The New Police Officer:
Integrity and Temptation

Author:  by Edwin J. Delattre, December 1994

Edwin J. Delattre of Boston University is professor of education and dean of the School of Education and professor of philosophy, College of Liberal Arts. He is an adjunct scholar of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research in Washington, DC, and president emeritus of St. John's College, Annapolis, Maryland, and Santa Fe, New Mexico. Dr. Delattre is the author of two books, Education and the Public Trust and Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing. Dr. Delattre is a frequent lecturer at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va.

Whenever a person enters a new walk of life, such as policing, there is a natural desire to fit in, to be accepted, to overcome the signs of being a newcomer and an outsider. The new police officer needs to learn early that the desire to fit in and be accepted can lead to trouble if the department and its members have bad habits -- if the department tolerates or even fosters corruption, brutality, incompetence, bigotry, acceptance of gratuities and other wrongful conduct.

Every newcomer has a personal history and brings individual hopes, ambitions, purposes, and ideals to the new job. These may or may not suit the line of work the person is entering. Every walk of life also calls upon the newcomer to change in some ways. The principal challenge of all careers is to preserve what is best in ourselves and to change in ways that better us -- but in policing, and all other lines of work, there can be, and often are, temptations to forsake our best selves and to change for the worse.

One of my closest friends in policing began his career with a partner who solicited bribes from bar and restaurant owners on his beat--money, cigarettes, liquor--in exchange for favors from him. As a newcomer, my friend might have "gone along to get along" and accepted the share of the bribes his partner wanted him to take. But he did not want to be that kind of cop, and so he asked his sergeant for a different partner. He did not make a big deal of it, but said that he thought he would be better off learning from someone else. His sergeant assigned him to a different partner, and he has gone on to a distinguished career as a leader in policing.

Being a police officer has helped my friend to become an exceptionally fine person over the years, but he knew from the outset that he wanted to be an honest cop. He never compromised his honesty to get along or to be accepted. There are many thousands of police exactly like him, but newcomers are likely to meet some who are not so honest or honorable.

Cops who are dishonest, brutal to suspects, foul-mouthed and prejudiced in dealing with the public, and otherwise unworthy of the badge want other police to behave as they do. Bad cops do not fear detection by other bad cops, but they are afraid of good cops. So they can and do put pressure on newcomers to share bribes, coop (sleep on duty in secret places), drink on the job, use or deal drugs, accept sexual favors from prostitutes, knowingly use too much force, file false reports, commit perjury, and otherwise betray honorable and trustworthy police as well as the public.

Once experienced police succeed in involving newcomers in their corrupt schemes or brutal practices, they can manipulate and control them to their own advantage. If the newcomers go along a little bit to get along, there will probably be pressure to go farther along later -- a supposedly harmless gratuity today, an outright bribe tomorrow. The slope of wrongdoing is steep and slippery, and it is important not to step onto it at all.

Academy and Field Training

New recruits and probationary officers should be especially alert to discrepancies between academy and field training. In some police departments,this is a real problem. Academy instructors teach newcomers departmental standards, expectations,and policies for performance on the job, and then officers in the field, including FTOs, tell the newcomers that what they learned in the academy "has nothing to do with reality." They tell new police officers that academy teachers "don't know how it is on the streets" and "don't know how we do the job."

It is terribly unfair for new police to be put in this position. With little or no experience, they have to choose between academy lessons and street lessons, between academy instructors and field officers. Sometimes, academy instructors do not know the streets and are not very good teachers. Sometimes, field training officers are not very competent and have not been carefully screened for their jobs. What is a newcomer to do?

Right and Wrong

The most important fact to remember in answering the question of what to do is this: Some ways of behaving are always wrong, no matter who says otherwise. Some ways of behaving are always right, no matter who says otherwise. Here are some basics about right and wrong to keep in mind.

