethical models?

The ETHICS model is a theoretical grounded ethical decision making model that draws
from the latest relevant literature in ethics and integrates multiple theoretical
perspectives. Specifically, the model is comprehensive and accessible, and can be
used with a wide range of cases.

An ethical decision-making model is a framework that leaders use to bring these

principles to the company and ensure they are followed.

6 steps for Making Ethical Decisions

In other instances, you may feel unsure about a situation and a decision, since there
seem to be a number of acceptable alternatives. If you ask yourself these types of
questions, the issue probably has ethical or moral implications. This 6-step process
helps you make a thoughtful and responsible decision.

1. ESTABLISH THE FACTS IN A SITUATION

Establish exactly what has happened (or is happening) and who is involved in the
situation before trying to figure out what to do about it. Ask yourself the following
questions:
 What has happened or what is happening?
 When and where did certain events occur?
 Who is (or might be) involved in or concerned by the situation?
 What do the parties involved have to say about the situation?
2. DECIDE WHETHER THE SITUATION INVOLVES LEGAL OR ETHICAL
ISSUES?
The next step consists of determining whether the situation has legal
implications. The following questions can be useful in determining that: Has
anyone been harmed by the action or decision of another, and if so, in what way?
Does the action or the situation contravene an existing law? Was there a breach
of contract? Were the actions of the athlete discriminatory or constituted
harassment?
3. IDENTIFY YOUR OPTIONS AND POSSIBLE CONSEQUENCES?

Ask yourself: What could I do in this situation? Think about a variety of options.
The first one to consider should be not making any decision or taking no action.
This would be the least demanding option, and it could be thought of as
representing one end of a continuum of possibilities. As a second step, consider
the other extreme of the continuum, and think of the most comprehensive or
liberal action you might take in the situation. Then, identify several intermediate
options. Do not rule out any option at this stage, even though at the outset it may
appear an unlikely choice.

4. EVALUATE YOUR OPTIONS

Assess the pros and cons of each of your options outlined in step3. This is critical
in reaching a decision. The notions of outcome sought (i.e. striving to do what is
good for individuals or the team) and means used (striving to do things right) are
central to ethical thinking. A decision should reflect a fair balance between
outcomes sought and the means used to achieve them.
5. CHOOSE THE BEST OPTION
Making an ethical decision requires a final reflection on what is the best decision
under the circumstances, a just and reasonable decision that will apply where an
ethical dilemma is involved. An ethical decision is “the right thing to do” with
regard to the duties and responsibilities of the person making the decision, is
made “ the right way”, and is consistent with the values and behavior outlined in
the Code of Ethics.
6. IMPLEMENT YOUR DECISION
Putting your decision or plan of action into effect requires that you consider a
number of things, particularly if it involves dealing with individuals or groups of
people. Consider the following as you establish an action plan.
 - Choose your path. Exactly what are you going to do? Plan carefully the steps you
are going to take.
- Think about what may happen. Consider the likely outcomes of the decision and
the how any consequences will be managed.
- Identify who needs to know. Consider who needs to be informed of or involved in
implementing the action plan or decision.
- Determine if you can deal on your own with the person(s) involved. In issues not
involving a contravention of the law, it is often best to try to deal with the issue
informally and directly with the individual involved.
- Warn, don’t threaten. This is an important concept when dealing with a situation
at an informal level. It entails informing the individual of the logical consequences
of what can happen if a situation is not resolved, rather than threatening the
person with an end run.
- Think about what you might do next if the chosen plan of action doesn’t work. If
your original decision or plan of action is ineffective, think carefully about what to
do next. Inform the individual that you now have to follow up with Plan B.

Personal Values

I- Core Contributors
1. Age/era
2. Location
3. Socioeconomic
4. Ethnicity
5. Religion
6. Family
II- External Contributors
1. Education
2. Social Interaction
3. Vocation

Professional Values

1. Organizational
 Professional standards (SOP’s)
 Organizational ethics
2. Governmental
 Equality for all
 Accountability
Hammer Model of Scientific Misconduct

1. Negligence
 Lack of Training
 Lack of Support
 Lack of Commitment
2. Deliberate Dishonesty
3. Begins with lack of commitment
4. Money
5. Notoriety-media
6. Ends justify the means- I know he’s guilty
7. Ego-I don’t make mistakes

D-O-O-R Model of Decision Making

D- Determine

O- Options

O- Outcomes

R- Recycle

D-Determine

 What is wrong?
 What’s the REAL issue for me?
 Is there a moral or ethical threat to me or someone else?
 Would this be a problem if someone else was involved?

O- Options

 What are some extreme choices?

 Am I considering several choices?
 What resources or help do I have available?
 Choose them wisely?

O-Outcomes

 What could happen based on the Option I choose?

 What could happen if I do nothing?
 Who will be affected by what I do?
 Is it the RIGHT thing to do?
R- Recycle

After an option is chosen, return to see if the original question is still valid.

Professional ethics and codes of conduct

Professional ethics are principles that govern the behavior of a person or group in a
business environment. Like values, professional ethics provide rules on how a person
should ac towards other people and institutions in such an environment.

NOTE:

Unlike values, professional ethics are often codified as a set of rules, which a particular
group of people use.

This means that all those in a particular group will use the same professional ethics,
even though their values may be unique to each person.

The Code is an example of a codified set of professional ethics for those whose to enter
the immigration advice profession.

Ethical principles

Ethical principles underpin all professional codes of conduct. Ethical principles may
differ depending on the profession; for example, professional ethics that relate to
medical practitioners will differ from those that relate to lawyers or real estate agents.

However, there are some universal ethical principles that apply across all professions,
including:

1. Honesty
2. Trustworthiness
3. Loyalty
4. Respect for others
5. Adherence to the law
6. Doing good and avoiding harm to others
7. Accountability

Professional codes of conduct draw on these professional ethical principles as the basis
for prescribing required standards of behavior for members of a profession. They also
seek to set out the expectations that the profession and society have of its members.

The intention of codes of conduct is to provide guidelines for the minimum standard of
appropriate behavior in a professional context. Codes of conduct sit alongside the
general law of the land and the personal values of members of the profession.
NOTE:

The primary value of a professional code of conduct is not as a checklist for disciplining
non-conforming members, although breaches of a code of conduct usually do carry a
professional disciplinary consequences. Rather, its primary value is to act as a prompt
sheet for the promotion of ethical decision-making by members of that profession.

Professional codes of conduct provide benefits to:

1. The public, as they build confidence in the profession’s trustworthiness

2. Clients, as they provide greater transparency and certainty about how their
affairs will be handled.
3. Members of the profession, as they provide a supporting framework for resisting
pressure to act inappropriately, and for making acceptable decisions in what may
be ‘grey areas’.
4. The profession as a whole, as they provide a common understanding of
acceptable practice which builds collegiality and allows for fairer disciplinary
procedures.
5. Others dealing with the profession, as the profession will be seen as more
reliable and easier to deal with.

Other contributors to professional ethics

Fiduciary duties- a legal obligation of one party to act in the best interest of another. The
obligated party is typically a fiduciary, that is, someone entrusted with the care of money
or property. Also called fiduciary obligation.

When an adviser agrees to assist a client, they agree to take on a level of responsibility
for that person and their immigration matter. The client becomes dependent on the
adviser in relation to that assistance. This is a fiduciary relationship between the
fiduciary (the adviser) and a principal (the client). Even without a Code this fiduciary
relationship means the adviser has certain obligations to their client.

Contractual obligations

When an adviser enters into a contract (or written agreement) with a client this creates
legally binding obligations to perform the terms of the contract in a particular way. This
includes a duty to act with diligence, due care and skill, and also implies obligations
such as confidentiality and honesty, even if they are not specifically set out in the
contract.

Many ethical issues are likely to stem from advisers’ relationships with clients. Most of
these can be overcome by having clear terms in a written agreement about how certain
matters will be dealt with, such as the sharing of confidential information, the use of
interpreters, refunds and invoicing.

Codes of Conduct

Codes of conduct are becoming more a staple in the academic lives of students while
some of these rules are based solely on academics others are more in depth than in
previous years.

A code of professional conduct is a necessary component to any profession to maintain

standards for the individuals within that profession to adhere. It brings about
accountability, responsibility and trust to the individuals that the profession serves.

A code of conduct lays out an organization’s expectations and guiding principles for
appropriate workplace behavior. Some policies also provide legal and ethical guidelines
for relationships between employees, service users and clients.

A well-written code of conduct clarifies an organization’s mission, values and principles,

linking them with standards of professional conduct.. It can also serve as a valuable
reference, helping employees locate relevant documents, services and other resources
related to ethics within the organization.

A Code of Conduct is a written collection of the rules, principles, values, and employee
expectations, behavior and relationships that an organization considers significant and
believes are fundamental to their successful operation.

Why Code of Conduct is Important?

Code of conduct is a central guide and reference for employees in supporting day-to-
day decision making. A well written code clarifies organization’s mission, values and
principles, linking them with standards of professional conduct.

Code of conduct

Professional codes of conduct draw on these professional ethical principles as the basis
for prescribing required standards of behavior for members of a profession. They also
seek to set out the expectations that the profession and society have of its members.

The intention of codes of conduct is to provide guidelines for the minimum standard of
appropriate behavior in a professional context. Codes of conduct sit alongside the
general law of the land and the personal values of members of the profession.
NOTE:

The primary value of a professional code of conduct is not as a checklist for disciplining
non-conforming members, although breaches of a code usually do carry a professional
disciplinary consequence.

Rather, its primary value is to act as prompt sheet for the promotion of ethical decision-
making by members of that profession.

Activity II
Instruction: Read each statement and answer correctly.

I. True or False (Write T if the statement is correct and F if the statement is

wrong)
1. A well-written code of conduct clarifies an organization’s mission, values and
principles, linking them with standards of professional conduct.
2. Unlike values, professional ethics are other codified as a set of rules, which a
particular group of people use.
3. The word professionalism was originally applied to vows of a religious order.
4. A Code of Conduct applies the Code of Ethics to a host of relevant situations.
5. Professional ethics encompass the personal, and corporate standards of
behavior expected by professional.
6. The primary difference is that a code of conduct is less morally driven than a
code of ethics.
7. Fundamentally ethics is knowing what is right and doing it.
8. Respect for the environment and the preservation of natural resources in its
operations and those of its customers is a major priority.
9. Competition law is applicable to every aspect of a company’s commercial activity.
10. A code of conduct lays out an organization’s expectations and guiding principles
for appropriate workplace behavior.
11. Ethical principles underpin all professional codes of conduct.
12. Any employee holding sensitive information could influence the smooth operation
of an agency if it is made public.
13. A great Code and a strong company culture is the heart of a successful
organization.
14. Every business should have a clear vision, when it comes to ethics and conduct.
15. The code helps the organizations to build a culture of integrity, transparency and
accountability.
III- Essay
1. What is the difference of Code of Ethics and Code of Conduct?
2. Why Code of Conduct is important? Explain.
3. What is Codes of conduct? Explain.
4. Define Fiduciary duties and give example
5. Explain the term Professional ethics.
6. What is D-O-O-R Model of Decision Making? Explain
7. Explain the characteristics of Ethical Dilemmas
8. Why Ethics in Law Enforcement and Policing important?
9. What are the key principles of Code of Conduct?
10. Why Code of Ethics is necessary?
 CHAPTER III
Professional Conduct

What do you understand by professional conduct?

It is professionally accepted standards of personal and business behavior, values and

guiding principles. Codes of professional ethics are often established by professional
organizations to help guide members in performing their job functions according to
sound and consistent ethical principles.

What is Professional Conduct?

Professional conduct is the field of regulation of members of professional bodies, either

acting under statutory or contractual powers.

Historically, professional conduct was wholly undertaken by the private professional

bodies, the sole legal authority for which was of a contractual nature. These bodies
commonly established codes of conduct and ethical codes for the guidance of their
members.

In certain areas, where the public interest is considered to be heavily engaged,

legislation has been enacted, either replacing professional regulation by statutory
legislation, or by a form of supervision of the professional body by a statutory body.

What would you do if you saw someone cheating on a test? What if that person was a
teacher? Most of us would agree that a teacher who cheats does not belong in the
classroom, right? That’s pretty clear act or unethical, or morally unacceptable, behavior.

What if a teacher promoted a student to the next grade when the student did not meet
the requirements for promotion? We would likely say that this is not professional
conduct for a teacher.

Professional conduct is behavior that meets or exceeds ethical expectations for a given
profession. Teaching is a field in which professional conduct extremely important. After
all, teachers serve as role models for youth. Most states have published principles of
professional conduct for teachers. Professional conduct is the accepted manner in
which a professional will act.

Example: Lawyers are held to strict ethical standards and rules of professional conduct
enforced by state and local bar associations.

Professional conduct translates into a functional work environment. Civility and mutual
respect, commitment to organization, job satisfaction, productivity, synergy, minimal
absenteeism, minimal turnover, communication. All of these qualities that you present at
your workplace will help you build a positive reputation. Making yourself reliable and
trustworthy will give your employers a good vibe about you, which can result in earning
greater responsibilities with the company.

IMPORTANCE OF PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT

Professional conduct involves ethics, morals and standards of behavior. Being a

professional, it is necessary for the person to maintain his/her ethical behavior and to
have good professional conduct.

Professionalism is the conduct, aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession

or professional person; it implies quality of workmanship or service. Every organization
knows that a professional reputation is the difference between success and failure and
they seek to keep their most professional staff.

Most professionals have internally enforced codes of practice that members of the
profession must follow to prevent exploitation of the client and to preserve the integrity
of the profession. This is not only for the benefit of the client but also for the benefit of
those belonging to the profession. Disciplinary codes allow the profession to define a
standard of conduct and ensure that individual practitioners meet this standard, by
disciplining them from the professional body if they do not practice accordingly. This
allows those professionals who act will not be undermined commercially by those who
have fewer ethical qualms. It also maintains the public’s trust in the profession,
encouraging the public to continue seeking their services.

In cases where professional bodies regulate their own ethics, there are possibilities for
such bodies to become self-serving and fail to follow their own ethical code when
dealing with renegade members. This is particularly true of professions in which they
have almost a complete monopoly on a particular area of knowledge. For example, until
recently, the English courts deferred to the professional consensus on matters relating
to their practice that lay outside case law and legislation.

What is professional conduct in the workplace?

Professional behavior is a form of etiquette in the workplace that is linked primarily to

respectful and courteous conduct. Being conscious of how you treat co-workers and
clients, and ensuring a positive workplace attitude can help you to improve your
productivity and effectiveness in the workplace.
Twelve (12) Professional Behavior Tips

Professional behavior is a form of etiquette in the workplace that is linked primarily to

respectful and courteous conduct. Many organizations will have a formal code of
professional conduct in place, but many do not. Believe it or not, professionalism and
ethical behavior can benefit your career and improve your chances of future success.

Being conscious of how you treat co-workers and clients, and ensuring a positive
workplace attitude can help you to improve your productivity and effectiveness in the
workplace. In general, professional behavior comes down to ethics and dedication.
Although possessing the necessary skills to do your job effectively is essential, having
an understanding of what constitutes professional behavior will help you develop your
own high standard of work habits that could contribute to future career success.

1. Honesty: always act openly. Never share confidential, privileged or client

information unnecessarily, and don’t tolerate or justify dishonest conduct by
others. Report any conflicts of interest immediately.
2. Respect: maintain a respectful attitude to others at all times, even during
stressful times. Don’t lash out at colleagues or disrespect anyone (senior or
otherwise). Always use appropriate language (verbally and in writing) and don’t
swear. Apologize for errors or misunderstandings, and keep your personal
opinions of others private.
3. Meetings: arrive on time and be prepared by reviewing the agenda or meeting
notes in advance. Make contributions to discussions where appropriate, and
don’t take over when someone else is trying to talk. Respect the meeting
convenor or chair, follow the appropriate format, and ask considerate questions.
4. Communication: speak clearly and in language others can easily understand,
act courteously and use good manners when engaging with others. Follow any
company guidelines regarding content, read information provided before asking
questions, listen to others when they are talking or explaining, and don’t engage
in office gossip. Be careful of language and tone in written communications, and
don’t copy in others unnecessarily when emailing (but don’t intentionally exclude
others either)
5. Time Management: don’t be late to work, instead arrive a few minutes early to
settle, get your coffee and greet co-workers. Follow lunch and break schedules
by leaving and returning on time. At the beginning of every day, review your
schedule so you know what time you have to be where, and what workload you
have on that day.
6. Integrity: act ethically and do the ‘right’ thing at all times, always report
suspicious people in the office, misconduct, or other violations of company policy.
Remain impartial keeping any personal bias and intolerances out of the
workplace.
 7. Safety: understand the company safety policy and report any maintenance or
other hazards immediately.
8. Corporate Goals: have an understanding of your company’s missions, goals
and objectives and the role that you play in achieving those.
9. Dress: dress in clean, appropriate clothing. Follow any dress code standards or
guidelines and if there aren’t any, avoid clothing that is revealing, provocative, or
includes offensive language or pictures.
10. Accountability: take responsibility for your work and actions, do that needs to be
done, and don’t leave it for others. Be honest if things go wrong, or you don’t
finish something on time, then work out an effective resolution to move forward.
Seek help early if you need it.
11. Teamwork: you often need to work with people that you may not necessarily
like. Set aside differences to work well with others since teamwork sometimes
even outweighs performance- with people who work well with others often
advancing based on that aspect.
12. Commitment: dedication and a positive action to your role and the organization
can carry you a long way. Plus, dedication from employees is often contagious
with other being inspired to go the extra effort themselves.
Essentially, being professional is about giving your best at all times. Think about
how your behavior will be perceived by others and make sure to understand and
follow company codes of conduct where they exist.

Nine Golden Rules of Professional Ethics in the Workplace

Professionalism is the conduct, aims or qualities that characterize or mark a profession

or professional person; it implies quality of workmanship or service. Every organization
knows that a professional reputation is the difference between success and failure and
they seek to keep their most professional staff.

Professionalism is all about success and influence; having a reputation for excellence
and being thought of as someone who exhibits professionalism under any
circumstances can open doors for either in the workplace or in your personal ambition.

Following are ten golden rules to being professional in service to your organization:

1. Always strive for excellence; this is the first rule to achieving greatness in
whatever endeavor you undertake this is the quality that makes you and your
work stand-out. Excellence is a quality of service which is unusually good and so
surpasses ordinary standards, it should be made a habit for it to make a good
impression on your bosses and colleagues.
2. Be trustworthy; in today’s society trust is an issue and any employee who
exhibits trustworthiness is on a fast track to professionalism. Trustworthiness is
 about fulfilling an assigned task and as an extension- not letting down
expectations, it is been dependable and reliable when called upon to deliver a
service. It order to earn the trust of your bosses and colleagues, worth and
integrity must be proven over time.
3. Be accountable; to be accountable is to stand tall and be counted for what
actions you have undertaken, this is the blameworthiness and responsibility for
your actions and its consequences- good or bad.
4. Be courteous and respectful; courteousness is being friendly, polite and well-
mannered with a gracious consideration towards others. It makes social
interactions in the workplace run smoothly, avoid conflicts and earn respect.
Respect is a positive feeling of esteem or deference for a person or organization;
it is built over time and can be lost with one stupid or inconsiderate action.
Continued courteous interactions are required to maintain or increase the original
respect gained.
5. Be honest, open and transparent; honesty is a facet of moral character that
connotes positive and virtuous attributes such as truthfulness,
straightforwardness of conduct, loyalty, fairness, sincerity, openness in
communication and generally operating in a way for others to see what actions
are being performed. This is a virtue highly prized by employers and colleagues,
for it builds trust and increases your personal value to all.
6. Be competent and improve continually; competence is the ability of an individual
to do a job properly, it is a combination of knowledge, skills and behavior used to
improve performance. Competency grows through experience and to the extent
one is willing to learn and adapt. Continuous self-development is a pre-requisite
in offering professional service at all times.
7. Always be ethical; ethical behavior is acting within certain moral codes in
accordance with the generally accepted code of conduct or rules. It is always
safe for an employee to “play by the rules”. This is always the best policy and in
instances the rule book is inadequate, acting with a clear moral conscience is the
right way to go. This may cause friction in some organizations but ethical
organizations will always stand by the right moral decisions and actions of their
employees.
8. Always be honorable and act with integrity; honorable action is behaving in a way
that portrays “nobility of soul, magnanimity and a scorn of meanness” which is
derived from virtuous conduct and personal integrity. This is a concept of
“wholeness or completeness” of character in line with certain values, believes
and principles with consistency in action and outcome.
9. Be respectful of confidentiality; confidentiality is respecting the set of rules or
promise that restricts you from further and unauthorized dissemination of
information. Over the course of your career, information will be passed on to you
in confidence-either from the organization or from colleagues- and it is important
 to be true such confidences. You gain trust and respect of those confiding in you
and increase your influence within the organization.
10. Set good examples; applying the foregoing rules helps you improve your
professionalism within your organization but it is not complete until you impact
knowledge on those around and below you. You must show and lead by good
example. Being a professional is about living an exemplary live within and
without the organization.

Professionalism is highly valued by every organization today and professionals are

hardly out of work. Apply the ten golden rules of professionalism and enjoy a wonderful,
professional and prosperous career.

Personal ethics refers to the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to people and
situations that they deal with in everyday life. Professional ethics refers to the ethics that
a person must adhere to in respect of their interactions and business dealings in their
professional life.

The difference between personal and professional ethics

Personal ethics refers to the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to people and
situations that they deal with in everyday life.

Professional ethics refers to the ethics that a person must adhere to in respect of their
interactions and business dealings in their professional life.

In some cases, personal and professional ethics may clash and cause a moral conflict.
For example:

 A police officer may personally believe that a law that he is required to enforce is
wrong. However, under the Code of Conduct for the Police, he is required to
obey all lawful and reasonable instructions to enforce that law unless there is
good and sufficient cause to do otherwise.
 A doctor may not personally believe that the course of medical treatment chosen
by a patient is the right one. However, under the Code of Ethics, she must
respect the rights, autonomy and freedom of choice of the patient.

