Police Culture Often Influences Unethical Behavior

Seven members of the Chicago Police Department elite cops were arraigned in court for a series of charges. The charges include murder, robbery with violence, kidnapping, and invasion of residential areas. The officers belonged to a particular unit called the Special Operations Section (SOS). The unit's primary role is to deal with murder crimes in the city is as this had made Chicago the murder capital of the united states. Keith Herrera, one of the seven

members charged for the above cases shared his story with the Federal investigators.

Officer, Herrera may have started out with high hopes of becoming the best officer he could be but somewhere along the line, he have become a follower rather than a leader. Officer Herrera wants to serve his community with dignity.

Some examples of Officer Herrera’s unethical behavior were altering reports, roughing people up without warrants, and accepting (drug) money. In response to prosecutors who were critical of his behavior, Herrera responded with, “I say I was doing' my job.

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I went to work every day, put my star on, put my gun on and got the bad guys off the street. -I was doing my job and I was told I was doing a good job.” Despite facing the possibility of incarceration, at the time, Herrera sounds unremorseful. This, supports the belief that similar to his fellow officers, Herrera was conditioned to act in this unethical manner.

Consistently because he was told he was doing a good job. Ultimately, the system is to blame for this unethical behavior.

The police culture of that specific department told Herrera (and his fellow officers) that unethical decisions were normal and to be encouraged. As a recruit, had Herrera’s superiors acted in an ethical manner, they would have led by example and conditioned him to act in a virtuous manner. Unfortunately, because of his police culture, Herrera was conditioned to act in an unethical manner because these actions were not only condoned but encouraged.

Currently, due to a history of similar unethical police actions, police are focusing less and less on utilitarian concepts. This, is because using people as a means to an end can often result in not only an unethical decision, but the harm of an individual(s). Similar to grassroots groups, each and every officer has the decision whether to participate in unethical decisions.

However, I recognize that the police cultures often influence this unethical behavior. Overall, to combat this issue of unethical behavior, police departments and communities should unite and reconstruct departments from the bottom to the top.