• It is always wrong for a police officer to accept money or other goods or services in exchange for favors of any kind. The only honest dollar is the officer's salary, and everything else can be compromising. It does not matter whether other police, mayors, judges and lawmakers accept gifts of value and extort bribes; doing so is still always wrong.
• It is always wrong deliberately to use more force than is necessary, whether to apprehend or subdue a suspect, quiet a situation, or for any other purpose. It is always wrong for police to beat people up in order to "punish" them, to rough up suspects in custody or in handcuffs, and to use the badge as an excuse to assault others.
• It is always wrong to falsify or plant evidence against anyone, to file false reports or to commit perjury. It does not matter whether the purpose of falsification is to protect police who have behaved wrongly or to secure conviction of suspects. Falsification, frame-ups, and perjury are always wrong.
• It is always wrong to prejudge others because of color, gender, ethnic background, nationality, or any other fact of birth. People deserve to be treated as individuals, not as mere members of groups they happen to belong to by birth. It is always wrong to use denigrating words to refer to the gender, color, or origins of others. It is always wrong to enforce the law differently with people who differ only in color, gender, economic condition, and the like.
• It is always wrong to give illegal substances or prescription drugs to informants (or anyone else). It is always wrong to skim money or drugs from drug busts, even with the intention of harming drug dealers.
• It is always wrong to bring a hangover to work or to use alcohol on the job or to consume illegal substances of any kind at any time.
• It is always wrong to commit acts that put pressure on a partner or other police to lie or cover up wrongdoing. True friends never call upon one another to betray the badge and honorable service by lying or looking the other way because of a misguided sense of loyalty. A cop who expects another cop to lie for the sake of friendship or loyalty is always wrong.
• It is always wrong to fail to back up a partner or other officers in a dangerous situation or to place another officer or member of the public in a needlessly dangerous situation.

No list of rights and wrongs is ever complete. But the above list covers the areas where police are most frequently tempted or pressured to do wrong. Such rights and wrongs should not be difficult for any officer to remember, even if living up to the duties of honorable and trustworthy policing is sometimes difficult. It is sometimes harder to do what is right than to know what is right.

Entering dangerous situations and backing up other officers or taking the lead are frightening. Doing one's best in danger takes courage, just as it takes courage to resist peer pressure to participate in a cover up of police brutality or corruption. The temptation can be very powerful to lie to secure the conviction of a suspect known to be dangerous and bad. Resisting such temptation requires deep respect for justice, law, and individual rights.

Policing can be frustrating, boring, and repetitious, and watching bad people get away with crimes can cause deep feelings of outrage. Temptations to respond by drinking too much or using illegal drugs may result, and only police of real self-control, temperance, and self-respect will successfully resist. They will remember that they owe their partners and the public their very best every day -- and that doing less than their best plays into the hands of criminals and predators among us.

Compromises

At the same time, most people want to be liked and are inclined toward compromise when they fear being unpopular. There is nothing wrong with compromise as such; rather, the question is which particular compromises we should be willing to make. A police officer who will not compromise with a partner about where to take a meal break soon becomes impossible to bear. But an officer who will compromise with brutality or corruption in order to be popular cannot be trusted by anyone. "Integrity," as one law enforcement recruit class said in their motto, "is not negotiable."

Good police and police leaders have always understood that integrity is not negotiable, that no one can honorably compromise with police corruption and brutality. In 1969, retired New York City Police Commissioner Michael J. Murphy described the highest purposes of police training and the standards of the finest men and women who serve as police:

The purpose of police training is to produce strong and brave men. Not men of physical courage alone, but men of great moral courage who can face unflinchingly the hoots and jeers of weaker men, who secretly respect and envy them....The ability and desire to resist temptation, to fight against the "easy way" is the test of the man. Yet, sadly enough, that desire may be attacked by a host of aggravating doubts and concessions and convenient self-serving alibis which can weaken a man's ability to resist and cause him to bury his beliefs and his conscience. To the strong man this is no problem. He knows his course of action, he has studied the consequences of weakness, and he refuses to surrender. His will is so strong that he is generally labeled harsh and inflexible. Just how many such strong men are there? Every person wants to be liked. It takes great moral stamina to make the right decision which generally is unpopular. 1

The most "convenient self-serving alibi" for corruption and other wrongdoing I hear in policing and other walks of life is, "Other people do it." Cops who are dirty, or who are drifting toward corruption, convince themselves, "Drug dealers are getting rich, judges are selling sentences, the mayor is on the take, the chief is dirty, everybody is getting something but me. I'm underpaid, under appreciated, and overworked. I deserve better." All of this is nothing but a whining excuse for self-indulgence. It cannot be part of any honorable compromise or of decency in any form of public service, including policing. People who are tempted by such alibis are better off in jobs that are less important and less demanding than policing.