NOTE:

More often than not people at work resolve moral conflicts by drawing a line between
their professional and individual roles.

In other words, they separate their work from their personal life and follow their
professional code of conduct.
Ways to uphold your professionalism and workplace etiquette

Professionalism and workplace etiquette are always important regardless of overall

performance, careers have been known to stall (or even fail to start) because an
individual did not display these qualities. Here are some everyday ways to show
professionalism and stay on the right tract to building a reputation that will benefit your
overall career goals.

1. Honor your commitments and get your job done

Above all, the most important factor to professionalism is doing what you say you
are going to do, which includes getting your job done. You can meet every other
factor of professionalism, but if you don’t honor your commitments and get your
job done, none of it will matter because nobody will want to work with you.
2. Be on time for work and any meetings/events.
Being on time sends an unspoken message of respect for your responsibilities as
well as the value you place on the time and effort of your colleagues. Be
consistently on time for meetings, even if they tend to start a little later than the
time scheduled. Your consistency will build a reputation for punctuality and
prevent you from being late the one time they decided to start promptly!
3. Pay attention to cultural norms and follow them
For cues on office-appropriate dress, pay attention to how others in your
workplace dress. Although conventional wisdom will tell you to wear a certain
type of clothing, you really need to look around in order to follow company
culture. If nobody, including the CEO, ever wears a suit jacket, then consider
leaving yours at home. However, a great tip when it comes to deciding what to
wear is to dress for the job you want, not the job you have- observe their attire
and dress accordingly.
Communication also varies based on office culture. Ask yourself, how does
everyone communicate? Do they prefer to connect in an email before talking
about an issue, or can you just pick up the phone to discuss? Should you
formally request a meeting via an administrative assistant, or simply walk into
their office unannounced? Once learned, these cues and others will reflect the
unofficial rules or your organization and help you to navigate to success.
4. Check your communication
Your communication while at work will convey important (and unspoken)
messages about you at your organization. Here are some tips for professionally
written and verbal communication:
Use professional language while at work and avoid sending messages using all
CAPS or using “text speak” (e.g. ur for you’re) in messages, and never send
messages containing foul language or expletives.
 Always include a “greeting” and “closing” to each email message, no matter how
short or informal.
Enable automatic Spell-Check on your outgoing messages to prevent
embarrassing spelling and grammatical errors.
Double check who the message is going to when responding to a group
messages, and never write anything in a company email you would not feel
comfortable having being read (or distributed to) the whole company.
On calls, be mindful of your volume. Are you louder than everyone else in the
room?
Answer each call professionally even if you know the person on the other end.
You never know who else might be listening.
5. Keep personal business during work time to a minimum
Whether you are in an office, cubicle, or open space, it is important to mind the
personal space and time of others.
A “quick” conversation about the movie you saw last night could turn into 15-30
minutes which is not a productive use of time for you or your colleagues. Catch
up on last night’s game or weekend plans at lunch time or after work.
6. Bring a notepad and pen or pencil to every meeting.
By showing up without these, you are communicating loudly and clearly that
there will be nothing said or done in the meeting that is worth writing down or
remembering. Even if that’s how you feel, you don’t want to send that message.
7. Think before you post, tweet or comment at work or about work.
Some companies have specific policies around using social media. If yours does,
make sure you know what it says and follow it. However, even if there isn’t a
policy, never post or comment negatively about your job, boss or coworkers.
Those words may likely end up back to someone within the company and could
put your job in jeopardy. Plus, it’s just in poor taste to bad mouth your employer
and says as much about you as it does about them.
8. Avoid office politics and gossip
It’s true that office politics can be unavoidable and at times may even be required
to climb the corporate ladder or even just to get a project pushed through. Try to
avoid the negative side of office politics by maintaining constructive relationships
and knowing how to work with various individuals. Gossip will also naturally exist
within any office environment, and you may not be able to avoid it. But when you
do encounter gossip, don’t participate in the conversation and never repeat what
you’ve heard.
 Activity III

Instruction: Read each statement and answer correctly.

I. True or False (Write T is the statement is correct and F if the statement is

wrong)
1. Your communication while at work will convey important messages about you at
your organization.
2. Professional conduct involves ethics, morals, and standards of behavior.
3. Keep personal business during work time to a minimum.
4. Professional conduct is the accepted manner in which a professional will act.
5. Essentially, being professional is about giving your best at all times.
6. Professional ethics refers to the ethics that a person must adhere to in respect of
their interactions and business dealings in their professional life.
7. Professionalism is highly valued by every organization today and professionals
are hardly out of work.
8. Personal ethics refers to the ethics that a person identifies with in respect to
people and situations that they deal with in everyday life.
9. You gain trust and respect of those confiding in you increase your influence
within the organization.
10. Being a professional, it is necessary for the person to maintain his/her ethical
behavior and to have good professional conduct.
11. Professional behavior comes down to ethics and dedication
12. Courteousness is being friendly, polite and well- mannered with a gracious
consideration towards others.
13. Gossip will also naturally exist within any office environment, and you may not be
able to avoid it.
14. Keep personal business during work time to a minimum.
15. More often than not people at work resolve moral conflicts by drawing a line
between their professional and individual roles.
II. Essay
1. How to uphold daily ways to uphold your professionalism and workplace
etiquette?
2. Explain professional conduct in the workplace
3. What is the difference between personal and professional ethics? Explain.
4. Enumerate the ten (10) golden rules of being professional in service to your
organization.
5. Why personal and professional ethics may clash and cause a moral conflict?
Explain.
6. Differentiate personal ethics from professional ethics.
7.
 CHAPTER IV
Ethical Standards
Definition of Ethical standards

 Ethical standards shall refer to established and generally accepted moral values.
 These are principles that when followed, promote values such as trust, good
behavior, fairness, and/or kindness.

There is not one consistent set of standards that all companies follow, but each
company has the right to develop the standards that are meaningful for their
organization.

Ethical standards are not always easily enforceable, as they are frequently vaguely
defined and somewhat open to interpretation.

(“Men and women should be treated equally, “ or “Treat the customer with respect and
kindness”) Others can be more specific, such as “Do not share the customer’s private
information with anyone outside of the company.”

Ethics can be taught in business by providing training to employees to develop a

personal set of ethical conduct.

Ethical standards are a set of principles established by the founders of the organization
to communicate its underlying moral values. This code provides a framework that can
be used as a reference for decision making processes.

What does Ethical Standards Mean?

These standards are an important part of an organization’s culture. They established

the parameters of behavior that owners and top executives expect from employees and
also from suppliers at least to the extent of their relationship with the organization. A
corporate governance system will put a lot of effort into communicating and enforcing
these principles. This is mostly done through behavior modeling, which means that top
executives should set the example of how lower-level employees should act.

A few examples of these standards would be responsibility, honesty, transparency or

fairness and even though they might be interpreted differently by each person,
companies usually describe the founder’s perspective of each value to avoid
confusions.

These principles should serve also as guidelines for decision making processes to help
employees align their personal criteria with the company’s perspective as different
ethical issues arise within normal business activities. This moral “compass” is crucial to
maintain unethical behaviors down to a minimum, mostly in managerial positions.

Legal Ethical Standards Definition

Legal ethical standards are those company policies put it place that are based on laws,
rules and regulations that come from government or regulatory bodies. These standards
define more than the law for a company; they define the expectations for employees, for
company leadership, and they set the protocol for any violations or allegations of
wrongdoing. It is the law that you cannot harass or physically harm someone. A
company ethical standard goes beyond the law, and it states how allegations of
harassment will be handled, investigated and of how disciplinary actions will be taken.
The company may have one set of internal standards, even while law enforcement is
brought in to handle the legal external side of an issue.

Companies are responsible for staying apprised of changes in laws and regulations and
for updating policies, as needed. The mortgage industry had to revamp all of its ethical
processes when the Truth in Lending Act, which updated how advertising and
explanation of rates had to change, so that consumers would be protected from
unethical practices.

Morally Based Ethical Standards Definition

A morally based ethics standard is a company standard for doing the right thing. This
standard could be regarding laws, regulations or customer service and human resource
standards. When it comes to the laws falling into morally based standards, the company
has decided to exceed the law. An example is when a company voluntarily sets its
minimum wage higher than the required minimum wage for the betterment of its
workers. A company could exceed minimum safety standards. These are morally ethical
standards that have foundations in legal standards.

Beyond the law, a company could offer customers an unconditional money-back

guarantee. This isn’t required by any law but is the standard the company seeks to set.
The company sees the high level of ethics as a good business practice breeding loyal
customer and set the tone of high customer service from its employees to ensure they
deliver the goods without incident.

Ethics Training in the Workplace

Most ethics policies are written and published to employees in some type of employee
handbook or training manual. This isn’t enough to ensure that employees understand
and meet the ethics standards that employers seek. Consistent and regular training
helps employees fully grasp and absorb the expectation. It also helps people realize
that the situation might have been an inadvertent violation. For example, many
diversification standards are not understood and are often violated accidentally, such as
when people are merely trying to be funny. But jokes can be interpreted as mean or
discriminatory.

Human resources leaders conducting diversity training with role-playing sessions get to
show employees how conversations or actions that are not intended to violate an ethics
standard actually do violate those standards. Often, employees concede that they had
not thought about their language or actions in that fashion, and so they then make
conscious efforts to change. With regular training on ethics, employers are able to avoid
employee complacency on ethics subjects and to make sure that everyone is following
the same standards of excellence.

When business leaders demand that employees follow a set level of ethics, those who
don’t want to follow them usually weed themselves out and quit, or they get fired for
repeated violations. It is imperative that leaders spend the time to properly recruit those
who meet the standards and who fit into the company culture. This reduces legal risk,
customer conflict and employee unhappiness. Preventing these types of risks leads to
better company morale and greater employee productivity.

How Stakeholders Influence Management Decisions

The ethical standards of an organization have a major influence on how conducts its
business. Business ethics are defined by the behavior standards of management and
personnel, and the way in which business is carried out at both a strategic and
operational level. A positive approach to maintaining ethical standards can lead to
competitive market advantage and an enhanced reputation.

Ethical standards are classified at three levels.

1. Macro Level

At a macro level, sometimes called the systematic level, ethics are defined and
influenced by the wider operating environment in which the company exists. Factors
such as political pressures, economic conditions, societal attitudes to certain
businesses, and even business regulation can influence a company’s operating
standards and policies. Business owners and managers must be aware of how
these pressures affect operations and relationships, and how they may impact on
markets locally, nationally and internationally.
 2. Company Level

At a company or corporate level, ethical standards are embedded in the policies and
procedures of the organization, and form an important foundation on which business
strategy is built. These policies derive from the influences felt at macro level and
therefore help a business to respond to changing pressures in the most effective
way. There can be a gap between the company policy on ethical standards and the
conduct of those in charge of running the business, especially if they are not the
direct owners, which can present an ethical challenge for some employees.

3. Individual Level

Since businesses are run by people, the ethical standards of individuals in the
business are an important consideration. Individuals may well have a very different
set of ethical standards from their employer and this can lead to tensions. Factors
such as peer pressure, personal financial position, and socio economic status all
may influence individual ethical standards. Managers and business owners should
be aware of this to manage potential conflicts.

Integrated Approach

Ethical standards flow through the entire structure of a business organization, shaping
how it plans its strategy, deals with customers, and manages its workforce. The
standards have a reach far beyond a day-to-day operations, and should be considered
in all aspects of a business, from the boardroom to the shop floor and across all
functional areas. Supporting this effort, businesses that genuinely understand the value
and importance of ethics have appropriate metrics in place to measure achievement
and identify problems before they become major issues.

Lawrence Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

Kohlberg’s six stages can be more generally grouped into three levels of two stages
each: pre-conventional, conventional and post-conventional. Following Piaget’s
constructivist requirements for a stage model, as described in his theory of cognitive
development, it is extremely rare to regress in stages- to lose the use of higher stage
abilities. Stages cannot be skipped; each provides a new and necessary perspective,
more comprehensive and differentiated than its predecessors but integrated with them.
Kohlberg’s Model of Moral Development

Level 1 (Pre-Conventional )

1. Obedience and punishment orientation

(How can I avoid punishment?)

Level 2 (Conventional)

2. Self-interest orientation
(What’s in it for me?)
(Paying for a benefit)

Level 3 (Post-Conventional)

3. Interpersonal accord and conformity

(Social norms)

(The good boy/girl attitude)

4. Authority and social-order maintaining orientation

(Law and order morality)
5. Social contract orientation
6. Universal ethical principles
(Principled conscience)

The understanding gained in each stage is retained in later stages, but may be
regarded by those in later stages as simplistic, lacking in sufficient attention to detail.

Kohlberg’s stages of moral development

Kohlberg’s identified three levels of moral reasoning:

1. Pre-conventional
2. Conventional
3. Post-conventional

Each level is associated with increasingly complex stages of moral development

Level 1: Pre-conventional

Throughout the pre-conventional level, a child’s sense of morality is externally

controlled. Children accept and believe the rules of authority figures, such as parents
and teachers. A child with pre-conventions morality has not yet adopted or internalized
society’s conventions regarding what is right or wrong, but instead focuses largely on
external consequences that certain actions may bring.

Stage 1: Obedience and Punishment Orientation

Stage 1 focuses on the child’s desire to obey rules and avoid being punished. For
example, an action is perceived as morally wrong because the perpetrator is punished;
the worse the punishment for the act is, the more “bad” the act is perceived to be.

Stage 2: Instrumental Orientation

Stage 2 expresses the “what’s in it for me?” position, in which right behavior is defined
by whatever the individual believes to be in their best interest. Stage two reasoning
shows a limited interest in the needs of others, only to the point where it might further
the individual’s own interests. As a result, concern for others is not based on loyalty or
intrinsic respect, but rather a “you scratch my back, and l’ll scratch yours” mentality. An
example would be when a child is asked by his parents to do a chore. The child asks
“what’s in it for me?” and the parents offer the child an incentive by giving him an
allowance.

Level 2: Conventional

Throughout the conventional level, a child’s sense of morality is tied to personal and
societal relationships. Children continue to accept the rules of authority figures, but this
is now due to their belief that this is necessary to ensure positive relationships and
societal order. Adherence to rules and conventions is somewhat rigid during these
stages, and a rule’s appropriateness or fairness is seldom questioned.

Stage 3: Good Boy, Nice Girl Orientation

In stage 3, children want the approval of others and act in ways to avoid disapproval.
Emphasis is placed on good behavior and people being “nice” to others.

Stage 4: Law and Order Orientation

In stage 4, the child blindly accepts rules and convention because of their importance in
maintaining a functioning society. Rules are seen as being the same for everyone, and
obeying rules by doing what one is “supposed” to do is seen as valuable and important.
Moral reasoning in stage four is beyond the need for individual approval exhibited in
stage three. If one person violates a law, perhaps everyone would- thus there is an
obligation and a duty to uphold laws and rules. Most active members of society remain
at stage four, where morality is still predominantly dictated by an outside force.
Level 3: Post-conventional

Throughout the post-conventional level, a person’s sense of morality is defined in terms

of more abstract principles and values. People now believe that some laws are unjust
and should be changed or eliminated. This level is marked by growing realization that
individuals are separate entities from society and that individuals are separate entities
from society and that individuals may disobey rules inconsistent with their own
principles. Post-conventional moralists live by their own ethical principles- principles that
typically include such basic human rights as life, liberty and justice- and view rules as
useful but changeable mechanisms, rather than absolute dictates that must be obeyed
without question. Because post-conventional individuals elevate their own moral
evaluation of a situation over social conventions, their behavior, especially at stage six,
can sometimes be confused with that of those at that many people may never reach this
level of abstract moral reasoning.

Stage 5: Social-Contract Orientation

In stage 5, the world is viewed as holding different opinions, rights, and values. Such
perspectives should be mutually respected as unique to each person or community.
Laws are regarded as social contracts rather than rigid edicts. Those that do not
promote the general welfare should be changed when necessary to meet the greatest
good for the greatest number of people. This is achieved through majority decision and
inevitable compromise. Democratic government is theoretically based on stage five
reasoning.

Stage 6: Universal-Ethical-Principal Orientation

In stage 6, moral reasoning is based on abstract reasoning using universal ethical

principles. Generally, the chosen principles are abstract rather than concrete and focus
on ideas such as equality, dignity, or respect. Laws are valid only insofar as they are
grounded in justice, and a commitment to justice carries with it an obligation to disobey
unjust laws. People choose the ethical principles they want to follow, and if they violate
those principles, they feel guilty. In this way, the individual acts because it is morally
right to do so (and not because he or she wants to avoid punishments), it is in their best
interest, it is expected, it is legal, or it is previously agreed upon. Although Kohlberg
insisted that stage six exists he found it difficult to identify individuals who consistently
operated at that level.
Critiques of Kohlberg’s Theory

Kohlberg has been criticized for his assertion that women seem to be deficient in their
moral reasoning abilities when compared to men. Carol Gilligan (1982), a research
assistant of Kohlberg, criticized her former mentor’s theory because it was based so
narrowly on research using white, upper-class men and boys. She argued that women
are not deficient in their moral reasoning and instead proposed that males and females
reason differently: girls and women focus more on staying connected and maintaining
interpersonal relationships.

Kohlberg’s theory has been criticized for emphasizing justice to the exclusion of other
values, with the result that it may not adequately address the arguments of those who
value other moral aspects of actions. Similarly, critics argue that Kohlberg’s stages are
culturally biased- that the highest stages in particular reflect a westernized ideal of
justice based on individualistic thought. This is biased against those that live in non-
Western societies that place less emphasis on individualism.

Another criticism of Kohlberg’s theory is that people frequently demonstrate significant

inconsistency in their moral judgment. This often occurs in moral dilemmas involving
drinking and driving or business situations where participants have been shown to
reason at a lower developmental stage, typically using more self-interest driven
reasoning (i.e, stage two) than authority and social order obedience driven reasoning
(i.e., stage four). Critics argue that Kohlberg’s theory cannot account for such
inconsistencies.

What are Ethical Standards in the Workplace?

Ethical behavior on the part of the company and the employees of a small business can
translate into honest and valued relationships with both customers and business
partners. Maintaining ethical standards in the workplace involves setting expectations,
providing guidance along the way and consistently choosing to do the right thing.

Focus on Ethics

Ethical standards guide individuals and the company to act in an honest and trustworthy
manner in all interactions. These standards should encourage employees to make the
right decisions for the company, not the individual, and give them the courage to come
forward should they notice dishonest and unethical behavior. Company programs
focused on ethics help lay out company standards and expected practices as they
relate to ethical behavior and decisions. This can include providing clear guidance on
common ethical dilemmas, such as using the phone at work for personal long-distance
calls or using company software programs for personal projects.
Corporate Culture

Establishing core values and working to develop a culture of respect, trust and honest
communication represents a vital part of establishing and maintaining ethical business
operations. When corporations place en emphasis on doing the right thing, and not
simply benchmarking achievements by evaluating profits, employees follow suit and
behave in an ethical manner. Corporations and small businesses can choose to reward
employees for consistently meeting ethical standards set in place, instead of
emphasizing financial gain.

Managerial Standards

Management often sets the tone for expected ethical behavior and actions in the
workplace. The actions and behaviors of management, and other senior staff, help steer
departments and employees toward proper and accepted business practices. Part of
this responsibility includes enforcing rules, guidelines and policies fairly and equally
across all levels of the organization. Managers may also be tasked with helping
employees navigate ethical dilemmas and solving difficult situations to keep the
corporation on the right path.

Other Considerations

Addressing ethical standards for a small business starts with the hiring process.
Recruiting talented and ethical individuals is a must. Background checks represent just
one tool available for recruiters when looking to hire ethical and trustworthy individuals.
In addition to hiring the right employees, employers must take action to penalize those
who display dishonest and unethical behavior. Continuing to employ those employees
who can’t behave in an ethical manner sends the wrong message to all employees.

Workplace Ethics & Behavior

Ethics guide how people conduct themselves in every aspect of their lives, including the
workplace. Many human resource professionals, as well as hiring managers,
understand the importance of hiring people of integrity. Honest, hardworking employees
increase overall morale, improve a company’s reputation and help ensure a business
long-term success.

