Reflections on the Opposition of Moral Principles and Code of Ethics in

the Law Enforcement

It is not uncommon for a law enforcement officer to find himself in the midst of
a tug-of-war between morality and ethics. This situation happens very often in an
officer’s career as there are times when what is ethical may not necessarily be
moral, and vice versa.

Although the two terms both relate to “right” and “wrong”, there is a difference
between them in the sense that ethics “refer to rules set or provided by an external
source”, while morals “refer to one’s own principles regarding right and wrong”.

Most officers hate to be embroiled in an administrative case for misconduct,

but a problem occurs when an officer’s overzealousness to solve a case forces him
to resort to extralegal means. Like for example when an officer has custody of a well-
known criminal who vehemently denies any participation in a crime, or clams up
when interrogated and demands representation of a lawyer. The problem arises
when the officer is convinced that this particular individual is the author of the crime
based on the officer’s familiarity with his modus operandi and thus resorts to
extralegal means to extract a confession. Morally, this may appear to him as “right”
as he believes he is duty-bound to solve a case. Ethically, it is reprehensible, as he
is also bound by the Code of Ethics to respect the rights of any person in his
custody. As has been said, “The end does not justify the means.”.

This scenario is a dilemma that confronts most law enforcement officers in

their everyday lives. The almost daily struggle to reconcile ethical conduct with his
moral convictions is what sometimes holds him back to perform his duties for fear of
reprisal. This affects not only the effectiveness of the individual officer but
collaterally, also seriously compromises the ability of the entire law enforcement
agency to combat criminality.