The Golden Rule

While police work sometimes brings out the worst in people, or grinds them down and leaves them worn out and bitter, the challenges and opportunities in policing often bring out the best in people. The opportunity to be of service to others every day, even when they are not very grateful, is not given to many people; police are very special in this respect. To help the injured and lost, to safeguard the innocent, to come to the aid of another officer or citizen in danger, to prevent an accident or save a life, to solve a dreadful crime and arrest the perpetrator, to become part of a neighborhood and encourage children toward healthy activities rather than criminal careers--such satisfying opportunities come to many police.

Much more time is spent by most police in providing services than in enforcing law, and much of the time the best guide for any officer is the Golden Rule: "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you." Treat others as you would most want any police officer anywhere to treat your own loved ones. Remember that most of the people who need your help are someone's loved ones, and all of them deserve your consideration.

Integrity and Private Life

Among the most dangerous of all temptations in policing is the pull to let the job become all-consuming. There is nothing wise or healthy about letting any job overwhelm private life, especially when the job involves stresses of the kind that are customary in policing. All of us need time to relax, enjoy friends and family who are not police, and engage in hobbies or sports and other activities that are good for us emotionally and physically. We need to think about things other than our jobs, to improve our minds by new learning that is not job-related, to keep ourselves in focus by recognizing that our jobs do not entirely define us. A police officer is not merely a police officer, but also a citizen, a friend, a family member, a person.

Despite these important differences between the job and private life, there is one vivid way in which the two are indivisible. Integrity means being the same person in both public and private, no matter whether anyone is watching or could catch us at wrongdoing. Integrity means applying habits of justice, self-control, courage, honesty, compassion applying the Golden Rule at work, at home, and everywhere else. Integrity means living up to our best selves wherever we are. Of course, when we become accustomed to living our lives in such a way, then we can usually trust and rely on ourselves when the going gets rocky or the pressures get bad. Integrity comes from practice and exercise in doing the right thing, just as physical strength and stamina come from the regular exercise of our bodies and powers of concentration.

No one of good sense believes that the achievement of integrity in public and private life is easy. No one of experience in and with policing supposes that the job itself is easy or that temptations to do less than one's best are trivial. No one who knows policing and its history can possibly believe that corruption, brutality, incompetence, bigotry, and dishonesty are small problems. They have been, and are, very real problems, and few police are entirely spared exposure to at least some of them in the course of a career. But everyone who knows policing well knows that great numbers of police officers and police leaders are worthy of the public trust because they are people of integrity. They make sacrifices -- often profound ones -- for the public good; they never go "on the pad;" they do not participate in cover-ups; they use reasonable force and are not brutal; and they give their best at work and at home each day. All people of integrity make honest mistakes, and on some days their best is better than on other days. No one is infallible. But policing has been, and is, rich with honorable sworn and civilian personnel.

New police, who will one day be the senior members and leaders of their departments, need to recognize the pitfalls in policing and dedicate themselves early to honorable service. Knowing how to behave honorably is not so complicated. But staying resolute, staying dedicated, is demanding. The demand goes with the job. As with all other police, newcomers will find it useful to remember that whether we live our lives well or badly is up to each of us as an individual, and that, finally, nothing is incorruptible except personal character that will not be corrupted.

1 Michael J. Murphy, "Moral Problems for Police," in eta. Clarence H. Faust and Jessica Feingold, Approaches to Education for Character: Strategies for Change in Higher Education (New York: Columbia University Press, 1969), p. 345.

The National Executive Institute Associates Leadership Bulletin editor is Edward J. Tully. He served with the FBI as a Special Agent from 1962 to 1993. He is presently the Executive Director of the National Executive Institute Associates and the Major City Chiefs. You can reach him via e-mail at tullye@aol.com or by writing to 308 Altoona Drive, Fredericksburg, Virginia 22401