Company Behavior Policies

All companies specify what is acceptable behavior and what is not, when hiring an
employee. Many even summarize expected conduct in job descriptions or during the
interview process. Behavior guidelines typically address topics, such as harassment,
work attire and language. Workers who don’t follow codes of conduct may receive
written and verbal warnings and ultimately be fired.
1. The Importance of Integrity
A key component of workplace ethics and behavior is integrity, or being honest
and doing the right thing at all times. For example, health care employees who
work with mentally or physically challenged patients must possess a high degree
of integrity, as those who manage and work primarily with money. Workers with
integrity also avoid gossip and sneakiness while on the job.
2. Professional Accountability
Taking responsibility for your actions is another major factor when it comes to
workplace ethics and behavior. That means showing up on scheduled workdays,
as well as arriving on time and putting in an honest effort while on the job.
Workers who exhibit accountability are honest when things go wrong, then work
toward a resolution while remaining professional all the while.
3. Being Part of a Team
A vital aspect of the workplace is working well with others. That includes
everyone from peers to supervisors to customers. While not all employees will
always like each other, they do need to set aside their personal or even work-
related differences to reach a larger goal. In many instances, those who are not
considered “team players” can face demotion or even termination. On the other
hand, those who work well with others often can advance on that aspect alone,
with teamwork sometimes even outweighing performance.
4. Dedication and Commitment
Ethical and behavioral guidelines in the workplace often place a high amount of
importance on dedication. Although possessing the necessary skills is essential a
strong work ethic and positive attitude toward the job can carry you a long way.
Plus, dedication is often viewed in the business world as “contagious”, meaning
employees who give a strong effort can often inspire their co-workers to do the
same.
Professionalism and ethical behavior in the workplace can benefit your career
and improve your working environment. Understanding examples of professional
and ethical behavior can help you to develop your own co-workers and your
workplace attitude and you can improve your productivity and effectiveness.
5. Meetings
Business meeting are regular occurrences in the corporate world, and by
following meeting etiquette you can improve your professional image. Be
prepared to contribute to the meeting by reviewing the agenda in advance and
arrive on time. Recognize each speaker that has the floor and do not try to talk
over someone else. Be respectful of the meeting chairperson and follow the
format of the meeting, which would include using the proper times to ask
questions.
 6. Communication
Ethical treatment of your co-workers and managers means being respectful of
the need for efficient and accurate communication. Follow the instructions on
company memos and ask questions only after you have thoroughly read the
information. Asking questions about information that is clearly marked on
company correspondence is unprofessional and present the image of someone
who does not follow instructions. Refrain from repeating office gossip, as helping
to spread false or demeaning information regarding a co-worker is considered
unethical.
7. Time Management
Be early to work so that you can settle into your job duties, say hello to co-
workers and get coffee before your shift is scheduled to start. Follow the lunch
and break schedules by leaving when you are scheduled and returning on time.
Check out and in when you leave for breaks and lunch. Before beginning your
day, check your work schedule so that you know where you have to be and at
what time.
8. Employee Safety

It is the responsibility of each employee to report suspicious people in the office

or misconduct committed by company employees. Company policies are
designed to create a safe workplace. By reporting violations of company policy,
you are doing your part to maintain a high standard of ethics in your office that
will keep employees and visitors safe. For example, fire exits that are not
properly maintained should be reported immediately for repair. Employees that
do not follow the regulations in regard to proper disposal of cigarettes in the
break area could be causing a fire hazard and that should be brought to the
attention of management.

Ethics are moral principles that guide a person’s behavior. These morals are shaped
norms, cultural practices, and religious influences. Ethical decision making is the
process of assessing the moral implications of a course of action. All decisions have an
ethical or moral implications of a course of action. All decisions have an ethical or moral
dimension for a simple reason- they have an effect on others. Managers and leaders
need to be aware of their own ethical and moral beliefs so they can draw on them when
they face difficult decisions.

Ethical decisions can involve several determinations. The field of ethics, also known as
moral philosophy, shows that there are various ways of systematizing, defending, and
recommending concepts of right and wrong conduct. For example, from a
consequentialist standpoint, a morally right action is one that produces a good outcome,
or consequence. A utilitarian perspective takes the position that the proper course of
action is one that maximizes overall happiness.

Most ethical decisions exist in a gray area where there is no clear-cut or obvious
decision that can be determined solely through quantitative analysis or consideration of
objective data or information. Ethical decision making requires judgment and
interpretation, the application of a set of values to a set of perceptions and estimates of
the consequences of an action. Sometimes ethical decisions involve choosing not
between good and bad, but between good and better or between bad and worse.

Making ethical decisions also involves choice about who should be involved in the
process and how the decision should be made. For example, if a decision will have a
significant impact on the local community, leaders may feel obligated to invite a
representative of the community to participate an discussions.

Training Ethical Decision Making

Organizations use compliance and ethics programs to demonstrate and reinforce their
commitment to ethical practices.

Many organizations implement compliance and ethics programs to help guide the
decision making and behavior of employees. Compliance with regulatory requirements
and the organization’s own policies are a critical component of effective risk
management. Monitoring and maintaining compliance is not just to keep the regulators
happy- it is one of the most important ways for an organization to maintain its ethical
health, support its long-term prosperity, and preserve and promote its values.

On a more practical level, a compliance and ethics program supports the organization’s
business objectives, identifies the boundaries of legal and ethical behavior, and
establishes a system to alert management when the organization is getting close to (or
crossing) a legal or ethical boundary. Once an issue is detected, management must be
prepared to respond quickly and appropriately to minimize the impact on the
organization. The presence of compliance and ethics programs demonstrate on
organization’s commitment to creating a work environment and corporate culture that
values doing what is right, good and just.

Ethics training inside corporations is aimed at helping employees address the moral
dimension of business decisions. Training for ethical decision making can include
workshops, guest lectures, and manager/employee discussions. Most ethics training
focuses on clarifying and communicating an organization’s ethical code so employees
understand what is expected. Some learning opportunities go beyond this to focus on
how to take action when ethics are involved in a decision. Discussions of scenarios and
role-playing exercises simulate real decision-making situations and provide practice in
how to think through ethical considerations. Some ethics training will also cover the
resources available to help employees when they face an ethical dilemma or suspect
that someone in the organization has made an ethical breach.

Whistleblower Protection

Whistle-blower protection provides safeguards against retaliation for those who report
suspected legal or ethical violations.

A whistle-blower tell the public and/or the authorities about alleged misconduct
occurring in a government department, private company, or organization. The alleged
misconduct may take a variety of forms; for example, a violation of a law, rule or
regulation, or a direct threat to public interest, such as fraud, health and safety
violations, or corruption. Whistle-blowers may make their allegations internally (to other
people within the affected organization) or externally (to regulators, law-enforcement
agencies, the media, or groups concerned with the issues).

Many organizations establish internal processes through which employees can come
forward if they suspect an ethical or legal violation has occurred. In some cases the
processes allow for anonymity. Some organizations have an ombudsperson who
handles such matters on a confidential basis and advises the employee about their
options should they wish to take formal steps to report the breach to the appropriate
internal or external authorities.

WHAT EVERYDAY LIFE WOULD BE LIKE WITHOUT ANY ETHICALSTANDARDS

Have you ever thought of a world without moral standards? What would life be like? As
you ask yourself all these questions many more, think of the how fundamental ethics is.
People spend time moving around to give lectures on ethics to different groups. Yes,
because it is an important aspect and part of the human life. It is the driving force
towards a smooth life. It is what makes the human race live together in a peaceful
manner. No man can live alone and without ethics, life together would be living hell. It is
ethics that gives us the power to choose between what is right and what is wrong. The
sense of care not only for oneself but even to those close to you has all to do with
ethics. Ethics is what promotes proper acting and taking responsibility. It dictates the
standard behavior of man. It is because of these important reasons that I dread a life
without ethical standards.

I believe that without ethics, there would be no need to work. This would mean that we
all live in the bush without a sense of direction. Working would have no meaning. We
work so as to make our lives better by at least owning some assets. Without ethics,
there would be no sense of ownership. There would thus be no need to work for things
that you will never own. Without ownership, there would be no stealing. People would
there take what they want. You do not mind what you take and if it will affect the other
person. We would be centered towards pleasing our self. It would not matter if you hurt
others or put their lives at stake. So long as you are happy nothing else really matters.
In the end, this would just cause the human race a lot of troubles. The living standards
would be very little because of the no work culture.

Careers are built on ethical lines. They are controlled by standard codes of ethics. If
there were no ethics, then there would be no careers. Even the important ones those
are essential for human life. Imagine the world without doctors. People would be dying
of illness because of the lack of physicians. The funny thing, however, is that no one
would ever care. All would be concerned with being happy and satisfying their needs
only and being alive.

THE ROLE OF ETHICS IN SCIENCE

Ethics is a set of moral obligations that define right and wrong in our practices and
decisions. Many professions have a formalized system of ethical practices that help
guide professionals in the field. For example, doctors commonly take the Hippocratic
Oath, which, among other things, states that doctors “do no harm” to their patients.
Engineers follow an ethical guide that states that they “hold paramount the safety,
health and welfare of the public.” Within these professions, as well as within science,
the principles become so ingrained that practitioners rarely have to think about adhering
to the ethic- it’s part of the way they practice. And a breach of ethics is considered very
serious, punishable at least within the profession (by revocation of a license, for
example) and sometimes by the laws as well.

Scientific ethics calls for honesty and integrity in all stages of scientific practice, from
reporting results regardless to properly attributing collaborators. This system of ethics
guides the practice of science, from data collection to publication and beyond. As in
other professions, the scientific ethic is deeply integrated into the way scientists work,
and they are aware that the reliability of their work and scientific knowledge in general
depends upon adhering to that ethic. Many of the ethical principles in science relate to
the production of unbiased scientific knowledge, which is critical when others try to build
upon or extend research findings. The open publication of date, peer review, replication
and collaboration required by the scientific ethic all help to keep science moving forward
by validating research findings and confirming or raising questions about results.

Some breaches of the ethical standards, such as fabrication of data, are dealt with by
the scientific community through means similar to ethical breaches in other disciplines-
removal from a job, for example. But less obvious challenges to the ethical standard
occur more frequently, such as giving a scientific competitor a negative peer review.
These incidents are more like parking in a no parking zone- they are against the rules
and can be unfair, but they often go unpunished. Sometimes scientists simply make
mistakes that may appear to be ethical breaches, such as improperly citing a source or
giving a misleading reference. And like any other group that shares goals and ideals,
the scientific community works together to deal with all of these incidents as best as
they can-in some cases with more success than others.

ETHICAL STANDARDS IN SCIENCE

Scientists have long maintained an informal system of ethics and guidelines for
conducting research, but documented ethical guidelines did not develop until the mid-
twentieth century, after a series of well-publicized ethical breaches and war crimes.
Scientific ethics now refers to a standard of conduct for scientists that is generally
delineated into two broad categories (Bolton, 2002)

 First, standards of methods and process address the design, procedures, data
analysis, interpretation and reporting of research efforts.
 Second, standards of topics and finding address the use of human and animal
subjects in research and the ethical implication of certain research findings.

Together, these ethical standards help guide scientific research and ensure that
research efforts (and researchers) abide by several core principles (Resnik, 1993),
including:

1. Honesty in reporting of scientific data;

2. Careful transcription and analysis of scientific results to avoid error;
3. Independent analysis and interpretation of results that is based on data and not
on the influence of external sources;
4. Open sharing of methods, data and interpretations through publication and
presentation;
5. Sufficient validation of results through replication and collaboration with peers;
6. Proper crediting of sources of information, data and ideas;
7. Moral obligations to society in general, and, in some disciplines, responsibility in
weighing the rights of human and animal subjects.

Ethics of methods and process

Scientists are human, and humans don’t always abide by the law. Understanding some
examples of scientific misconduct will help us to understand the importance and
consequences of scientific integrity. In 2001, the German physicist Jan Hendrik Schon
briefly rose to prominence for what appeared to be a series of breakthrough discoveries
in the area of electronics and nanotechnology. Schon and two co-authors published a
paper in the journal Nature, claiming to have produced a molecular-scale alternative to
the transistor used commonly in consumer devices (Schon et al., 2001) The implications
were revolutionary- a molecular transistor could allow the development a computer
microchips far smaller than any available at the time. As a result, Schon received a
number of outstanding research awards and the work was deemed one of the
“breakthroughs of the year” in 2001 by Science magazine.

However, problems began to appear very quickly. Scientists who tried to replicate
Schon’s work were unable to do so. Lydia Sohn, then a nanotechnology researcher at
Princeton University, noticed that two different experiments carried out by Schon at very
different temperatures and published in separate papers appeared to have identical
patterns of background noise in the graphs used to present the data (Service, 2002).
When confronted with the problem, Schon initially claimed that he had mistakenly
submitted the after, Paul McEuen of Cornell University found the same graph in a third
paper. As a result of these suspicions, Bell Laboratories, the research institution where
Schon worked, launched an investigation into his research in May 2002. When the
committee heading the investigation attempted to study Schon’s notes and research
data, they found that he kept no laboratory notebooks, had erased all of the raw data
files from his computer (claiming he needed the additional storage space for new
studies), and had either discarded or damaged beyond recognition all of his
experimental samples. The committee eventually concluded that Schon had altered or
completely fabricated data in at least 16 instances between 1998 and 2001. Schon was
fired from Bell Laboratories on September 25, 2002, the same day they received the
report from the investigating committee. On October 31, 2002, the journal Science
retracted eight papers authored by Schon; on December 20, 2002, the journal Physical
Review retracted six of Schon’s papers, and on March 5, 2003, Nature retracted seven
that they had published.

The Schon incident is often cited as an example of scientific misconduct because he

breached many of the core ethical principles of science. Schon admitted to falsifying
data to make the evidence of the behavior he observed “more convincing”. He also
made extensive errors in transcribing and analyzing his data, thus violating the
principles of honesty and carefulness. Schon’s articles did not present his methodology
in a way such that other scientists could repeat the work, and he took deliberate steps
to obscure his notes and raw data and to prevent the reanalysis of his data and
methods. Finally, while the committee reviewing Schon’s work exonerated his coauthors
of misconduct, a number of questions were raised over whether they exhibited proper
oversight of the work in collaborating and co-publishing with Schon. While Schon’s
motives were never fully identified (he continued to claim that the instances of
misconduct could be explained as simple mistakes), it has been proposed that his
personal quest for recognition and glory biased his work so much that he focused on
supporting specific conclusions instead of objectively analyzing the data he obtained.
Ethics of topics and findings

Despite his egregious breach of scientific ethics, no criminal charges were ever filed
against Schon. In other cases, actions that breach the scientific ethic also breach more
fundamental moral and legal standards. One instance in particular, the brutality of Nazi
scientists in World War II, was so severe and discriminatory that it led to the adoption of
an international code governing research ethics.

During World War II, Nazi scientists launched a series of studies: some designed to test
the limits of human exposure to the elements in the name of preparing German soldiers
fighting the war. Notorious among these efforts were experiments on the effects of
hypothermia in humans. During these experiments, concentration camp prisoners were
forced to sit in ice water or were left naked outdoors in freezing temperatures for hours
at a time. Many victims were left to breeze to death slowly while others were eventually
re-warmed with blankets or warm water, or other methods that left them with permanent
injuries.

Othe ethical principles also guide the practice of research on human subjects. For
example, a number of government funding sources limit or exclude funding for human
cloning due to the ethical questions raised by the practice. Another set of ethical
guidelines covers studies involving therapeutic properties of medical devices or drugs is
stopped ahead of schedule if a treatment is found to have severe negative side effects.
Similarly, large-scale therapeutic studies in which a drug or agent is found to be highly
beneficial may be concluded early so that the control patients (those not receiving the
effective drug or agent) can be given the new, beneficial treatment.

Mistakes versus misconduct

Scientists are fallible and make mistakes- these do not qualify as misconduct.
Sometimes, however, the line between mistake and misconduct is not clear. For
example, in the late 1980s, a number of research groups were investigating the
hypothesis that deuterium atoms could be forced to fuse together at room temperature,
releasing tremendous amounts of energy in the process. Nuclear fusion was not a new
topic in 1980, but researchers at the time were able to initiate fusion reactions only at
very high temperatures, so low temperature fusion held great promise as an energy
source.

Two scientists at the University of Utah, Stanley Pons and Martin Fleischmann, were
among those researching the topic, and they had constructed a system using a
palladium electrode and deuterated water to investigate the potential for low
temperature fusion reactions. As they worked with their system, they noted excess
amounts of heat being generated. Though not all of the data they collected was
conclusive, they proposed that the heat was evidence for fusion occurring in their
system. Rather than repeat and publish their work so that other could confirm the
results. Pons and Fleischman were worried that another scientist might announce
similar results soon and hoped to patent their invention, so they rushed to publicly
announce their breakthrough. On March 23, 1989, Pons and Fleischmann, with the
support of their university, held a press conference to announce their discovery of “an
inexhaustible source of energy.”

While the conclusions made by Pons and Fleischmann were discredited, the scientists
were not accused of fraud- they had not fabricated results or attempted to mislead other
scientists, but had made their findings public through unconventional means before
going through the process of peer review. They eventually left the University of Utah to
work as scientists in the industrial sector. Their mistakes, however, not only affected
them but discredited the whole community of legitimate researchers investigating cold
fusion. The phrase “cold fusion” became synonymous with junk science, and federal
funding in the field almost completely vanished overnight. It took almost 15 years of
legitimate research and the renaming of their field from cold fusion to “low energy
nuclear reactions” before the US Department of Energy again considered funding well-
designed experiments in the field.

Activity IV

Instruction: Read each statement and answer correctly.

I- True or False (Write T if the statements is correct and F if the statements is

wrong)
1. It is the responsibility of each employee to report suspicious people in the office
or misconduct committed by company employees.
2. A vital aspect of the workplace is working well with others.
3. Ethical and behavioral guidelines in the workplace often place a high amount of
importance on dedication.
4. Behavior guidelines typically address topics, such as harassment, work attire and
language.
5. Workers who exhibit accountability are honest when things go wrong, then work
toward a resolution while remaining professional all the while.
6. Background checks represent just one tool available for recruiters when looking
to hire ethical and trustworthy individuals.
7. Ethical standards guide individuals and the company to act in an honest and
trustworthy manner in all interactions.
8. There is not one consistent set of standards that all companies follow, but each
company has the right to develop the standards that are meaningful for their
organization.
9. Be early to work so that you can settle into your job duties, say hello to co-
workers and get coffee before your shift is scheduled to start.
10. Addressing ethical standards for a small business starts with the hiring process.
II- Essay
1. What is ethical standards? Explain
2. What are company behavior policies? Explain.
3. What are Ethical Standards in the Workplace? Explain
4. Explain the statement “Ignorance of the law excuses no one”
5. Law enforcers should be the first protectorate of human rights. Explain.
 CHAPTER V
Police Ethics

The Police and the Law

The police must apply the law fairly, evenhandedly with view to promote justice. Laws
are created by legislatures presumably for the best interest of all the people.

Philippines, like other countries is a country of laws and constitutional principles, the
main purpose of which is to create society where everybody is free to pursue what he or
she, individually believes is the good in life.

The idea of “good life”, a life that is personally satisfying and meaningful is the dominant
motivation of every person.

Justice provides the environment within which the pursuit of the good is possible. When
justice is successful, people are treated fairly relative to each other. Justice involves
allocation of resources and rights in a way that allows individuals to obtain what it is,
that they are due and what they deserve.

The police must understand the true meaning of justice before acting and must behave
in an honorable way as law enforcer. In a true sense, the police must be fair in the
application of the laws of the land to everybody irrespective of the status of said
individual in a given community.

In a great extent, the actions of the police determine what the law really means.

The police make the written laws of the penal code come to life for the public. Most
analyst and well informed police officers believe that no matter what the law states, no
matter how penal code sections read, no matter what training teaches, and no matter
what police leadership my want to tell us, the true meaning of the law on the streets is
determined by police officers.

Police officers bear a tremendous and unique responsibility. When said officers decide
on a day-to-day basis where to focus their attention, whom to arrest, and when to use
force, they determine the effects of legal system will have on the lives of individual
citizen.

Police officers cannot be considered to be competent if they do not support their

behavior on the street with a personal ethics that is thoughtfully created and maintained.
Ethics and competence are largely determined by individual police officer’s character.
The world is full of good, honest and competent police officers who have never studied
Ethics. Good ethical conduct comes primarily from what a person already has before he
or she entered in the police academy. It comes from a person’s character and
upbringing.

Ethics in Law Enforcement and Policing

It’s often said that no other profession demands a higher ethical standard than that of
law enforcement. Regardless of whether or not there are other careers that require a
similar dedication to doing the right thing, it is undeniable that there is an
understandably tremendous degree of expectations placed upon police officers.

Police Officers Must Live in a Fishbowl

Every officer knows or at least should know by now that they live in a fishbowl. Friends,
relatives, neighbors, and strangers watch every move law enforcement officers make,
both on and off duty. The fact is that the public scrutinizers police officers more than
most other professions because they are cynical and hope to catch them screwing up
or because they are hopeful and are looking for a good example and a strong leader. In
either case, it’s up to the officer to be above reproach in both his public and private life.

In Law Enforcement, a Few Bad Apples Spoil the Reputation of the Bunch. Day in and
day out, we read stories of officers who do wrong. Theft, excessive use of force, misuse
of public office, abuse of authority, and even simple things like speeding, are all
examples of unethical behavior on the part of those that the public has entrusted to
serve and protect them. It must be noted that the vast majority of police officers are truly
good, hard-working and dedicated people who strive to serve the public and do the right
thing at every turn. It’s unfortunate, but the good work law enforcement does rarely
make news, and when it does, it doesn’t carry with it the same long memory that bad
news seem to. Decades later, we still lament the Rodney King incident, and law
enforcement continues to reel from the perceptions and implications that were left in its
wake. Less-than appropriate responses to race riots and peaceful protests, as well as
widespread mistreatment of racial minorities, still affects how officers approach their
jobs half a century later. Moreover, those events have served to shape down and erode
the public’s trust in their police, making it that much harder for officers to do their jobs.

Unfortunate though it may be, a single ill-mannered act committed by a single

unprofessional officer can impact the entire law enforcement profession. Rarely does
the public make a distinction between uniforms; at the end of the day all police officers
look and act the same in the eyes of the average citizen. That’s why it is so vitally
important that each and every officer does her utmost best to maintain and build on the
trust that the public has given her, instead of squandering it simply for the sake of
bravado, greed or self-gratification.
Some professional organizations may define their ethical approach in terms of a number
of discrete components.

Typically these include:

1. Honesty
2. Integrity
3. Transparency
4. Accountability
5. Confidentiality
6. Objectivity
7. Respect
8. Obedience to the law
9. Loyalty

Definitions of justice

Justice as process- Justice prevails when people under similar circumstances ar e

treated in an equal and fair manner before the law.

Justice as substance- Justice prevails when people receive from the law what they
deserve to receive.

Three (3) major functions of the police which are admittedly vague and often in conflict
with each other.

1. Enforce the law

2. Maintain order
3. Provide community service

The Need for Police to Study Ethics

Why is it important for the police officers today to discuss morality in relation to their
work? Here are some of the reasons why:

1. Limited Police Academy Training in Ethics.

2. Limited Academic Training in Ethics
3. The Intellectual Capabilities of Today’s Officer
Limited Police Academy Training in Ethics

A systematic treatment of ethics, even if in a short period is necessary to make the

connection between the police officer’s duty and the common good of the community.

