Читать книгу Police in America - Steven G. Brandl - Страница 14

“Policing a democracy is not an easy task. It’s difficult and messy. Yet police in a democracy must always operate within the rule of law. They must always apply our shared values to the difficult daily tasks of resolving conflict, protecting unpopular people and causes, and always acting fair and respectful to those who at the time are not conducting themselves properly—those who are intoxicated, affected by other drugs, surly, disrespectful, and even violent. That’s what police in a Bill of Rights do. And those who wish not to do that should not be our police.

So who can perform such a difficult task? I have said this before and I will say it again—only those who are the best of us, only those who are well-educated and well-trained, and only those who know about and can put into practice our closely-held and core values of freedom, individual rights, rule of law, fairness, and equality.”¹

—David C. Couper, former Madison (WI) police chief

The aim of this chapter is to introduce the fundamental purposes of and controversies involving the police and to discuss how police officers are constantly dealing with ethical and moral issues in their work.