Police academies offer only three and one half hours allocation for ethics in their
curriculum. This is so inadequate for police officers who always encounter a sort of
ethical dilemma in the performance of their duties maybe due to the insufficiency of their
knowledge of what ought to be a competent and a professional officer - a person who
possesses and exhibits good character,

Limited Academic Training in Ethics

An increasing number of police recruits who are graduates of Criminology have only six
units in Ethics which is inadequate for them to exercise their professions as a true
professional police officer. Existing criminal justice ethics classes tend to discuss ethics
from the positive perspective starting with philosophical considerations of ethics in
general and move through analyses of what it means to be a professional police afficer.

The Intellectual Capabilities of Today’s Officer

A professional, knowledgeable, competent, and effective police officer must want to

include in his or her body of knowledge about the world of understanding of the job and
possess good moral character.

Police Professionalism

The first era in history of policing was introduced by Sir Robert Peel, an English
statesmen, with the establishment of the Metropolitan Police of London in 1829. The
members of the Metropolitan Police were regarded as professional because they were
hired, trained and paid to do the job on full time basis. These people replaced a semi-
voluntary system of night watchmen. This is referred to as “Political Era” which was
followed by the Reform Era between 1910 and 1950

During the Reform Era strict controls were placed on police officers and police
organizations in order to fight the corruption and incompetence of police officers. Chains
of Command were tightened, uniforms and a more military look were harnessed and
Internal Affairs were created to investigate accusation of police misconduct. The police
academy was invented and training was taken seriously for professionalizing the police.
Definitions of a Professional

1. A professional is anyone who does a job for pay (A professional athlete as

compared to an amateur)
2. A professional is anyone who looks clean, cut, disciplined, and polished when on
the job ( a military standard)
3. A professional is anyone who develops and uses a special skill at work (a
carpenter or a plumber)
4. A professional is anyone who possesses an academic experience and
possesses a body of knowledge that is unknown to lay people ( a physician,
lawyer, engineer or teacher)

Professional possess

1. Knowledge
2. Education
3. Regulation
4. Discipline
5. Problem Solving

Knowledge- a systematically organized body of knowledge that lay people (non-

professionals) do not understand.

Education- an academic experience that involves studying and learning. This

systematically organized body of knowledge within a wider conceptual framework.

Regulation- self regulation, standards of education and licensing that are set by member
of the profession themselves, normally controlled by professional organizations such as
PCAP (Professional Criminologists’ Association of the Philippines), PEACE ( Philippine
Educators’ Association of Criminology Education). Federation of Authors in Criminology
and Criminal Justice Inc. (FACCI) etc.

Discipline- self policing, investigation and disciplining of members accused of

misconduct by their peer professionals.

Problem solving- done in a collegial manner; all licensed members of the profession are
co-equal partner in problem solving- using their expertise and insight to solve problems
together.
The Professional Officer (William K Muir) possesses:

1. Passion
2. Perspective

Passion- the understanding that resorting to violence or threats is ethically acceptable if

and only if it is done in the interest of justice and in accordance with the welfare of the
community; that no guilt need be associated with the pain or unpleasantness of using
force.

Perspective- the development of an inner understanding of the motives of the people, a

sense of life’s causes and effects, and a knowledge of the tragedy of life (that all people
suffer sometimes that everyone yearns for some dignity, and that no individual is
worthless)

Professionalism is changing the way thousands of police officers view their jobs. The
change is from seeing police work as an occupation that gives something to the police
to seeing work as a profession to which the police officer owes something.

True professionals are embracing the idea that it is a privilege to be a police officer
aside from the benefits and a dynamic work experience, it is also the responsibility and
power entrusted to them.

The personal ethics of individual police officers are critical to the impact of criminal
justice system.

A Vision of Ethical Policing

The ethically ideal police system would be one with integrity and nothing puzzling about
it (i.e., there would be no corruption or misconduct). There would be no us-against-them
and no disrespect for the limits of the law or how it is enforced. Everything done in
private would be just as if it was done in public. Mistakes would be treated as learning
opportunities, but there would be less of them because of widespread adherence to the
values of probity, propriety, restraint, reasonableness and caution.

Recruitment, selection and training mechanisms, would be flawless, with promotion on

the basis of merit, no one being without ample supervision, and the organization giving
its personnel whatever resources they need to perform their work better. There would
be “open door” policies to the public, academics, and the media. Nothing the police do
or how they do it would come as a surprise to anyone. They would conduct themselves,
as August Vollmer once said, in ways that make it impossible for anyone to make a joke
about them.
Besides having the public in their side, the police desperately need to have politicians
who care more about the public interest than their own political survival or
advancement. Ethical policing works best in an ethical climate. However, even if the
political leaders are a bunch of bunglers, and even if all society becomes a Sodom and
Gomorrah, this is no excuse for the police to abandon their ethics. Their commitment to
a code of ethics is unconditional. You don’t lower your ideals (or revise your mission
statement) just because circumstances in the environment have changed. The true test
of character is keeping your faith in the face of adversity.

Professional Code of Ethics

Every criminal justice profession and association has “codes” of ethics, “canons” of
professional responsibility, “statements” of values, “principles” of conduct, “standards” of
practice, and “oaths” of office, along with “pledges”, “vows”, “maxims”, “credos”,
“prayers”, “tenets”, and “declarations”.

Some are directed to God; others to superiors or the profession; and still others to
society as a whole. Some are regulatory; others are aspirations; some adhere to
utilitarianism; others to deontological ethics; but they all make promises that people
commit to keep it as a standard of performance. A code of ethics, if it is to be used for
occupational purposes, must set a standard above ordinary morality.

Otherwise, there’s no need for a code of ethics at all. This is especially relevant to
police work, where it’s going to take more than just a commitment to being an ordinary,
decent human being.

The practice of a profession cannot be regulated entirely by legislation. Each profession

therefore subscribes to a set moral code. This Code of Ethics guides the actuation of a
professional where the law is silent or inadequate.

A Code of Ethics implies that, before anything else, a professional is a person who has
the obligation to listen to the “dictates of reason”. The need for it is obviously to the
advantage of the profession.

Codes of ethics have long been associated with professional bodies and groups. In fact,
members of those associations must abide by their codes of ethics. More recently,
business organizations have become aware that they need their own codes of ethical
conduct.

So you may have to develop your own code, providing an ideal opportunity to tailor one
that fits the specific needs of your organization and its people.
Some important steps to follow

1. Get started on your code of ethical conduct.

Following recent global corporate events and scandals, we have become increasingly
aware of the need for ethical business conduct. The print and electronic media continue
to reveal examples of unethical conduct by global and emerging corporate
organizations, as well as smaller local business. The need for higher ethical standards
in business is obvious.

2. Conduct initial research

As a first step, check for two important ingredients:

2.1 Investigate any current legislative requirements guiding ethical conduct in your
field, and be prepared to take immediate action if any anomalies are uncovered.
2.2 Check the top-five traits or values espoused by your own professional
association. Those, for example, could be ‘honestly’, ‘integrity’, ‘objectivity’,
‘confidentiality’, and ‘accuracy’. Aligned with those values should be desirable
behaviors.
3. Secure commitment.

Staff needs to see that management is serious about ethical conduct and not just
protecting itself and its interests. The type of consultative process will depend on the
size of your organization, but key staff discussions will focus on values. Don’t assume
that people share common values; identifying those beliefs can’t be rushed. Provide
opportunities for people to discuss in practical terms how a code of ethical conduct will
fit into, and enhance, their day-to-day operations.

4. Focus on your organization

Try this three-step approach:

4.1 identify and collect descriptions of major issues your workplace.

4.2 Select those issues, considered to be ethical in nature-dishonesty,
discrimination, unfairness, etc.
4.3 Identify behaviors needed to eliminate the causes of those issues and which
values would generate your preferred behaviors. To minimize dishonesty, for
example, you might promote the value ‘respecting the property of others’.
5. Consider a social audit
A social audit involves asking employees, customers, suppliers, and other stakeholders
whether they believe the organization meets its stated aims on key issues such as
customer service, honesty, integrity, etc. The audit could be conducted as a survey or
involve focus groups. Ideally, the skills of an independent expert would be used with a
brief to provide a snapshot of the organization’s performance and areas for possible
improvement. This information will assist your next step.

6. Assemble high-priority ethical values.

From your various forms of data collection, compile a top-ten list of ethical values. Your
list will probably resemble existing values lists, such as the Josephson Institute of
Ethics’ ‘Pillars of Character’.

7. Compose and circulate a draft code

Having arrived at your top-ten ethical values, align key behaviors with each of them. In
addition to your top-ten, you could document requirements in relation to, for example,
dress codes, substance abuse, promptness, adhering to instructions from superiors,
conflict of adhering to instructions from superiors, conflict of interest, reliability,
confidentiality, acceptance of gifts from stakeholders, use of the organization’s property
for personal purposes, reporting illegal or questionable activity. It is likely that this will
result from your consultative process. Your completed draft will probably include:

1) An introduction
2) A clear definition of mission, objectives and values
3) Guidance on dealings with colleagues, shareholders, stakeholders, suppliers and
the community
4) Clear expectations of acceptable conduct
5) Operating principles and realistic examples
6) A formal mechanism for resolving issues.

Invite feedback from as many people in the organization as possible.

8. Adopt the final code.

Provide everyone in the organization with a copy of the code, and include it in induction
programs, staff training and performance appraisals.

9. Institute a procedure for dealing with issues.

Appoint an internal ethics management committee which will, among other things, elect
an ethics officer who is ideally a member of executive (international company Raytheon
has a Director of Ethics Compliance). Additional training for this person is desirable, on
ways to deal with issues that may arise and how to mediate in grievances raised by
employees. If anonymity needs to be protected, you may decide to use the services of
an ethics counselor.

10. Review bi-annually

To review ethical issues too frequently will risk alienating staff. Indeed, the review
process must be quick, to the point, involve representatives of all areas of the
organization, and acknowledge examples. (References: How to Develop a Code of
Ethical Conduct: By Dr. Neil Flanagan)
 Activity V

Instruction: Read each statement and answer correctly.

I- True or False (Write T if the statement is correct and F if the statement is

wrong)
1. To review ethical issues too frequently will risk alienating staff.
2. Staff needs to see that management is serious about ethical conduct and not just
protecting itself and its interests.
3. Each profession therefore subscribers to a set moral code.
4. This Code of Ethics guides the actuation of a professional where the law is silent
or inadequate.
5. The ethically ideal police system would be one with integrity and nothing puzzling
about it.
6. The police must apply the law fairly, evenhandedly with a view to promote justice.
7. True professionals are embracing the idea that it is a privilege to be a police
officer aside from the benefits and a dynamic work experience.
8. The personal ethics of individual police officers are critical to the impact of
criminal justice system.
9. The audit could be conducted as a survey or involve focus groups.
10. The practice of a profession cannot be regulated entirely by legislation.
11. During the Reform Era strict controls were placed on police officers and police
organizations in order to fight the corruption and incompetence of police officers.
12. Justice prevails when people receive from the law what they deserve to receive.
13. The police academy was invented, and training was taken seriously for
professionalizing the police.
14. Justice prevails when people under similar circumstances are treated in an equal
and fair manner before the law.
15. Professionalism is changing the way thousands of police officers view their jobs.
II- Essay
1. What are some important steps to develop your own code?
2. What is the definition of a professional? Explain.
3. Why there is a need for police to study? Ethics?
4. Explain the term Police Professionalism
5. Explain Ethics in Law Enforcement and Policing
6. What is Professional Code of Ethics?
7. What does Professionals must possess? Explain
CHAPTER VI

Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees

(Republic Act No. 6713- February 20, 1989)

AN ACT ESTABLISHING A CODE OF CONDUCT AND ETHICAL STANDARDS FOR

PUBLIC OFFICIALS AND EMPLOYEES, TO UPHOLD THE TIME-HONORED
PRINCIPLE OF PUBLIC OFFICE BEING A PUBLIC TRUST, GRANTING INCENTIVES
AND REWARDS FOR EXEMPLARY SERVICE, ENUMERATING PROHIBITED ACTS
AND TRANSACTIONS AND PROVIDING PENALTIES FOR VIOLATIONS THEREOF
AND FOR OTHER PURPOSES

This Act shall be known as the “Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public
Officials and Employees.”

It is the policy of the State to promote a high standard of ethics in public service. Public
officials and employees shall at all times be accountable to the people and shall
discharge their duties with utmost responsibility, integrity, competence, and loyalty, act
with patriotism and justice, lead modest lives, and uphold public interest over personal
interest.

Definition of Terms- As used in this Act, the term:

1. “Government” includes the National Government, the local governments, and all
other instrumentalities, agencies or branches of the Republic of the Philippines
including government-owned controlled corporations, and their subsidiaries.
2. “Public Officials” includes elective and appointive officials and employees,
permanent or temporary, whether in the career or non-career service, including
military and police personnel, whether or not they receive compensation,
regardless of amount.
3. “Gift” refers to a thing or a right to dispose of gratuitously or any act or liberality,
in favor of another who accepts it, and shall include a simulated sale or an
ostensibly onerous disposition thereof. It shall not include an unsolicited gift or, in
exchange for, a favor from a public official or employee.
4. “Receiving any gift” includes the act of accepting directly or indirectly, a gift from
a person other than a member of his family or relative as defined in this Act, even
on the occasion of a family celebration or national festivity like Christmas, if the
value of the gift is neither nominal no insignificant, or the gift is given in
anticipation of, or in exchange for, a favor.
5. “Loan” covers both simple loan and commodatum as well as guarantees,
financing arrangements or accommodations intended to ensure its approval.
 6. “Substantial stockholder” means any person who owns, directly or indirectly,
shares of stock sufficient to elect a director of a corporation. This term shall also
apply to the parties to a voting trust.

7. “Family of public officials or employees” means their spouses and unmarried

children under eighteen (18) years of age.

8. “Person” includes natural and juridical persons unless the context indicates
otherwise.

9. “Conflict of interest” arises when a public official or employee is a member of a

board, an officer, or a substantial stockholder of a private corporation or owner or
has a substantial interest in a business, and the interest of such corporation or
business, or his rights or duties therein, may be opposed to or affected by the
faithful performance of official duty.

10. “Divestment” is the transfer of title or disposal of interest in property by

voluntarily, completely and actually depriving or dispossessing oneself of his right
or title to it in favor of a person or persons other than his spouse and

11. “Relatives” refers to any and all persons related to a public official or employee
within the fourth civil degree of consanguinity or affinity, including bilas, inso and
balae.

Norms of Conduct of Public Officials and Employees

(A) Every public official and employee shall observe the following as standards of
personal conduct in the discharge and execution of official duties:
1. Commitment to public interest- Public officials and employees shall always
uphold the public interest over and above personal interest. All government
resources and powers of their respective offices must be employed and used
efficiently, effectively, honestly and economically, particularly to avoid wastage in
public funds and revenues.
2. Professionalism- Public officials and employees shall perform and discharge their
duties with the highest degree of excellence, professionalism, intelligence and
skill. They shall enter public service with utmost devotion and dedication to duty.
They shall endeavor to discourage wrong perceptions of their roles as dispensers
or peddlers of undue patronage.
3. Justness and sincerity- public officials and employees shall remain true to the
people at all times. They must act with justness and sincerity and shall not
 discriminate against anyone, especially the poor and the underprivileged. They
shall at all times respect the rights of others, and shall refrain from doing acts
contrary to law, good morals, good customs, public policy, public order, public
safety and public interest. They shall not dispense or extend undue favors on
account of their office to their relatives whether by consanguinity or affinity except
with respect to appointments of such relatives to positions considered strictly
confidential or as members of their personal staff whose terms are coterminous
with theirs.
4. Political neutrality- Public officials and employees shall provide service to
everyone without unfair discrimination and regardless of party affiliation or
preference.
5. Responsiveness to the public- Public officials and employees shall extend
prompt, courteous, and adequate service to the public. Unless otherwise
provided by law or when required by the public interest, public officials and
employees shall provide information of their policies and procedures in clear and
understandable language, ensure openness of information, public consultations
and hearings whenever appropriate, encourage suggestions, simplify and
systematize policy, rules and procedures, avoid red tape and develop an
understanding and appreciation of the socio-economic conditions prevailing in
the country, especially in the depressed rural and urban areas.
6. Nationalism and patriotism- Public officials and employees shall at all times be
loyal to the Republic and to the Filipino people, promote the use of locally
produced goods, resources and technology and encourage appreciation and
pride of country and people. They shall endeavor to maintain and defend
Philippine sovereignty against foreign intrusion.
7. Commitment to democracy- Public officials and employees shall commit
themselves to the democratic way of life and values, maintain the principle of
public accountability, and manifest by deeds the supremacy of civilian authority
over the military. They shall at all times uphold the Constitution and put loyalty to
country above loyalty to persons or party.
8. Simple living- public officials and employees and their families shall lead modest
lives appropriate to their positions and income. They shall not indulge in
extravagant or ostentatious display of wealth in any form.
(B) The Civil Service Commission shall adopt positive measures to promote.
1. Observance of these standards including the dissemination of information
programs and workshops authorizing merit increases beyond regular progression
steps, to a limited number of employees recognized by their office colleagues to
be outstanding in their observance of ethical standards; and
2. Continuing research and experimentation on measures which provide positive
motivation to public officials and employees in raising the general level of
observance of these standards.
Duties of Public Officials and Employees- In the performance of their duties, all public
officials and employees are under obligation to:

1. Act promptly on letters and requests- all public officials and employees shall,
within fifteen (15) working days from receipt thereof, respond to letters, telegrams
or other means of communications sent by the public. The reply must contain the
action taken on the request.
2. Submit annual performance reports- all heads or other responsible officers of
offices and agencies of the government and of government-owned or controlled
corporations shall, within forty-five (45) working days from the end of the year,
render a performance report of the agency or office or corporation concerned.
Such report shall be open and available to the public within regular office hours.
3. Process documents and papers expeditiously- all official papers and documents
must be processed and completed within a reasonable time from the preparation
thereof and must contain, as far as practicable, not more than three (3)
signatories therein. In the absence of duly authorized signatories, the official
next-in-rank or officer in charge shall sign for and in their behalf.
4. Act immediately on the public’s personal transactions- all public officials and
employees must attend to anyone who wants to avail himself of the services of
their offices and must, at all times, act promptly and expeditiously.
5. Make documents accessible to the public- all public documents must be made
accessible to, and readily available for inspection by, the public within reasonable
working hours.

System of Incentives and Rewards

A system of annual incentives and rewards is hereby established in order to motivate

and inspire public servants to uphold the highest standards of ethics.

A Committee on Awards to Outstanding Public Officials and Employees is hereby

created composed of the following:

1. Ombudsman and Chairman of the Civil Service Commission as Co-Chairmen.

2. Chairman of the Commission on Audit, and two government employees to be
appointed by the President, as members.

It shall be the task of this Committee to conduct a periodic, continuing review of the
performance of public officials and employees, in all the branches and agencies of
Government and establish a system of annual incentives and rewards to the end that
due recognition is given to public officials and employees of outstanding merit on the
basis of the standards set forth in this Act.

The conferment of awards shall take into account, among other things, the following:
 1. Years of service and the quality and consistency of performance, the obscurity of
the position
2. Level of salary
3. Unique and exemplary quality of a certain achievement
4. Risks or temptations inherent in the work

Incentives and rewards to government officials and employees of the year to be

announced in public ceremonies honoring them may take the form of bonuses, citations,
directorships in government-owned or controlled corporations, local and foreign
scholarship grants, paid vacations and the like.

They shall likewise be automatically promoted to the next higher position with the
commensurate salary suitable to their qualifications. In case there is no next higher
position or it is not vacant, said position shall be included in the budget of the office in
the next General Appropriations Act. The Committee of Awards shall adopt its own rules
to govern the conduct of its activities.

Prohibited Acts and Transactions

In addition to acts and omissions of public officials and employees now prescribed in the
Constitution and existing laws, the following shall constitute prohibited acts and
transactions of any public official and employee and are hereby declared to be unlawful:

1. Financial and material interest- Public officials and employees shall not, directly
or indirectly, have any financial or material interest in any transaction requiring
the approval of their office.
2. Outside employment and other activities related thereto- public officials and
employees during their incumbency shall not:
(1) Own, control, manage or accept employment as officer, employee, consultant,
counsel, broker, agent, trustee or nominee in any private enterprise regulated,
supervised or licensed by their office unless expressly allowed by law;
(2) Engage in the private practice of their profession unless authorized by the
Constitution or law, provided, that such practice will not conflict or tend to conflict
with their official functions; or
(3) Recommend any person to any position in a private enterprise which has a
regular or pending official transaction with their office.

These prohibitions shall continue to apply for a period of one (1) year after resignation,
retirement, or separation from public office, except in the case of subparagraph (b) (2)
above, but the professional concerned cannot practice his profession in connection with
any matter before the office he used to be with, in which case the one-year prohibition
shall likewise apply.

3. Disclosure and/or misuse of confidential information- Public officials and

employees shall not use or divulge, confidential or classified information officially
known to them by reason of their office and not made available to the public,
either:
(1) To further their private interests, or give undue advantage to anyone; or
(2) To prejudice the public interest.
4. Solicitation or acceptance of gifts- public officials and employees shall not solicit,
or accept, directly or indirectly, any gift, gratuity, favor, entertainment, loan or
anything of monetary value from any person in the course of their official duties
or in connection with any operation being regulated by, or any transaction which
may be affected by the functions of their office.

As to gifts or grants from foreign governments, the Congress consents to:

(1) The acceptance and retention by a public official or employee of a gift of nominal
value tendered and received as a souvenir or mark of courtesy;
(2) The acceptance by a public official or employee of a gift in the nature of a
scholarship or fellowship grant or medical treatment; or
(3) The acceptance by a public official or employee of travel grants or expenses for
travel taking place entirely outside the Philippine (such as allowances,
transportation, food and lodging) of more than nominal value if such acceptance
is appropriate or consistent with the interests of the Philippines, and permitted by
the head of office, branch or agency to which he belongs.

The Ombudsman shall prescribe such regulations as may be necessary to carry out the
purpose of this subsection, including pertinent reporting and disclosure requirements.

Nothing in this Act shall be construed to restrict or prohibit any educational, scientific or
cultural exchange programs subject to national security requirements.

Statements and Disclosure- Public officials and employees have an obligation to

accomplish and submit declarations under oath of, and the public has the right to know,
their assets, liabilities, net worth and financial and business interests including those of
their spouses and of unmarried children under eighteen (18) years of age living in their
households.

(A) Statements of Assets and Liabilities and Financial Disclosure- All public officials
and employees, except those who serve in an honorary capacity, laborers and
 casual or temporary workers, shall file under oath their Statement of Assets,
Liabilities and Net Worth and a Disclosure of Business Interests and Financial
Connections and those of their spouses and unmarried children under eighteen
(18) years of age living in their households.

The two documents shall contain information on the following:

(1) Real property, its improvements, acquisition costs, assessed value and current
fair market value
(2) Personal property and acquisition cost
(3) All other assets such as investments, cash on hand or in banks, stocks, bonds,
and the like
(4) Liabilities
(5) All business interests and financial connections

The documents must be filed:

(1) Within thirty (30) days after assumption of office;

(2) On or before April 30, of every year thereafter; and
(3) Within thirty (30) days after separation from the service.

All public officials and employees required under this section to file the afore-stated
documents shall also execute, within thirty (30) days from the date of their assumption
of office, the necessary authority in favor of the Ombudsman to obtain from all
appropriate government agencies, including the Bureau of Internal Revenue, such
documents as may show their assets, liabilities, net worth, and also their business
interests and financial connections I previous years, including, if possible, the year when
they first assumed any office in the Government.

Husband and wife who are both public officials and employees may file the required
statements jointly or separately.

The Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth and the Disclosure of Business
Interests and Financial Connections shall be filed by:

(1) Constitutional and national elective officials, with the national office of the
Ombudsman;
(2) Senators and Congressmen, with the Secretaries of the Senate and the House of
Representatives, respectively; Justices, with the Clerk of Court of the Supreme
Court; Judges, with the Court Administrator; and all national executive officials
with the Office of the President.
(3) Regional and local officials and employees, with the Deputy Ombudsman in their
respective regions;
 (4) Officers of the armed forces from the rank of colonel or naval captain, with the
Office of the President, and those below said ranks, with the Deputy
Ombudsman in their respective regions; and
(5) All other public officials and employees, defined in Republic Act No. 3019, as
amended, with the Civil Service Commission.
(B) Identification and disclosure of relatives- it shall be the duty of every public official
or employee to identify and disclose, to the best of his knowledge and
information, his relatives in the Government in the form, manner and frequency
prescribed by the Civil Service Commission.
(C) Accessibility of documents-
(1) Any and all statements filed under this Act, shall be made available for
inspection at reasonable hours.
(2) Such statements shall be made available for copying or reproduction after ten
(10) working days from the time they are filed as required by law.
(3) Any person requesting a copy of a statement shall be required to pay a
reasonable fee to cover the cost of reproduction and mailing of such statement,
as well as the cost of certification.
(4) Any statement filed under this Act shall be available to the public for a period of
ten (10) years after receipt of the statement. After such period, the statement
maybe destroyed unless needed in an ongoing investigation.
(D) Prohibited acts- it shall be unlawful for any person to obtain or use any
statement filed under this Act for:
(a) Any purpose contrary to morals or public policy; or
(b) Any commercial purpose other than by news and communications media for
dissemination to the general public.

Divestment- a public official or employee shall avoid conflicts of interest at all times.
When a conflict of interest arises, he shall resign from his position in any private
business enterprise within thirty (30) days from his assumption of office and/or divest
himself of his shareholdings or interest within sixty (60) days from such assumption.

The same rule shall apply where the public official or employee is a partner in a
partnership. The requirement of divestment shall not apply to those who serve the
Government in an honorary capacity nor to laborers and casual or temporary workers.

Review and Compliance Procedure

 (a) The designated Committees of both Houses of the Congress shall establish
procedures for the review of statements to determine whether said statements
which have been submitted on time, are complete, and are in proper form. In the
event a determination is made that a statement is not so filed, the appropriate
Committee shall so inform the reporting individual and direct him to take the
necessary corrective action.
(b) In order to carry out their responsibilities under this Act, the designated
Committees of both Houses of Congress shall have the power within their
respective jurisdictions, to render any opinion interpreting this Act, in writing, to
persons covered by this Act, subject in each instance to the approval by
affirmative vote of the majority of the particular House concerned.
The individual to whom an opinion is rendered, and any other individual involved
in a similar factual situation, and who, after issuance of the opinion acts in good
faith in accordance with it shall not be subject to any sanction provided in this
Act.

(c ) The heads of other officers shall perform the duties stated in subsections (a) and (b)
hereof insofar as their respective offices are concerned, subject to the approval of the
Secretary of Justice, in the cases of the Executive Department and the Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court, in the case of the Judicial Department.

Penalties

(a) Any public official or employee, regardless of whether or not he holds office or
employment in a casual, temporary, holdover, permanent or regular capacity,
committing any violation of this Act shall be punished with a fine not exceeding
the equivalent of six (6) month’s salary or suspension not exceeding one (1)
year, or removal depending on the gravity of the offense after due notice and
hearing by the appropriate body or agency. If the violation is punishable by a
heavier penalty under another law, he shall be prosecuted under the latter
statute. Violations of Sections 7, 8 or 9 of this Act shall be punishable with
imprisonment not exceeding five (5) years, or a fine not exceeding five thousand
pesos (P5,000), or both, and, in the discretion of the court of competent
jurisdiction, disqualification to hold public office.
(b) Any violation hereof proven in a proper administrative proceeding shall be
sufficient cause for removal or dismissal of a public official or employee, even if
no criminal prosecution is instituted against him.
(c) Private individuals who participate in conspiracy as co-principals, accomplices or
accessories with public officials or employees, in violation of this Act, shall be
subject to the same penal liabilities as the public officials or employees and shall
be tried jointly with them.
 (d) The official or employee concerned may bring an action against any person who
obtains or uses a report for any purpose prohibited by Section 8 (D) of this Act.
The Court in which such action is brought may assess against such person a
penalty in any amount not to exceed twenty-five thousand pesos (P25,000). If
another sanction hereunder or under any other law is heavier, the latter shall
apply.

Promulgation of Rules and Regulations, Administration and Enforcement of this Act

The Civil Service Commission shall have the primary responsibility for the
administration and enforcement of this Act. It shall transmit all cases for prosecution
arising from violations of this Act to the proper authorities for appropriate action:
Provided, however, That it may institute such administrative actions and disciplinary
measures as may be warranted in accordance with law. Nothing in this provision shall
be construed as a deprivation of the right of each House of Congress to discipline its
Members for disorderly behavior.

The Civil Service Commission is hereby authorized to promulgate rules and regulations
necessary to carry out the provisions of this Act, including guidelines for individuals who
render free voluntary service to the Government. The Ombudsman shall likewise take
steps to protect citizens who denounce acts or omissions of public officials and
employees which are in violation of this Act.

Provisions for More Stringent Standards- Nothing in this Act shall be construed to
derogate from any law, or any regulation prescribed by anybody or agency, which
provides for more stringent standards for its official and employees.

LAW ENFORCEMENT CODE OF ETHICS

The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics is such a guide. If one really studies this code, it
will soon become evident that adhering to it presents no easy task, for it involves
mastering one’s own human nature, and this is never an easy goal to attain. Any one
reading the Law Enforcement Code of Ethics will agree with its basic message, and
they will accept its basic context as being commensurate with professional standards.
Although the Code of Ethics was introduced in 1954, it is not a new concept to the field
of law enforcement. Sir Robert Peel of England Metropolitan Police in 1829 introduced
the following Principles which might be considered as a version of Code of Ethics:

1. It should be understood at outset, the principle object to be obtained is the

prevention of crime.
2. Great and every effort of the police is to be directed. The security of the persons
and property and the preservation of a police establishment will thus be better
 effective than by the detection and punishment of the offender after he has
succeeded in committing crime.
3. The constable will be civil and obliging to all people of every rank and class.
4. The constable must be particularly cautious not to interfere idly or unnecessarily
in order to make a display of his authority.
5. When required to act, he will do so with decision and boldness.
6. On all occasions he may exploit to receive in the fullest support in the proper
exercise of his authority.
7. He must remember that there is no qualification so indispensable as a perfect
command of temper.
8. He shall never suffer himself to be moved in the slightest degree by any
language or threats that maybe used.
9. If he do his duty in a quiet and determined manner, such conduct will probably
excite the well-disposed of the bystanders to assist him if he requires them.
10. Particular care is to be taken that the constables of the police do not form false
notions of their duties and powers.

Sir Robert Peel is considered the “father” of law enforcement

Are his principles of policing still applicable today?

Absolutely!

Sir Robert Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing:

1. The basic mission for which the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder.
2. The ability of the police to perform their duties is dependent upon public approval
of police actions.
3. Police must secure the willing cooperation of the public in voluntary observance
of the law to be able to secure and maintain the respect of the public.
4. The degree of cooperation of the public that can be secured diminishes
proportionally to the necessity of the use of force.
5. Police seek and preserve public favor not by catering to public opinion but by
constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to the law.
6. Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the
law or to restore order only when the expertise of persuasion, advice and
warning is found to be insufficient.
7. Police at all time should maintain a relationship with the public that gives reality
to the historic tradition; the police are public and the public are the police. The
police being only full-time individuals charged with the duties that are incumbent
on all of the citizens.
 8. Police should always direct their actions strictly towards their functions and never
appear to usurp the powers of the judiciary.
9. The test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, not the visible
evidence of police action in dealing with it.

THE USEFULNESS OF A CODE OF ETHICS

Codes are like firearms; they have their value and they have their dangers. One of the
more interesting questions to ask is why police created a code of ethics in the first
place. It maybe that codes contain historically important clues to the contextual
mandates for policing, but more often than not, they represent aspirations toward the
future without any clear directions for how to get from one place (the past) to another
(the future).

The police code (illustrated below) is designed to be like an oath of office, and the
effectiveness of making someone say “I will…” over and over again is debatable.

Originally this code was developed by the California Peace Officer’s Association and
later was adopted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police in 1957.

In short, the code of ethics requires that officers are not only prepared to enforce the
law but to follow it. They are called to be examples to the public and to demonstrate the
right way to behave, rather than the entitlement mentality they are so often accused of
exhibiting.

Within an agency’s code of ethics are specific provisions promoting the safeguarding of
lives and property, the importance of avoiding bias and the understanding that the
badge is a symbol of the public trust.

LAW ENFORCEMENT CODE OF ETHICS

As a law enforcement officer, my fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard

life and property, to protect the innocent against deception, weak against oppression or
intimidation and the peaceful against violence or disorder; and to respect the
constitutional right of all men, liberty-equality and justice.

I will keep my private life unsullied as an example to all maintain courageous calm in the
face of danger, scorn or ridicule; develop self-restraint and be constantly mindful of the
welfare of the others. Honest in thought and deed in both my personal and official life. I
will be exemplary in obeying the laws of the land and regulations of may organization.
What ever I see or hear of a confidential nature or that is confided to me in my official
capacity will be kept ever secret unless revelation is necessary in the performance of
my duty.
I will never act officiously or permit personal feelings, prejudices, animosities or
friendship to influence my decision: with no compromise for crime and with relentless
prosecution of criminals, I will enforce the law courteously and appropriately without fear
of favor, malice or ill-will, never employing unnecessary force or violence and never
accepting gratuities in return.

I recognize the badge of my offices as a symbol of public faith and I accept it as a public
trust to be held so long as I am true to the ethics of police service. I will never engage in
acts of corruption or bribery, not will condone such act by other police officers. I will
cooperate with all legally authorized agencies and their representatives in the pursuit of
justice.

I know what I alone an responsible for my own standard of professional performance

and will take every reasonable opportunity to enhance and improve my level of
knowledge and competence. I will constantly strive to achieve these objectives and
ideals, dedicating myself before God to my chosen profession- law enforcement.

“AS A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER, MY FUNDAMENTAL DUTY IS TO SERVE

MANKIND”

The gist of this passage contained in two words, “duty” and “service”. Too often we
forget that enforcement is not just a job for which we are hired as one would hire a
laborer. It involves a sworn duty. Some progressive police department now require that
its officers reaffirm their oath each year in an effort to drive home the message that is
contained in his sworn oath, and to again remind the officer of the essential relationship
between his job and the free society in which he lives.

The word “serve” denotes the denial of one’s own pleasures and desire for the good of
the person or person to be served. Service involves dedication and sacrifice of the
giving of one’s self. These are words that many find hard to swallow in his present day a
and age but the job of professional law enforcement requires a special breed of man.

Professional law enforcement has no place for the officer whose philosophy of life is
“what is if for me?” In our present “awakened” society the crooked or dishonest law
enforcement officers is finding it increasingly more difficult to really profit from his job in
a material way. He is rapidly becoming as out-of-place as a horse and buggy on a
modern freeway.
“TO SAFEGUARD LIVES AND PROPERY: TO PROTECT THE INNOCENT AGAINST
DECEPTION, THE WEAK AGAINST OPPRESSION OR INTIMIDATION: AND THE
PEACEFUL AGAINST VIOLENCE OR DISORDER”

We must, however, understand some of the limitations that are present in a truly
democratic society. In such a society as ours, this task can often be a difficult one,
because protecting the rights of the individual means also protecting the rights of the
criminal. This is sometimes a hard pill for law enforcement officers to swallow.

Because of this, some officers stray politically to the far right in an effort to either seek a
system where their job would be made easier, or to better protect the society that they
have sworn to serve. It is easy for an officer to become bitter when he has continually
witnessed the ends of justice thwarted by red tape politics and technicalities of the law.
The more truly idealistic he is, the more frustrated he can become, specially if he lacks
a philosophy or understanding of his true purpose in the society which he serves. Why
must the idealistic officer suffer so? When a good carpenter does his best, in building a
fine house, on that can be seen and admire at all, he can stand back and look at his job
with felling of accomplished and satisfaction. The same applies to an artist or anyone in
the skilled trades. Why not, then the policeman? Why must be a good policeman, who
work hard for the ends of justice, see the products of his work often crumble at his feet?

The answer is both simple and complicated. It is simple I that the policeman, unlike the
tradesman, works not with objects, but with people.

It is complicated in that the most unpredictable of all commodities, with which a person
can work, is man himself. It is thee policeman’s relationship with people that necessities
that law enforcement becomes a profession.

There is a lesson to be learned from the legions of officers before us who have suffered
so greatly from broken spirits. The lesson is that our satisfaction in law enforcement
must come from doing our job to the best of our abilities, and not be dependent upon
the final outcome of our cases.

“TO RESPECT THE CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS OF ALL MEN TO LIBERTY

EQUALLY AND JUSTICE”

Respecting the rights of others is not one of man’s natural qualities. It seems to be a
part of his nature of suspect and persecute those who are in any different from himself.
There is no perfect justice on this earth, nor is he himself perfect. Still we must strive for
a form of justice that represents our ultimate capability. Involves not only great on the
part of every-person in the community, but individual sacrifice at well.
One of the greatest areas of fault among police officers generally, is not so much a
prejudice against the criminal. For example, an officer soon learns from experience that
a certain group of person is often responsible for the majority of the crimes committed
such an offense. Such a prejudice could led to the faulty conclusion that he is the guilty
person. This soon leads to a general feeling of prejudice against all those who have
been convicted a prior offenses, and an almost subconscious refusal to accord them the
same rights that the Constitution provides for all persons.

Our present laws are such that they provide as fair a deal as is humanly attainable to all
persons subject to that law. Many officers feel that our system of jurisprudence is too
lenient, and helps the criminal at the expense of society as a whole in many cases this
is true. One alternative to this would be to have law for “good” citizens, any another for
“criminals”. The problem is one who is to decide which person comes under which
category. Prior convictions alone cannot be used for qualification. To allow soon change
our form of government into a totalitarian system.

Another alternative would be a “protective” society in which the people would be

accorded a high degree of protection, but in return would have few personal rights. This
would be the old Roman philosophy of “Salus Populi est Suprema Lex” (The Safety of
the People is the Supreme Law) Personal rights and public protection are on opposite
ends of a fixed scale. If we increase one, we decrease the other. When our society is
threatened by a state of emergency, one of the first steps in protection is restriction.
This is usually in the form of a curfew. If one is allowed on the property of another and
protection is afforded to them. However, such conditions are conditions are certainly not
very conducive to a free democratic society.

“I WILL KEEP MY PRIVATE LIFE UNSULLED AS AN EXAMPLE TO ALL”

One of the first things that a law enforcement officer must learn is that he has no private
life. Every citizen should be entitled to his own private life yet when a person accepts
the calling of law enforcement, as a voluntary measure, he must be willing to often his
privacy as a sacrifice to the good of the community which he serves. If a law
enforcement officer could hide from his neighbors the fact he is a policeman, then his
private life could be his own. This, however, is impossible. If a policeman has a family,
his occupation, will become known in the neighborhood within a few days at the most. If
he is single, and keeps to himself, he may keep the secret a little longer but if he is
engaged in active law enforcement within his community, it is inevitable that his
neighbors will become aware of it. Once this is known, he will become the object of
constant observation.

Many will be watching the officer, hoping to observe some irregularity that will further
justify their negative feeling toward “cops”. Others will watch in hopes of catching the
officer committing some traffic violation so that they can accuse him and all policeman
in general of hypocrisy. This will help justify her own misdeeds concerning traffic
violations for which they feel they were unjustly given tickets.

Another great danger in this area is that of the officer’s personnel morals. An officer
spends a great deal of time dealing with moral degenerates and persons of little
conscience. If he is not constantly on guard, these people can have a negative influence
on him. Female offender and female friends of offenders are often willing to offer their
bodies to police officers in hopes of receiving some leniency should they or their friends
be arrested. Since most police officers work nights, they come in contact with women
who also work nights, such as car hops café waitresses, bar maids, theater usherettes
and similar occupation of being promiscuous and it is very easy for a law enforcement
officer to succumb to these temptations. This can lead to both moral degradation and
blackmail, which can have a negative effect in the struggle for professional recognition.
It is easy to rationalize and justly transgressions of this nature as just giving vent to
natural drives, but these actions to in fact generate moral decay and endanger the
officer’s family. The citizens of a community are very alert to transgressions of a moral
nature, and they will quickly withdraw their needed support of any law enforcement
agency in which the selfish desires of its officers betray their professional calling.

“MAINTAIN COURAGEOUS CALM IN THE FACE OF DANGER, SCORN OR

RIDICULE AND DEVELOP SELF RESTRAIN”

Most officers are prepared to face to face physical danger and the public expect it. This
due to the fact that when most people think of high speed chases with guns blazing and
similar situations in which the officer’s life is in constant danger.

Fortunately, the aforementioned danger amounts to but a small fraction of the officer’s
work routine. The threat for which he is not prepared and on which can affect him
greatly, is public scorn or ridicule. There is no doubt that some officers have taken the
job because of need for the power of an authoritative position. It comes as quite shock
to theme that the badge, uniform and gun mean very little unless there is a man behind
theme. Respect must be earned. It cannot be bought with a badge and a uniform.

In a democracy a police officer is a public officer and as such is a servant to the

community. Instead of being above reproach or ridicule, he must expect to receive his
position, as part of his job. It is not easy to control one’s temper when being subjected
to unnecessary and unjustified scorn or ridicule. Punching the perpetrator in the mouth
will hurt him physically, but psychologically he will sense victory in that he knows that he
“got to the officer”. Nothing will hurt him more than being ignored. Through practice,
even the officer with a wild temper can learn to control it. For the professional law
enforcement officer it is “must”. When subjected to scorn and ridicule, it often helps just
to consider the source.

“WHATEVER I SEE OR HEAR OF A CONFIDENTIAL NATURE OR THAT IS

CONFIDED TO ME IN MY OFFICIAL CAPACITY WILL BE KEPT SECRET UNLESS
REVELATION IS NECESSARY IN THE PERFORMANCE OF MY DUTY”

Some officers feel that there is a difference in that the information obtained by the
doctor and attorney is freely given with the understanding that it will be confidential
whereas the information obtained as part the law enforcement officer can be the result
of many sources or forms of investigation.

This information should never leave the department or the person retaining it unless it is
in the interest of justice. An officer should even be careful not to reveal information to
his wife. An officer’s wife is often very tempted to reveal information of a confidential
nature to neighbor women in an effort to show her neighbors the importance of her
husband’s job, and to gain status in the eyes of the neighbor’s women.

“I WILL NEVER PERMIT PERSONAL FEELINGS, PREJUDICE, ANIMOSITIES OR

FRIENSHIPS TO INFLUENCE MY DECISIONS”

It is quite difficult to know which desire is strongest in some persons, to help our friends
or to hurt our enemies. Both desires are part of our human nature. Helping our friends
can be very good thing in self, but then it involves an inequity in the administration of
justice we are defiling the oath we made to the community in which we serve. In police
work, there is ample opportunity to both hurt enemies and help friends, and it takes a
person of strong character to properly perform his duties under these circumstances.
Without professional convictions, this can be impossible.

“I WILL NEVER ACT OFFICIOUSLY”

One of the faults that is common to new officers is that they often act officiously. They
appear to the public to be over-impressed with their own importance. In a way this is
natural because it is associated with pride and a new officer is usually very proud when
he first puts on his uniform and badge. He should rightly be proud for this is a noble
undertaking. However, a law enforcement officer must always guard against having this
pride misinterpreted by the public as being merely officious.

In most cases of apparent officiousness it is simply a matter of the officer not knowing
how to act. Most police academes greatly neglect the area of teaching officers how to
act, or how to play the role that is expected of him. There are so many facts that have to
be poured into the recruit’s head, that it leaves little time for role playing.
The majority of the people who make contact with a law enforcement officer during his
hour of duly are not criminals. The majority of the persons receiving tickets from an
officer are normally law abiding, upright citizens of the community, and they are usually
embarrassed enough by being caught in a traffic violation without being talked down to
or treated like a criminal. Judges often report that a common reason for a person
appearing in traffic court as not so much to contest the facts of the offense as it is to
complain about the demeanor of the officer issuing the citations.

“WITH NO COMPROMISE FOR CRIME AND WITH RELENTLESS PROSECUTION

OF CRIMINALS I WILL ENFORCE THE LAW COURTEOUSLY AND
APPROPRIATELY WITHOUTFEAR OR FAVOR, MALICE OR ILL WILL”

The term “with nor compromise for crime” means that crime will not be knowing
permitted. It does not mean that the officer must perform his duties to the “letter of the
law” without taking into consideration the “spirit of the law”. If the Code of Ethics will be
examined, nothing will be found in it to the effect than an officer must obtain conviction
and send people to prison for long periods of time. It does state, however, that he must
do the best of which he is capable, and that his actions must in themselves be ethical.
No man can predict or guarantee the final results of any action. Only God can do this,
Man can only be responsible for his immediate actions. If an officers does a good job
and the criminal is released by the courts, the blame rests not upon him but upon the
courts, the jury or society itself.

The modern law enforcement officer has a new motto “Be firm but fair”. He does not
have to be a “theory bound” sociologist just because he treats criminals like human
beings.

The modern law enforcement officer has a new motto “Be firm but fair” He does not
have to be a “theory bound” sociologist just because he treats criminals like human
beings.

Our religious teachings stress the theme that we should hate sin but love man. This
means that we may hate crime but not the criminal. For some it is easy to hate the
criminal, but in time they are themselves consumed by the flame of this hatred. Some
officers feel that their job is to punish, and that in order to punish someone you must
went your anger upon them. Our present system of criminal justice assigns no duties of
punishment to the law enforcement officer. The role of punishment belongs to the
people in Corrections and Penology. Getting angry, other than as an interrogative
technique, serve no purpose. Anger begets anger, the angry officer only makes his job
more difficult.

The modern professional law enforcement officer lets the criminal call the tune as to his
own treatment. The officers can and must be as tough as the situation demands yet
there is no personal vindictiveness in the way the treats the criminal. His tone of voice
and demeanor usually indicate that he will not be walked on, yet his actions are fair.

“I WILL NEVER EMLOY UNNECESSARY FORCE OR VIOLENCE”

A times the use of force in the performance of one’s duties is an absolute necessity.
There is no escaping it. It is extremely difficult to judge exactly or not. The use of force
used in a particular situation was necessary or not. The use of force or violence during
interrogations will often produce immediate confessions, but is should be avoided on
ethical grounds in that the interrogator seldom knows with complete centainty that the
suspect is guilty, and the use of force or the “third degree” on an innocent person could
and has produced false confessions. The harming of an innocent person is certainly a
miscarriage of justice as well as a violation of professional conduct. As a means of
punishment for the criminal, it would be out of place for it is not the function of law
enforcement to punish criminals. This belong to the courts and prisons.

From a practical viewpoint, unnecessary force or violence should be avoided during the
interrogations because if the jury or a judge even suspects that force was used to obtain
a confession, it would be thrown out of court, and chances are the case would be lost. It
is difficult enough for modern, professional law enforcement officers to convince the
courts that their methods of interrogation were “ above board” because of the reputation
that law enforcement had thirty or more years ago. In a society that is so conscious of
their rights as ours is today, the use of force or violence as a common practice would
invalidate nearly all of the confessions that reached. The courtroom and would therefore
defeat its own purpose.

“I WILL NEVER ACCEPT GRATITUTIES”

The topic of accepting gratuities causes many long and hearted discussions among
modern police officers. It is one in which both ethics and rationalization enter the
picture. Gratuities take two main forms. First, is the gratuity given by a person with the
sole intent of receiving something in return. Second, one gratuity, that is given solely but
of a respect for law enforcement and the job that the police officers are doing. It is not
always easy to distinguish between the two. There is a variation of the second.

Those who favor gratuities usually feel that the second form is all right, but not the first.
They feel that the key to gratuities is as follows: “Will this in any way affect the proper
performance of any duties? In other words, if the officer were to observe the person,
giving the gratuity, commit some violation whether it be an hour or a day later, would be
in all conscience be able to treat him the same as a total stranger?
Those members of law enforcement organization, who developed this code, were
certainly aware of the complexities of this particular area, but the use of the word
“never” in relation to accepting gratuities, indicates that they felt that this was a
necessary and essential prerequisite to professionals law enforcement. To be truly
professional we must first be ethical, we must do what is actually desirable, not merely
what we would like to be desirable.

“I RECOGNIZE THE BADGE OF MY OFFICE AS A SYMBOL OF PUBLIC FAITH, AND

I ACCEPT IT AS A PUBLIC TRUST TO BE HELD SO LONG AS I AM TRUE TO THE
ETHICS OF POLICE SERVICE”

The essence of this section is one of the most overlooked and forgotten facets of law
enforcement by the main in the field. It is this that distinguishes the difference between
law enforcement and the ordinary job. It is this that enables an officer to suffer the
difficulties and problems that the held, at times, so frustrating and discouraging. Police
administrators would do well to place more emphasis upon the swearing in process. It
should be made very formal and similar to the initiation of many fraternal organizations.

The Chief of Police should see that the recruit is not issued a badge or allowed to put on
a uniform until he is thoroughly familiar with the Code of Ethics and especially the above
section. He should be made to understand that he is one of a select few, and that his
job is a public trust that must be earned. The new officer should also understand that
any personal reward will not be obtained from the public itself, for the public is a difficult
master, it there is to be personal reward, it can only come for the job itself or from
knowing the true significance of the job and the essential role that it plays in society.
Perhaps the greatest reward is the self-respect and satisfaction that comes from the
knowledge that the job was done in a truly professional manner.

“I WILL CONSTANTLY STRIVE TO ACHIEVE THESE OBJECTIVES AND IDEALS

DEDICATING MYSELF BEFORE GOD TO MAY CHOSEN PROFESSION… LAW
ENFORCEMENT”

Proficiency in law enforcement involves many factors. It involves mental moral and
physical conditioning. They are all important aspects. The officer who let himself slip
physically is certainly not able to protect society. The officer who is in good physical
condition has more confidence in his ability, and this is sensed by those with whom he
deals, and as result he finds that it is necessary to exert authority as much as it might
be otherwise. Unfortunately, most police departments require a stiff physical agility
examination before this area is either forgotten or greatly neglected it is left up to the
individual officer to keep oneself in shape.
Another way in which the professional officer may keep abreast is to devote so many
hours each week to reading the many books and profession law enforcement journals
or magazines that are now available.

Since most of this reading will be on the officer’s own time, it is essential to develop the
initiative that is so common to other professions. The Law Enforcement Code of Ethics
has broken down and discussed in some detail in an effort to awaken in the reader a
greater awareness of the importance of the code as a means of achieving professional
standing. However, knowing and understanding the Code of Ethics is not enough. It
must actually be practice it must be lived.

THE LAW ENFORCEMENT OATH OF OFFICE

The oath of office lays the groundwork for instilling ethical behavior, but it doesn’t stop
there most agencies codify t hose practices that they hope to promote and those they
expect officers to avoid to help guide them toward ethical decision making.

Of course, the oath contains provisions about protecting, upholding and defending the
Constitution of their country. It also includes promises to conduct oneself soberly,
honestly and honorably, to avoid offensive behavior and to obey superior officers within
the individual departments.

Officers swear to be honest, upstanding citizens. They promise to be part of the

solution, not part of the problem. Above all else, they promise to follow the rules,
regardless of whether they like or agree with them.

Understood within the concept of acting honorably is the idea that officers should own
up to their mistakes. Far more respect is reserved for those who screw up and admit it
than those who try to hide their misdeeds or blame others for their shortcomings. In fact,
lying will get one fired faster than anything else when you choose a law enforcement
career.

POLICE ETHICS AND DECISION MAKING

For those situations that may prove difficult for officers, several tests can be applied to
help in the ethical decision-making process. Perhaps the best known ethical decision-
making tests are the critical thinking test, the media test and the gut test.
THE CRITICAL THINKING TEST

The critical thinking test asks a series of “yes” or “no” questions to determine whether or
not an officer should proceed with an action. These questions are asked in succession
and ultimately guide an officer making a good choice. These questions ask:

 Is my action legal?
 Will the end result be good?
 Will it work?
 Is there a better, less harmful way to achieve the same goal?
 Will my decision undermine or contradict another equally important principle?
 Even if the end is good, do the means violate an ethical principle?
 Can my decision be justified if it is made public?

THE MEDIA TEST

A similar but simpler tool, the media test requires an officer to answer one simple
question: “How would I feel if my decision made the front page tomorrow?” This reminds
officers that all too often, perception becomes a reality and that it may not be enough
just to be able to justify our actions if they cause the public to question police practices
and tactics seriously.

The media test recognizes that the public does not always see things the same way the
law enforcement community does. It takes into consideration that, because becoming a
police officer ultimately means becoming a public servant, law enforcement must be
cognizant of what the public’s perceptions are regarding police both on and off the job.

THE GUT TEST

Perhaps the simplest test of all is the gut test. The gut test essentially relies on instinct
and the belief that, deep down, all officers can intuit the right decision. Essentially, the
gut test relies on the principle that if it feels wrong, it probably is wrong. This is not to be
confused with the difference between feeling good and bad, but between right and
wrong. There are plenty of times that things that feel bad are right, and things that feel
good are wrong.

Whether one chooses to use a test or to trust their gut, the fact remains that ethical
behavior and practices are at the forefront of the law enforcement profession. It’s vital
that every officer remembers the reason she took the job in the first place: to protect
and to serve.
WORKING TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE

Police must work together to be the officers that the public demands and expects them
to be. They must lead by example, following the principles of policing, and they must
make the hard choices to do the right thing under every circumstance. Only in this way
will officers be able to provide the level of service their communities deserve and to
begin the work of making a difference in the lives of others.

THE POLICE CODE OF ETHICS

Codes of Ethics are institutional guidelines used to further reinforce ethical conduct by
practitioners. They are not constructed as detailed means of resolving every ethical
problem but as general principles that illuminate moral choice.

These are few professions that demand so much moral fiber as policing. Police stand in
“harm’s way” not so much against enemies with bullets, but against enemies skilled in
every form of trickery, deceit, feigned ignorance, and deception.

Functions of Codes

Two Major purposes of Codes of Ethics

1. They provide moral guidelines for practitioners of criminal justice. As such, they
constitute moral obligations that should be met and moral qualities that should be
emulated. Furthermore, they prescribe “professional standards of conduct”
necessary for the ethical enlightenment of practitioners if they are to lead a
professional career. To objective is to motivate workers to be dedicated to
whatever they do and to devote themselves to the principles of honesty, fidelity
and professionalism.
2. Codes of Ethics define professional behavior in the workplace. When
practitioners adhere to a code of ethics, the result is an environment that is
conducive to excellence. They would know what their responsibilities require
them to do without supervision. They would develop a sense of pride in their
jobs.

Two main virtues cultivated by Codes of Ethics

1. Ethics of Public Service

2. Ethics of Professionalism

CANONS OF POLICE ETHICS

The Canon of Police Ethics is more interesting, but again, consists mostly of value
statements that an officer is supposed to subscribe to. Goals and attitudes are nice, but
something a little “deeper” might be called for.
The following are the canons of police ethics:

1. Primordial police responsibility

2. Limitation of police authority
3. Knowledge of the law and other responsibilities
4. Use of proper means to obtain proper ends
5. Cooperation with public officials
6. Proper conduct and behavior
7. Conduct toward the community
8. Conduct in arresting law violation
9. Firmness in refusing gifts of favors
10. Impartial presentation of evidence
11. Attitude toward police profession

Primordial Police Responsibility

The primary objective upholder of the law must know its crime, policeman knew too well
that he has committed his life to defend and protect the rights of the citizen and uphold
the law at all cost.

Limitation of Police Authority

Policeman as an upholder of the law must know its limitation upon him in enforcing the
law, thus:

a. He must be aware of the limitations which the people, through law, have place
upon him
b. He must recognize the center of the democratic system of government which
gives no person or group persons, absolutes power
c. He must insure that he does not pervert its true character.

Knowledge of the Law and other Responsibilities

a. The policeman shall assiduously apply himself to the principle of the laws which
he is sworn to apply.
b. He will make certain of his responsibilities in the particular field of enforcement,
seeking and of his superior in matters technically or in principle are not clear to
him.
c. He shall make special effort to fully understand his relationship with other law
enforcement agencies
Impartial Presentation of Evidence

a. Policeman shall be concerned equally in the prosecution of the accused in the

defense of the innocent.
b. He shall ascertain what kind of evidence and shall present such evidence
impartially and without malice.
c. He shall ignore social, political and other distinction among the person involved,
strengthening the tradition of the reliability and integrity of an officer’s word.
d. He shall be mindful that in many situation be is the sole impartially testimony to
the fact of the case.

Attitude towards Police Profession

a. Policeman shall regard the discharge of his duties as a public trust and recognize
his responsibilities as a public servant.
b. He shall strive to make the best possible application of science to the selection of
the crime and in the field of human relation.
c. He shall strive for effective leadership and public influence in matters affecting
public safety.
d. He shall appreciate the importance and responsibility of his office, and hold
police work to be a honorable profession rendering valuable service to his
community.
e. Through study and experience, a police officer can acquire the high level of
knowledge and competence that is essential for the efficient and effective
performance of duty. The acquisition of knowledge is a never- ending process of
personal and professional development that should be pursued constantly.

Police Principle

The following are the professional police principles:

1. Prevention of crime and disorder.

2. Cooperation of the community
3. Unreasonable force reduces community cooperation.
4. Use of reasonable force when persuasion is not sufficient.
5. Impartial enforcement of laws.
6. The community are the police.
7. Police should not usurp judicial powers
8. Rules of engagement impartially observed
9. Reduction of crime and dishonor
10. Police discretion
Prevention of Crime and Disorder

The basic mission for whom the police exist is to prevent crime and disorder as an
alternative to the repression of crime and disorder by police and severity of legal
punishment.

Cooperation of the Community

a. The police must secure the willing cooperation in the voluntary observance of the
law to be able to secure and maintain the respect and support of the community.
b. The ability of the police to perform their duty is dependent upon community
support of police existence, action, behavior and the ability of the police to secure
and maintain community and respect.

Unreasonable Force Reduce Community Cooperation

A police officer will never employ unnecessary force or violence and will use only such
force in the discharge of duty as in reasonable in all circumstances.

Force should be used only with the greatest restraint and only after discussion,
negotiation and persuasion have been found to be inappropriate or ineffective. While
the use of force is occasionally unavoidable, every police officer will refrain from
applying the unnecessary infliction of pain or suffering and will never engage in cruel,
degrading or inhuman treatment of any person.

Use of Reasonable Force when Persuasion is not Sufficient

a. The police should reasonable force to the extent necessary to secure

observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion,
advice and warning is found to the insufficient to attain police objectives.
b. No violence or unnecessary force shall be subject to any greater restrain than is
necessary for his detention.

Impartial Enforcement of Laws

a. The police seek and reserve community favor, not by catering to community
opinion, but constantly demonstrating absolutely impartial enforcement of laws,
without regard to the justice and injustice of the substance of particular laws.
b. Impartial enforcement of laws on all individual members of the society without
regard to their race or social standing.
The Community are the Police

a. The police at all times should maintain relationships with the community that
gives really to the historic tradition that the tradition that he police are the
community are the police.
b. The police are the only members of the community who are paid are the only
members to maintain peace and order which are incumbent on every citizen in
the interest of community welfare.

Police should not Usurp Judicial Powers

The police should always direct their actions strictly toward their functions and never
appear to usurp the powers of judiciary by averaging individuals of the state of
authoritative judging guilt or punishing the guilt.

Reduction of Crime and Disorder

The test of police efficiency is the reduction of crime and disorder until totally
eradicated, not by evidence of police present and action in dealing with the community.

Rule of Enforcement Impartially Observed

a. Policemen engaged in anti-crime operation must always consider the safety and
security of who might be caught in the crossfire or arm encounters.
b. The use of force including firearms, justifiable only by virtue of the Doctrine of
Self-Defense and Defense of a Stranger, Nobody, including the policeman and
other law enforcement authorities, is above the law.
c. The use of force especially firearms, should be applied only as a last resort,
when all other peaceful and non-violent means have been exhausted.
d. The use of force, especially firearms, should be confined only the lawless
elements and the responding PNP unit. This is inherent in the police service in
which the profession, the armaments and safety life of every PNP members is
dedicated to the protection and safety of the people.

Police Discretion

A police officer will use responsibility discretion vested in the position and exercise it
within the law. The principle of reasonable will guide the officer’s determinations and the
officer will consider all surrounding circumstances whether any legal action shall be
taken.

Consistent and wise use of discretion, based on professional policing competence, will
do much to preserve good relationships and retain the confidence of the public. There
can be difficulty in choosing between conflicting courses of action. It is important to
remember that a timely word of advice rather than arrest- which may be correct in
appropriate circumstances can be a more effective means of achieving a desire end.

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND POLICE ETHICAL STANDARD

Professional conduct and ethical standards and a high degree of honesty are more
essential for officer and members of Philippine National Police than for any member of
the society. This is so, because they are entrusted with the enforcement of the rules,
regulations and ordinances created by City/Municipality and the laws of the land created
by the Congress that guide the conduct of society. A policeman’s violation or infraction
thereof, or his failure to enforce it, dishonor the law and the authority be represents.

Activity VI

Instruction: Read each statement and answer correctly.

I- True or False (Write T if the statement is correct and F if the statement is

wrong)
1. Consistent and wise use of discretion, based on professional policing
competence, will do much to preserve good relationships and retain the
confidence of the public.
2. Police should not usurp judicial powers.
3. The use of force especially firearms, should be applied only as a last resort.
4. Policeman shall regard the discharge of his duties as a public trust and recognize
his responsibilities as a public servant.
5. The policeman shall be mindful of his special identification by the public as an
upholder of law.
6. Code of Ethics are institutional guidelines used to further reinforce ethical
conduct by practitioners.
7. At times the use of force in the performance of one’s duties is an absolute
necessity.
8. Proficiency in law enforcement involves many factors. It involves mental moral
and physical conditioning.
9. The modern law enforcement officer has a new motto “Be firm but fair”
10. Goals and attitudes are nice, but something a little “deeper” might be called for.
11. The word “serve” denotes the denial of one’s own pleasures and desire for the
good of the person or person to be served.
12. Instead of being above reproach or ridicule, policeman must expect to receive his
position, as part of his job.
13. The job of the enforcement officer is made more difficult by the changing social
patterns in the locality.
 14. A policeman’s violation or infraction thereof, or his failure to enforce it, dishonor
the law and the authority be represents.
15. In a democracy a police officer is a public officer and as such is a servant to the
community.
III. Essay
1. Why should police not usurp judicial powers?
2. What is police discretion? Explain.
3. What are the police principles?
4. How should police conduct in arresting law violators?
5. Are policemen authorized to accept gifts or favors? If yes, why if no, why…
6. Why Canon of Police Ethics more interesting than Police Code of Ethics?
7. What are the two main virtues cultivated by Codes of Ethics? Explain.

CHAPTER VII

The Philippine National Police Code of Professional Conduct and Ethical Standards
(PNP Code of Conduct)

All PNP members shall abide and adhere to the provisions of this Code of Professional
Conduct and Ethical Standards. Towards this end, a truly professionalized and
dedicated law enforcer shall be developed in promoting peace and order, ensuring
public safety and enhancing community participation guided by the principle that a
public office is a public trust and that all public servants must at all times be accountable
to the people.

They shall serve with utmost responsibility, integrity, morality, loyalty and efficiency with
due respect to human rights and dignity as hallmark of a democratic society. They shall
at all times bear faithful allegiance to the legitimate government support and uphold the
Constitution, respect the duly constituted authority and be loyal to the police service.

Definition of Terms:

1. Neglect of Duty or nonfeasance- is the omission or refusal, without sufficient

excuse, to perform an act or duty, which it was the Peace Officer’s legal
obligation to perform it implies a duty as well as its breach and the fact can never
be found in the absence of a duty.
2. Irregularities in the Performance of Duty- is the improper performance of some
act which might be lawfully done.
3. Misconduct or Malfeasance- is the doing, either through ignorance, inattention or
malice, of that which the officer had no legal right to do all, as where he act
without any authority whatsoever, or exceeds, ignores or abuses his powers.
Misconduct generally means wrongful, improper or unlawful conduct, motivated
by premeditated, obstinate or intentional purpose. It usually refers to
 transgression of some established and definite rule of action, where no discretion
is left except what necessity may demand; it does not necessarily family
corruption or criminal intention but implied wrongful intention and not mere error
of judgment.
It also refers to the intentional commission of a prohibited act or intentional unjust
performance of some act of which the party had no right (e.g. gratuity, perjury,
use of police resources for personal use)
Misfeasance on the other hand is the performance of a duty or act that one is
obligated or permitted to do in a manner which is improper, sloppy, or negligent
(e.g. report writing, unsafe operation of motor vehicle, aggressively
“reprimanding” a citizen, improper searching of arrested persons)
4. In-competency is the manifest lack of adequate ability and fitness for the
satisfactory performance of police duties. This has reference to any physical
intellectual quality the lack of which substantially incapacitates one to performs
the duties of peace officer.
5. Oppression- it imports an act of cruelty, severity, unlawful execution, domination,
or excessive use of authority. The exercise of the unlawful powers or other
means, in depriving, an individual of his liberty or property against his will is
generally an act of oppression.
6. Dishonesty- is the concealment or distortion of truth in a matter of fact relevant of
one’s office or connected with the performance of his duties.
7. Disloyalty to the Government- consist of abandonment or renunciation of one’s
loyalty to the Government of the Philippines, or advocating the overthrow of the
government.
8. Violation of Law- it presupposes conviction in court of any crime of offense
penalized under Revised Penal Code or any special law or ordinances.

POLICE OFFICER’S CREED AND STAND ON BASIC ISSUES

The PNP Values

The police service is a noble profession and demands from its members specialized
knowledge and skills and high standard of ethics and morality. In this regard, the
members of the Philippine National Police must adhere to and internalize the enduring
core values of Fear of God, Honor the Government, and Respect the People.

The Police Officer’s Creed:

I believe in God, The Supreme Being, a Great Provider, and The Creator of all men and
everything dear to me. In return, I can do not less than love Him above all, seek His
guidance in the performance of my sworn duties and honor Him at all times.
I believe that respect for authority is a duty. I respect and uphold the Constitution, the
laws of the land and the applicable rules and regulations. I recognize the legitimacy and
authority of the leadership, and follow and obey legal orders of my superior officers.

I believe in selfless love and service to people. Towards this end, I commit myself to the
service of my fellowmen over and above my personal convenience.

I believe in the sanctity of marriage and the respect for women. I shall set the example
of decency and morality and shall have high regard for family life and chastity.

I believe in the responsible dominion and stewardship over material things. I shall inhibit
myself from ostentatious display of my property. I shall protect the environment and
conserve nature to maintain ecological balance. I shall respect private and public
properties and prevent others from destroying them.

I believe in the wisdom of truthfulness. I must be trustworthy and I shall speak the truth
at all times as required by the profession.

Basic Issues

The deployment and employment of the PNP personnel require the organization and its
members to bare their stand on the following basic issues:

1. PNP Image- The image of any organization affects the spirit de’ corps, morale
and welfare of members and sense of pride to the organization. In view thereof,
all members of the PNP should conduct themselves in a manner that would not
place the PNP in bad light. Instead, they should live in accordance with the PNP
core values and posses the following virtues: honor, integrity, valor, justice,
honesty, humility, charity and loyalty to the service.
2. Career Management, the key to professionalism- its improper implementation will
greatly prejudice the personnel professionalization process as regard
procurement, promotion, assignment, placement, training, awards and
retirement. To address these flaws, the PNP shall formulate a stringer policy and
strictly implement the human resources development system, compatible to the
equitable distribution of procurement, fair promotion, rationalized approach in
assignment, skill development immediate grant of reward and award, and decent
living upon retirement.
3. Police Management Leadership- the effectiveness of law enforcement is
reflective of the managerial capabilities and competent leadership of the men and
women who run the PNP organization. It is therefore a “must” that these
attributes be the primary basis for consideration in the selection of personnel for
employment and deployment purposes.
 4. Equality in the Service- there shall be judicious and equitable distribution of
opportunity to prove one’s wroth in the police service. The problem of inequity
thru class orientation and factionalism, both real and perceived, premised on
favored assignment, inequitable opportunity of training, unfair granting of
promotions, and untimely awarding of achievements, will create an atmosphere
of demoralization. The result is inefficiency and lack of teamwork to the detriment
of the organization.
It behooves therefore on the PNP leadership to address the situation. The civilian
character of the organization requires adherence to the rule on merit and fitness
system and to dissociate the above process from class orientation and
factionalism.
5. Dedicadeza- in consonance with the requirements of honor and integrity in the
PNP, all members must have the moral courage to sacrifice self-interest in
keeping with the time-honored principle of delicadeza.
6. Police Lifestyle- the PNP shall endeavor to promote a lifestyle for every member
of the organization that is acceptable and respectable in the eyes of the public.
They must be free from greed, corruption and exploitation. The public expects a
police officer to live a simple, yet credible and dignified life.
7. Political Patronage- all PNP members must inhibit himself from soliciting political
patronage in matters pertaining to assignment, awards, training and promotion.
8. Human Rights- all PNP must respect and protect human dignity and man’s
inalienable rights to life, liberty and property.
9. Setting Example- all PNP members should set good example to the subordinates
and follow good example from the superiors.

PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND ETHICAL STANDARDS

Standard of Police Professionalism

All PNP personnel shall perform duties with excellence, competence, integrity,
intelligence and expertise in the application of specialized skill and technical knowledge.

Police Professional Conduct

All members of the PNP shall observe the following professional conduct.

Commitment to Democracy- Uniformed PNP members commit themselves to the

democratic way of life and values and maintain the principle of public accountability. Tey
shall at all times uphold the Constitution and be loyal to our country, people and
organization above loyalty to any person or organization.

Commitment to the Public Interest- all PNP members shall always uphold public
interest over and above personal interest. All government properties, resources and
powers of their respective offices must be employed and used effectively, honestly and
efficiently particularly to avoid wastage of public funds and revenues. All PNP personnel
must avoid and prevent the “malversation of Human Resources”, “malversation of
Government time” and malversation of Government property and funds.

Non-Partisanship- PNP members shall provide services to everyone without

discrimination regardless of party affiliation in accordance with existing laws and
regulations.

Physical Fitness and Health- all PNP members shall strive to be physically and mentally
fit and in good health at all times. Toward this end, they shall undergo regular physical
exercises and annual medical examination in any PNP Hospital or Medical facility, and
actively participate in the Physical Fitness and Sports Development Program of the
PNP.

Secrecy Discipline- all PNP members shall guard the confidentiality of classified
information against unauthorized disclosure, including confidential aspects of official
business, special orders, communications and other documents, roster or any portion
thereof of the PNP, contents of criminal records, identities or persons who may have
given information to the police in confidence and other classified information on
intelligence material.

Social Awareness- all PNP members and their immediate family members shall be
encouraged to actively get involved in the religious, social and civic activities to enhance
the image of the organization but without affecting their official duties.

Non-Solicitation of Patronage- all members shall seek self-improvement through career

development and shall not directly or indirectly solicit influence or recommendation from
politicians, high-ranking government officials, prominent citizens, persons affiliated with
civic or religious organizations with regard to their assignments, promotions, transfer or
those of other members of the force, nor shall they initiate any petition to be prepared
and presented by citizens in their behalf. Moreover, they shall advise their immediate
relatives not to interfere in the activities of the police service particularly in the
assignment and reassignment of personnel.

Proper Care and Use of Public Property- PNP personnel shall be responsible for the
security, proper care and use of public property issued to them and/or deposited under
their care and custody. Unauthorized use/disposal of public property for personal
convenience or gain and that of their families, friends, or relatives is strictly prohibited.
When the Commander/Director is relieved from his post, all properties/ equipment
belonging to the government must be turned-over to the incoming. A committee for the
purpose shall be proper. Hence it is a taboo for outgoing Commander/Director to
detach, remove and bring for himself those non-personal properties.
Respect of Human Rights- in the performance of duty, PNP members shall respect and
protect human dignity and uphold the human rights of all persons. No member inflict,
instigate or tolerate extra-judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, any act of torture or other
cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment and shall not invoke superior
orders or exceptional circumstances such as a state-of-war, a threat to national security,
internal political instability or any public emergency as justification for committing such
human rights violations.

Devotion to Duty- all PNP personnel shall perform their duties with dedication,
thoroughness, efficiency, enthusiasm, determination, and manifest concern for public
welfare, and shall refrain from engaging in any activity which shall be in conflict with
their duties as public servants.

Conservation of Natural Resources- all personnel of the PNP shall help in the
development and conservation of our natural resources for ecological balance and
posterity as these are the inalienable heritage of our people.

Discipline- all personnel of the PNP shall conduct themselves at all times in keeping
with the rules and regulations of the organization.

Loyalty- above all, PNP personnel must be loyal to the Constitution and the police
service as manifested by their loyalty to their superiors, peers and subordinates as well.

Obedience to Superiors- all PNP personnel shall obey lawful orders and courteous to
superior officers and other appropriate authorities within the chain of command. They
shall readily accept whenever they are assigned anywhere in the country. Therefore, it
is a taboo for any personnel to petition in court or in any public forum his assignment.

Command Responsibility- in accordance with the Doctrine on Command Responsibility,

immediate Commanders/Directors shall be responsible for the effective supervision,
control and direction of their personnel and shall see to it that all government resources
shall be managed, expended or utilized in accordance with laws and regulations and
safeguard against losses thru illegal or improper disposition.

The Ethical Standards

Ethical Standards shall refer to established and generally accepted moral values.

Ethical acts to be observed are the following:

Morality- all PNP personnel shall adhere to high standard of morality and decency and
shall set good examples for others to follow. Hence, among others, and in no instance
during their terms of office shall they be involved as owners, operators, managers or
investors in any house of ill-repute or illegal gambling den or other places devoted to
vices, nor shall they patronize such places unless on official duty, and tolerate
operations of such establishments in their respective areas of responsibilities. They
shall be faithful lawfully wedded spouses.

Judicious Use of Authority- PNP members shall exercise proper and legitimate use of
authority in the performance of duty.

Integrity- PNP personnel shall not allow themselves to be victims of corruption and
dishonest practices in accordance with the provisions of RA 6713 and other applicable
laws.

Justice-PNP personnel shall strive constantly to respect the rights of others so that they
can fulfill their duties and exercise their rights as human beings, parents, children,
citizens, workers, leaders or in other capacities and to see to it that others do likewise.

Humility- all PNP personnel shall recognize the fact that they are public servants and
not the masters of the people and toward this end, they should perform their duties
without arrogance. They should also recognize their own inadequacies, in abilities and
limitations as individuals and perform their duties without attracting attention or
expecting the applause of others.

Orderliness- all PNP personnel shall follow logical procedures in accomplishing tasks
assigned to them to minimize waste in the use of time, money and effort.

Perseverance- once a decision is made, PNP members shall take legitimate means to
achieve the goal even in the face of internal or external difficulties, and despite anything
which might weaken their resolve in the course of time.

CUSTOMS AND TRADITIONS

General Statement

The PNP adopts the generally acceptable customs and traditional based on the
desirable practices of the police service. These shall serve as inspiration as the PNP
endeavors to attain its goal and objectives.

Definition of Terms:

Customs- Established usage or social practices carried on by tradition that have

obtained the force of law.

Traditions- Bodies of beliefs, stories, customs and usages handed down from
generation to generation with the effect of an unwritten law.

Courtesy- a manifestation or expression of consideration and respect for others.

Ceremony- a formal act or set of format acts established by customs or authority as
proper to special occasion.

Social Decorum- a set of norms and standards practiced by members during social and
other functions.

Police Customs on Courtesy

The following are customs on courtesy in the PNP:

Salute- Salute is the usual greeting rendered by uniformed members upon meeting and
recognizing person entitled to a salute.

Salute of National Color and Standard- members stand attention and salute the national
color and standard as it pass by them or when the national color is raised or lowered
during ceremonies.

Address/Title- Junior in rank address senior members who are entitled to salute with the
word “Sir”. All Police Commission Officers shall be addressed sir by the PNCO’s and
NUP’s.

Courtesy Call of Newly Assigned/Appointed Member- PNP members who are newly
appointed or assigned in a unit or command call on the chief of the unit or command
and to other key personnel for accounting, orientation and other purposes.

Christmas Call- PNP members pay as Christmas Call on their local executives in their
respective area of responsibility.

Promotion call- newly promoted PNP members call on their unit head. On this occasion,
they are usually given due recognition and congratulations by their peers for such
deserved accomplishment.

Exit Call- PNP members pay an Exit Call on their superiors in the unit or command
when relieved or reassigned out of the said unit or command.

Courtesy of the Post- the host unit extends hospitality to visiting personnel who pay
respect to the command or unit.

Rank Has-Its-Own Privilege (RHIP)- PNP members recognize the practice that different
ranks carry with them corresponding privileges.

Police Customs on Ceremonies

Flag Raising Ceremony- the PNP members honor the flag by housing it and singing the
National Anthem before the start of the official days work.
Flag Lowering Ceremony- at the end of the official days’ work, the PNP members pause
for a moment to salute the lowering of the flag.

Half-Mast-the flag is raised at half-mast in difference to deceased uniformed members

of the command.

Funeral Service and Honors- Departed uniformed members, retirees, war veterans or
former PC/INP members are given vigil, neurological services and graveside honors as
a gesture of farewell.

Ceremony Tendered to Retirees- in recognition of their long, faithful and honorable

service to the PNP, a testimonial activity is tendered in their honor.

Honor Ceremony- arrival and departure honor ceremonies are rendered to visiting
dignitaries, VIPs, PNP Officers with the grade of Chief Superintendent and above and
AFP officers of equivalent grade, unless waived.

Turn-Over Ceremony- The relinquishment and assumption of command or key position

is publicly announced in a Turn-over Ceremony by the out-going and in-coming officers
in the presence of the immediate superior or his representative.

Wedding Ceremony- during marriage of PNP members, a ceremony is conducted with

participants in uniform and swords drawn.

Anniversary- the birth of institutional establishment of a command or unit is

commemorated in an Anniversary Ceremony.

Police Customs on Social Decorum

The following are police custom on social decorum:

Proper Attire- PNP members always wear appropriate and proper attire in conformity
with the occasion.

Table Manners- PNP member observe table etiquette at all times.

Social Graces- PNP members conduct themselves properly in dealing with people
during social functions.

Uniform/Appearance- the public looks upon a PNP member as distinctively a man

among men. It is a welcome sight when PNP members wear their uniform properly
wherever they may be. Bulging stomach is taboo in the uniformed service. Since
disciplined PNP members are best exemplified by those who are neat in appearance
and wearing prescribed uniform, they must therefore observe the following:
Wearing of prescribed uniform:

- Wearing as part of the uniform, award and decorations earned in accordance

with the prescribed rules and regulations.
- Adherence to haircut prescribed by rules and regulations.
- Manner of Walking- every PNP member is expected to walk with pride and
dignity.

Other Police Customs:

Visiting the Sick- PNP members who are sick in the hospital, their residence or any
place of confinement are visited by their immediate commanders or other available
officers all benefits due shall have been received.

Survivor Assistance to Heirs of Deceased Members- When PNP members die, a

survivor officers is designated to render maximum assistance to their legitimate
bereaved family until all benefits due shall have been received.

Visiting the Religious Leaders- PNP officers visit religious leaders in their area of
assignment to establish or maintain rapport and cooperation between the different
religious leaders and the PNP.

Athletics- all PNP members indulge in physical fitness activities to ensure that their
proper physical appearance and bearing are maintained with the waist line
measurement always smaller than the size of his chest and in conformity with the
standard set forth by the organization.

Happy Hours- usually on Friday or any other day suitable for the occasion, PNP
members gather together at their PNP club for a light hearted jesting or airing of minor
gripes.

Police Tradition

The following are police traditions

Spiritual Beliefs- the PNP members are traditionally religious and God-loving person.
They attend religious services together with the members of their family.

Valor- history attests that the Filipino law-enforcer have exemplified the tradition of valor
and defending the country from aggression and oppression and protecting/preserving
the life and property of the people. They sacrificed their limbs and lives for the sake of
their countrymen whom they have pledge to serve.
Patriotism- the PNP members are traditionally patriotic by nature. They manifest their
love of country with a pledge of allegiance to the flag and a vow to defend the
Constitution.

Discipline- the discipline of PNP members are manifested by instinctive obedience to

lawful orders and through and spontaneous actions towards attainment of
organizational objectives guided by moral, ethical and legal norms.

Gentlemanliness- the PNP members are upright in character, police in manners,

dignified in appearance, and sincere in their concern to their fellowmen.

Word of Honor- the PNP members word is their bond. They stand by and commit to
uphold it.

Duty- the PNP members have historically exemplified themselves as dedicated public
servant who perform their tasks with a deep sense of responsibility and self-sacrifice.
He shall readily accept assignment anywhere in the country.

Loyalty- the policemen are traditionally loyal to the organization, country and people as
borne by history and practice.

Camaraderie- the binding spirit that enhances teamwork and cooperation in the police
organization, extending to the people they serve, is manifested by the PNP member’s
deep commitment and concern to one another.

POLICE OFFICER’S PLEDGE

I will love and serve God, my country and my people;

I will uphold the Constitution and obey legal orders of the duly constituted authorities;

I will oblige myself to maintain a high standard of morality and professionalism;

I will respect the customs and traditions of the police service; and

I will live a decent and virtuous life to serve as an example to others.

Two possible causes of public mistrust for police ethics:

Two possible causes of public mistrust for police ethics:

(1) The perception that a police subculture exists that either turns good officers bad
or tolerates evil in the midst of policing; and
(2) The perception that most of policing is just a front for racial discrimination.
These perceptions affect all of policing, go to the heart of police role in society, and
involve ethical issues which we will explore in depth. Trust is the main ethical issue in
this approach to police ethics, and in learning about trust, we also learn about other
irrational forces in society, like fear. This kind of focus on police ethics is also a focus on
societal ethics. Facts make little difference here, as it doesn’t matter whether we can
trace the roots of public mistrust to any specific event; what matters is perception, and
how those perceptions influence the morality of a nation as a whole.

The concept known as the Dirty Harry scenario involves approval for the police to make
false promises to (or worse still, torture) hostage taker and kidnappers. The concept of
noble cause corruption refers to certain acts with the mantle of respectability, like
making white lies, or more generally, a commitment to “doing something about bad
people”, which is an “ends-based” police ethic that can be corrupted when officers
violate the law on behalf of personally held moral values.

Definition of Terms:

Deviance- behavior inconsistent with the police culture’s norms or values

Corruption- immoral, habitual behavior involving misuse of office for self-interest

Favoritism- unfair or unjust acts (“breaks”) usually given to friends or relatives.

Misconduct- wrongful violations of a police department’s rules, policies, and procedures.

LEGITIMACY AND TRUST

Legitimacy and trust are complex issues in policing. Legitimacy refers to how fair or just
the outcomes of policing are, and trust refers to a faith in the procedural justice of
policing.

In practice, we combined the two into one big concept called TRUST and use the
following indicators:

Priorities (do the police share the same priorities as the public?)

Competency (do the police accomplish the requirements of their job?)

Dependability (are the police dependable?)

Respect (do the police treat people with respect?)

The indicators of shared priorities and respect are specific indicators of trust and the
indicators of competency and dependability are specific indicators of legitimacy. The
police need the public to have positive perceptions on all these indicators which are
usually seen as the “four dimensions of trust” in police studies. Researchers (Hawdon
et. Al. 2003) have found that about the only thing which is correlated with these
indicators is police visibility (the number of patrols in a neighborhood)

Whether or not police officers stop to informally talk with anybody doesn’t matter, and
neither does any attempt by police to engage in community policing. All that matter is
that police are seen out-and-about, presumably doing their job.

Image is everything, and a police officer who just needs to be seen, can be seen doing
anything, as long as it’s not ridiculous. From the point of view that visibility is the only
thing that matters, being seen sleeping in a car would be a worse offense than being
callous toward citizens.

ACTION OR SERVICE

It’s been called the “impossible mandate” (Manning & Van Maanen 1978), the
“ambivalent force” (Blumberg & Niederhoffer 1985), and the “unprofessional profession”
(Delattre 1996), among other terms, but the key idea is that a serious ROLE CONFLICT
exists in policing- a conflict between the role of action-oriented crime fighter and the role
of service-oriented public servant.

This conflict between being a crime fighter versus being a public servant is what causes
a police subculture to exist. There is a certain group think phenomenon that takes place
in police cultures, which result in everyone with the group thinking and acting the same.
Loyalty to co-workers is essential, and whistle blowing is extremely discouraged.

Loyalty had a dark side, and corruption and immorality can easily hide behind it. Packer
(1968) has defined the underlying conflict as one between the ideals of crime control
versus the ideals of due process, as follows:

CRIME CONTROL DUE PROCESS

(Assembly-line justice)
Efficiency (of operation)
Magnitude (speed and finality)
Expertness (few restrictions on fact
finding)
Factual guilt (we know you did it)
Presumption of guilt ( a mood of
confidence)
(obstacle course justice)
Error (possibility of mistake)
Quality control (no emphasis on finality)
Skepticism (moral, utilitarian restrictions)
Legal guilt (prove it in a court of law)
Presumption of innocence (a mood of
doubt)

When police try to accomplish both roles, the result is an institutionalized tolerance of
deviance at the extreme ends of both poles.
Therefore, under-enforcement (leniency in the name of due process) is as much a
problem as over-enforcement (zero tolerance in the name of crime control). The reason
why it’s hard to find the middle ground in such a role conflict situation can be discussed
as the problem of utilitarian limits.

With the ideal of due process, the means to an end must always be justified, hence
limiting the “any means necessary” mode of thought with the ideal of crime control. It’s
also possible to talk about this role conflict as a “love/hate” relationship between the
public and the police. Citizens love the police when they see them fighting an enemy
(not us, or at least not good people), and citizens are willing to defer to the expert power
of police as experts in knowing the enemy.

Citizens hate the police, ironically enough, when police engage in service activity,
attempting to serve all people (no enemy, or the enemy is us) and the aid police render
either accidentally violates the rights of the “good” guys or is seen as an insincere
attempt to escape the taint of being an historical tool of oppression for the powerful.
Police are literally in a “damned if I do/damned if I don’t” situation most of the time, and
this erodes any sense of objectivity needed for a balanced sense of ethics.

TOWARD A PUBLIC SERVICE ETHICS

While the bottom line for a private sector employee is economics, the bottom line for a
public service employee is ethics. Public service ethics is sometimes knows as a public
service ETHOS because it’s much broader than a professional ethics, and doesn’t just
involve integrity on the job, but the “calling” that comes before taking the job, the
challenges on and off the job, and the principles one maintains after the job (never and
“ex” employee, but a former employee).

The notion of serving the “public good” is what differentiates public from private service,
and once having shouldered some responsibility for the public good, one becomes
committed to a lifelong interest in it, if only to think about crafting solutions for the vital
interests of society. Ethos is the added value one brings to public service, and ethos is
important to be cultivated or else we lose what it means to be a “public servant”.

A public servant does more than deliver services to customers a client. They do more
than seek efficiencies in the interests of taxpayers. Rather, a public servant delivers
services to the public, a civic entity traditionally embraced by the concept of “citizenry”
which is a concept that transcends the individuals and interest groups which represent
its constituent parts. Within a civic society the delivery of programs to the public involves
responsibilities which derive from serving in the public interest.
Within a democratic society the delivery of those services represents the transmission
of the public will. A public servant delivers a public good that expresses a public intent,
and a public servant also has access to the coercive powers of government in seeing a
public thru to its implementation.

Because public servants have access to the coercive powers of government, watchdog
groups and the media expect public servants to be subject to a higher level of scrutiny
than shareholders expect of a company’s general managers. The reason is that publics
servants must be held accountable “to the people”.

This accountability is often at the level of policy determination, but does not preclude
some accountability at the implementation level. It is imperative that the policy decisions
of government are subject to scrutiny and public discussion, but it is dangerous if every
act of policy implementation is blocked. The public servant must be allowed to do their
job, but they should do more with the public interest in mind than blindly follow orders ro
see the job as nothing more than crime fighting.

DUTY, DISCRETION AND DISCRIMINATION

1. Duty consists of the responsibilities attached to a role;

2. Discretion is the ability to choose between two or more courses of action; and
3. Discrimination occurs when a group or individual is treated differently for no
justifiable reason.

These three terms are discussed together because they shed light on the problem of
what is the right thing to do when it is so often the case in policing that there is no
perfectly “right” thing to do. Take the duty to protect citizens, for instance.

A police officer’s time is valuable, and short, little, by-the-book encounters probably
don’t fully do justice to police duty in this respect. Because of either culture or policy,
police cannot usually promise to become personally involved or commit the resources of
the department beyond what the short encounter calls for. This can have negative
consequences of unfulfilled duty when it comes to domestic violence victims, for
example. Any officer who takes seriously their duty to protect would likely be over-
involved (in their department’s eyes),and be acting upon their personal ethics rather
than police ethics, and then the problem becomes what kind of personal ethics would
help such an officer survive the emotional turmoil that an attitude other than callousness
provides.

How officers use their discretion (to file a report or not, to answer a call or not, to stop
and investigate or not) is likewise a matter involving personal ethics. Police discretion
has been studied at length [see as a matter of style (legalistic, watchman, or service) or
personality type (idealist, optimist, enforcer, realist) but the fact is that full enforcement
of the law is impossible. Somebody must be let go some of the time, so what criteria
determine who and when? There is probably no fair or just way to establish such
criteria, and most observers simply describe two broad categories of criteria, sometimes
called “legal” and “extralegal” factors, as with the following examples for traffic
enforcement.

Ethical criteria Unethical criteria

How many miles over the speed limit Sexual attraction to motorist (or not)
Dangerousness of place Identity of the motorist
(school zone, work zone) Race of the motorist
The excuse given (late for work,etc)

The issue of fair criteria is more complex than these simple demarcations indicate. The
police culture again reinforces a consideration of the subject’s demeanor- the citizen’s
attitude and respect for the uniform. Some citizens fail to pass the attitude test, and
others are so downright happy to see the officer that they seem like police wannabes.

Of course, the wannabes are going to be let go, but does that mean every citizen has to
love and respect the police. No, it simply means that we often have a basic norm of
reciprocity, or etiquette, taking place. What’s needed is a police ethics that coincides
with a societal ethics based on principles of reciprocity, like “ I will do something for you
that you would do for me.”

Discrimination often occurs in situations where there’s no good solution, and no form of
ethics would be much help, whether it’s societal ethics, role ethics, cultural ethics, or
personal ethics. Police often confront “shocking” situations that break new ground in
their novelty and outrageousness. It’s part of the thrill of being a police officer, seeing
what new, weird thing is going to happen next. Such situations often occur with sexual
or racial overtones, and there’s something about these novel, spontaneous situations
that seems to produce a kind of “police humor”, that attempts to address the male nova
(evil because it’s new) of the situation. It’s usually done on spur-of-the-moment. Yet,
there is a pervasive belief among the public that police regularly engage in racial
profiling. Such perceptions have resulted in laws being passed and data collection
systems being put in

Corruption is a subtype of immorality, and all corrupt actions are a subtype of immoral
action. However, not all immorality is corruption, and not all immoral acts are corrupt
acts. For example, minor law breaking by a police officer might count as immoral
without being an act of corruption. Also, negligent acts are sometimes immoral, but not
necessarily corrupt. Corrupt acts have a number of properties that other immoral actions
do not possess, such as:
 (1) Corruption involves manifestation of a regular disposition or habit on the part of
the officer;
(2) Corruption exists when the law is seen as hopelessly inadequate and
irredeemable, such as when guilty offenders go unpunished; and
(3) Corruption is driven by narrow, personal or collective self-interest, such as the
financial gain of a group of employees or the career advancement of employee
(s).

Definitions of Corruption

Goldstein (1977)- defines corruption as “misuse of authority for personal gain.” Both
elements must be present for this definition to apply. In other words, there must be
some misuse of authority (malfeasance) and some personal gain.

McMullan (1961) – defines corruption as “accepting money or money’s worth for doing
something under a duty not to do or to do anyway.” This definition seems to get at
misfeasance and nonfeasance, and is generally regarded as relating to police
“productivity” problems or what is also called the “selective non-enforcement” issue.

Lundman (1980)- defines as “violations of conduct norms that are rarely enforced.” This
definition seems ideal for analyzing situations where a police subculture is a culture
within a culture, and probably fits most any kind of malfeasance, misfeasance, and non-
feasance. It has the advantage of focusing on “conduct” or actual behavior.

Pay raises and meaningful career paths would go along way at preventing corruption.
So would civilianization and the upgrading of educational qualifications. Job rotation is
also a technique managers might want to consider, as it moves employees around so
that they don’t spend time in any one place.

Police deviance is a much broader term than corruption. It includes all activities which
are inconsistent with norms, values or ethics (from a societal standpoint or even from
the police standpoint). A theorem in criminology is that it’s always fruitful to study when
people not only break society’s norms, but the norms of their own social group too. The
following definitions may be helpful:
  Deviance- behavior inconsistent with norms, values, or ethics.
 Corruption- forbidden acts involving misuse of office for gain
 Misconduct- wrongdoing violations of departmental procedures.
 Favoritism- unfair “breaks” to friends or relatives (nepotism)

Corruption is criminal conduct that can involve under-using one’s authority, overusing
one’s authority, or profiteering via one’s authority. The key element is misuse of official
authority; the gain can be personal or for the common good. Corruption is bad because
it undermines integrity, the state of policing being whole or undivided. Police
misconduct is impropriety of office, not misuse of authority. It’s wrongdoing, the
appearance of wrongdoing or puzzling behavior that violates standards usually set
down in departmental policies and procedures, for good reasons, that the employee
may or may not be cognizant. Misconduct is bad because is bad because it leaves the
public free to speculate and draw sweeping generalizations about the profession of
policing as a whole.

Types of Police Deviance

1. Police Gratuity
2. Police Perjury
3. Police Brutality
4. Police Profanity
5. Sex on Duty or Duty-Related
6. Sleeping on Duty
7. Drinking & Abusing Drugs on or off Duty
8. Misuse of Confidential Information

POLICE GRATUITY

A gratuity is the receipt of free meals, services or discounts. Nonfederal police usually
do not regard these as forms of corruption (“not another lecture on the free cup of coffee
or police discount”). These are considered fringe benefits of the job. Nevertheless, they
violate the Code of Ethics because they involve financial reward or gain, and they are
corruption because the officer has been placed in a compromising position where
favors (a “fix”) can be reasonably expected in the future. When there is an implied favor
(a “wink and nod”), it’s called “mooching”. When the officer is quite blatant about
demanding free services, it’s called “chiseling.”

Gratuities often lead to things like kickbacks (bribery) for referring business to towing
companies, ambulances or garages. Further up the scale comes pilfering, or stealing
(any) company’s supplies for personal use. At the extreme, opportunistic theft takes
place, with police officers skimming items of value that won’t be missed from crime
scenes, property rooms, warehouses, or any place they have access to. Theft of items
from stores while on patrol is sometimes called “shopping”.

POLICE PERJURY

This is usually a means to effect an act of corruption, leaving out certain pertinent
pieces of information in order to “fix” a criminal prosecution. “Dropsy” evidence is
typical, where the officer testifies untruthfully that he/she saw the offender drop some
narcotics or contraband. Lies that Miranda warnings have been given, when they
haven’t, are also typical. Lying in court is called “testifying”, and police can do it coolly;
they’re trained witnesses.

Other actors in the system, supervisors and even judges, are often aware of the perjury.
They pretend to believe police officers who they know are lying. Everybody’s happy with
the system. The cop gets credit for a good bust; the supervisor’s arrest statistics look
good; the prosecutor racks up another win; the judge gets to give his little lecture
without endangering his reelection prospects, the defense lawyer gets his fee in dirty
money, and the public is thrilled that another criminal is off the street (Dershowitz 1996)

Most perjury is committed by decent cops who honestly believe a guilty defendant will
go free unless they lie about something.

POLICE BRUTALITY

Brutality has been defined as excessive force, name calling, sarcasm, ridicule, and
disrespect (President’s Commission 1967). Other commissions have simply used a
vague definition as “any violation of due process”. Kania and Mackey’s (1977) widely-
regarded definition is “excessive violence, to an extreme degree, which does not
support a legitimate police function.” When a citizen charges police brutality, they may
be referring to a number of things, including:

 Profane or abusive language

 Commands to move or go home
 Field stops and searches
 Threats of implied violence
 Prodding with a nighstick or approaching with a pistol
 The actual use of physical force.

Only the last one of these (unreasonable and unnecessary actual use of physical force)
can be considered police brutality. This is common expressed as “more than excessive
force”. Police perjury and police brutality go hand in hand, as officers who commit
brutality will most likely lie on the stand to prevent the possibility of a lawsuit or
departmental charges. The reasons why an officer might engage in this kind of conduct
are many:

1. A small percentage may have been attracted to police work for the opportunity to
enjoy physically abusing and hurting somebody
2. An officer may come to believe “it’s a jungle out there”
3. An officer may be provoked and pushed beyond their endurance

The most common reason is occupational socialization and peer support. One common
belief is that it’s necessary to come down hard on those who resist arrest because they
may kill the next police officer who tries to arrest them (so you have to teach them a
lesson). Another practice is the “screen test”, police jargon for applying the brakes on a
police vehicle to that the handcuffed prisoner in back will be thrown against the metal
protective screen.

POLICE PROFANITY

There are many reasons why a police officer would use obscene and profane language.
Effective use of verbal communication is one of the skills expected in police work.
Concepts such as “command voice” and “command presence” are routinely taught at
police training academies. The FCC specifically condemns certain words on radio and
television that are “patently offensive”, but there’s no such mechanism for determining
what’s offensive with interpersonal communication. The following typology exists:

1. Words having religious connotations (e.g. hell, goddamn)

2. Words indicating excretory functions (e.g. shit, piss)
3. Words connected with sexual functions (e.g. fuck, prick)

Generally, words with religious connotations are considered the least offensive and
words connected with sexual functions are considered the most offensive. It’s
commonly the case, however, that use of such language by police officers is purposive
and not a loss of control or catharsis.

1. To gain the attention of citizen who may be less than cooperative

2. To discredit somebody or something, like an alibi defense
3. To establish a dominant-submissive relationship
4. To identify with an in-group, the offender or police subculture
5. To label or degrade an out-group

Of these, the last is of the most concern, since it may reflect the transition of prejudice
to discrimination, especially if racial slurs or epithets are involved. On the other hand,
profanity for innoculous purposes may very well be something that it is unrealistic to
expect will go away in policing or many other contexts.
SEX ON DUTY OR DUTY-RELATED

Contacts with promiscuous females and minimal supervision are part of the job. Sooner
or later, every police officer will be propositioned. There are a number of women who
are attracted to the uniform or the aura of the occupation. Every police officer will be
able to tell you stories about police “groupies”. These are women who make the rounds
by waving at officers, getting them to stop or pull over, and then set up meetings to have
sex with them, or sometimes right then and there. A woman such as this typically has
sex with whole departments and hundred of police officers. Other situations involve:

1. Traffic stops- to get a closer look at the female or information about her
2. Fox hunting- stopping college girls to get the I’ll do anything routine
3. Voyeurism- window peeping or interrupting lovers lane couples.
4. Victim re-contacts- consoling victims who have psychological needs.
5. Opposite sex strip searches- touching and/or sex with jail inmates
6. Sexual shakedowns- letting prostitutes go if they perform sex acts

On occasion, one hears about “rogue” officers who coerce women into having sex on
duty, “second rapes” of crime victims, and school liaison officers involved with juvenile
females, but such instances are rare because of the penalties involved. When police
sex cases come to the public attention, the department reaction is usually to
reemphasize the code of ethics.

SLEEPING ON DUTY

On the night shift, the police car is sometimes referred to as the “traveling bedroom”. In
police argot, a “hole” or “coop” is where sleeping takes place, typically the back room of
someplace the officer has a key and can engage in safe “cooping”. Police officers who
attend college during the day or moonlight at other jobs in order to make a decent living
are often involved in this kind of conduct. Numerous court appearances during the day
can also be a factor, along with the toll of shift work.

Sleeping on duty, of course, is just an extreme example of goldbricking, the avoidance

of work or performing only the amount minimally necessary to satisfy superiors.
Goldbricking can take many forms: from ignoring or passing on calls for service to
someone else; overlooking suspicious behavior, or engaging in personal business while
on duty.
DRINKING & ABUSING DRUGS ON OR OFF DUTY

There are endless opportunities to drink or take drugs while on duty (e.g. victim
interviews, shakedowns, contraband disposal) and the reasons for it are many: to get
high, addiction, stress, burnout, or alienation from the job. However, even in cases of
recreational usage (which doesn’t exist, since officers are never off-duty or have any of
their “own-time”), the potential is there for corruption. The officer must obtain the drugs
from some intermediary, involve others in transactions, and open the door to blackmail,
shakedowns, ripoffs, and coverups. It sets a bad example for public relations. It will
affect judgment, and lead to the greater likelihood of deadly force or traffic accidents.
Alcohol and drugs tend to be mixed by police officers because there’s more sub-cultural
support for alcoholism; thus the abuser covers up the drug use with alcoholism.

More intriguing is when the police become sellers or dealers of drugs. One occasionally
hears stories of officers selling drugs at rock concerts. The motivation here appears to
be monetary gain and greed, although there have been some attempts to claim stress
or undercover assignment as a defense. In cases were such officers have been
disciplined, plea bargained, or arbitrated, the courts have not upheld a job stress/drug
connection, although there is some precedent in rulings that job assignment may be a
factor in alcoholism.

MISUSE OF CONFIDENTIAL INFORMATION

This normally involves the jeopardization of ongoing investigations by “leaking”

information to friends, relatives, the public, the press, or in some cases, directly to the
criminal suspects or members of their gang. The officer may be unaware that they are
even engaging in this kind of conduct which may involve “pillow talk” in some instances.
Failed raids, for example, are often due to a leak in the department

In other cases, department resources, such as computer systems, may be used to

produce criminal history reports for “friends” of the department such as private
detectives, consulting firms, or area employers. Passwords can also slip out, granting
access to computer network information. In rare cases, police resources are put to use
in blackmailing political figures. In general, however, cracking down on secrecy
violations has produced more problems than it has solved. Part of the reason for the
current fragmented condition of American law enforcement rests upon a false sense of
security derived from overdone needs for secrecy.
LAW ENFORCER

“Law enforcer” is one whose prime authority is to enforce the law and whose
constitutional duty is to preserve peace, to defend and protect the people.

There are several law enforcement officers appointed and designated by operation of
law. Police officer is just one of them. Thus, there is indeed a clear delineation of duties
and responsibilities and definition of jurisdiction in the application of their respective law
enforcing authority.

As distinguished from other law enforcers, a police officer is a general law enforcer who
executes and enforces all existing general, local, special and penal laws other than
those specifically and exclusively assigned to other law enforcement agencies of the
government.

HOW TO ENFORCE THE LAW

A law enforcer is presumed to know the law he has sworn to enforce. One must not be
allowed to exercise and perform the delicate duty as a law enforcer unless the knows
how to enforce and execute the law, including its boundaries and limitations otherwise,
abuses, anarchy and lawlessness shall prevail.

Law enforces must:

1. Know the ability to learn how they are interpreted by the courts;
2. Have the ability to learn how they are interpreted by the courts;
3. Know how to properly execute and enforce such laws;
4. Know how and when to properly effect the arrest of offenders;
5. Have the technical and legal know-how to protect and defend the innocent from
harassment, and prosecute offenders who are probably guilty of a felony or a
crime.

Unless the foregoing mandatory requirements are accomplished satisfactorily, a new

graduate from the police academy and other law enforcement training centers must not
be allowed to join or be appointed as a regular member of the Philippine National police
or any law enforcement agency of the government. To do otherwise is by itself a
deliberate violation of the constitution, a disservice to the people, and at their useless
and unjustifiable expense and prejudice.
WHAT CAN BE DONE TO RESTORE ETHICS?

What can be done to restore ethics at your agency, at your classroom, at your home, or
simply in your day-to-day life, will depend on you.

Recommendations Essential in Restoring Ethics

(by Sam S Souryal):

1. Talk about ethics. Make it a household term. The power of ethics is the power of
the truth. It will make you a stronger as a person, as a criminal justice
practitioner, and as an agent of change.
2. If you search for the truth, you will find it. Stick with principles, because anything
that is not grounded in principle is meaningless. Transcend opinions, beliefs,
desires, conveniences, and most certainly, political correctness. Do not suffice
with half-truths or convenient compromises.
3. Demand ethical solution to common problems. Do not succumb to social, legal,
or organizational clichés. In addition to laws and regulations, seek out what is
right and avoid what is wrong.
4. Create an environment conducive to civility everywhere you are. Set the tone for
civil thoughts, talks, and interactions. These can exhilarate your mind and soul.
Be optimistic-it better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.
5. Do not laugh at unethical statements, stories, slurs, or jokes. They are not funny
anymore. Remember that little people laugh at little things, and the civilization of
people is also measured by what they do not laugh at.
6. Reinforce ethical principles by rewarding those who practice them, regardless of
how minute the practice is or how sympolic the reward may be.
7. Read philosophical literature and enjoy good books. They can reinforce your
ethical stamina. Refer them to your subordinates, colleagues, and superiors, so
that they might grow along with you.
8. Monitor your commitment to justice, the summum bonum of all virtues. Test you r
sense of justice by regularly examining your decisions-whom did they favor and
whom they did not, and why.
9. Keep your soul active, clean, alert and rejuvenated. Develop a passion for
defending right causes and denouncing wrong ones-especially if they do not
involve you. It is more ethically rewarding to defend others than to defend
yourself.
10. Ethics must rendered first and foremost by you. Others should account for their
own actions.
Activity VII

I- Fill in the blanks. Supply the correct answer at the end of the statement.
1. _____________ is the concealment or distortion of truth in a matter of fact
relevant of one’s office or connected with the performance of his duties.
2. ____________ is the manifest lack of adequate ability and fitness for the
satisfactory performance of police duties.
3. ____________ is the doing, either through ignorance, inattention or malice, of
that which the officer had no legal right to do all.
4. ___________imports an act of cruelty, severity, unlawful execution, domination
or excessive use of authority.
5. ___________ is the improper performance of some act which might be lawfully
done.
6. __________ is the binding spirit that enhances teamwork and cooperation in the
police organization.
7. _____________ is the receipt of free meals, services, or discounts.
8. ______________ a means to affect an act of corruption, leaving out certain
pertinent pieces of information in order to “fix” a criminal prosecution.
9. _______________ has been defined as excessive force, name calling, sarcasm,
ridicule and disrespect.
10. _____________ is one whose prime authority is to enforce the law and whose
constitutional duty is to preserve peace, to defend and protect the people.
11. ______________ has been defined as excessive force, name calling, sarcasm,
ridicule and disrespect.
12. _____________ is a subtype of immorality and all corrupt actions are a subtype
of immoral action.
13. ___________ refers to how fair or just the outcomes of policing.
14. _____________ refers to a faith in the procedural justice of policing.
15. _____________ is the omission or refusal, without sufficient excuse, to perform
an act or duty, which it was the Peace Officer’s legal obligation to perform
16. ___________ is the improper performance of some act which might be lawfully
done.
17. ___________ is the doing, either through ignorance, inattention, or malice of that
which the officer had no legal right to do all.
18. In the performance of duty, PNP members shall respect and protect human
dignity and uphold the ______________ of all persons.
19. The perception that a police _________ exists that either turns good officers bad
or tolerates evil in the midst of policing
20. The perception that most of policing is just a front for ________________
II- Essay
1. What is the essence of the Police Officers Creed in the life of a policeman?
2. What is the importance of Professional Ethics? Explain
3. What can be done to restore ethics at your agency? Explain.
4. What is the prime authority of the law enforcer? Explain.
5. Differentiate the term police profanity from police brutality.
6. Enumerate types of police deviance and explain each
7. Define the word corruption in three ways.
8. Explain Neglect of Duty, Irregularities in the Performance of Duty and Misconduct
9. Why should PNP members should respect and protect human dignity and uphold
the human rights of all persons?
10. What are the two possible causes of public mistrust for police ethics? Explain