INTRODUCTION

POLICE ETHICS AND COMMUNITY RELATIONS

Given the Filipino publics fascination with the moral dimensions of police
behavior, the shortage of studies and training in the area of police ethics is surprising.
Newspapers have, for generations, transformed police scandals into front-page stories.
In recent years, newspaper readers, television viewers and movie-goers have been
bombarded with stories about police brutality, inefficiency, and corruption. The public
has been besieged with the image that a significant proportion of police officers are lazy,
corrupt, and brutal, and that the moral standards of the average officer are pretty low .
Although the public may have a fixed, jaded image of the police community as
upholders of justice on paper only, police work, in reality, largely involves routine social
services and human relations tasks . Most officers only occasionally engage in formal
enforcement of the law. Therefore police work involves less use of force than its
perceived image, and currently has fewer oppurtunities for corruption than most people
imagine.
Police agencies provide policy and guidance procedures for most situations, but
not all possibilities can be taken into account in advance. Police discretion is an inherent
component of the law enforcement system. It requires individual officers to make quick,
balanced decisions. He or she must be aware of human rights and of person involeved in
encounter with them, while maintaning a sensitity to social, political, and economic
surrounding. Officers with high moral and ethical standards would decide under the same
set of circumstances. Todays Police are trained extensively about how to respond in
critical or emergency situations, but very seldom do they receive formal training in ethics
and community relations.

The following study will cover case studies of police ethics, and will introduce the
increasing importance of such standards. Included are some simple training techniques
that should help reinforce officers ethical and moral values, while improving their
community relation skills.

History
Police ethics and community relations are probably more important in todays society
than in any previous generation. To help us understand the importance of police ethics, we need
to examine the different levels of police corruption through the years. We should try to determine
where an officer should draw the line of ethics right or wrong . The police had started out on
foot patrols and tended to the needs of citizens on a personal, one-to-one basis. The problem with
this was that officer became to involved with the citizens they served. Some officers would look
the other way when a friend or someone he socialized with, had broken the law. The need for
improved ethics and professionalism, gradually the years steered police officers away, from
personal interaction and direct community relations.
In recent years law enforcement has begun to move back to community policing. The need to
establish a high standard of police ethics is now greater than it has ever been. If we are to
succeed in community policing .

Definition of Ethics
As a field of study, ethics is a branch of philosophy which studies the principles of right
or wrong in human conduct. Right or wrong are qualities assigned to actions, conduct, and
behavior. As such, ethicists inquire into the correctness of such acts as promise keeping, truth
telling, integrity, deception, and characterize ends, goals, and purposes. As such, ethicists inquire
into the reasons for living and working; the goals that should be pursued in order to lead a
successful life; and the purposes that should motivate people in their life choices (Porter, 1980)

It comes from the Latin word athos means customary. behavior, moral. The two words
Latin Ethicus and Greek ethikos have the same meaning which is customary.
Other Definitions:
-Science of the morality of man
-Study of human motivation and ultimately of human ratioanal behavior
-Morality

Importance of Ethics
-Indespensable Knowledge
-Without moral perception, man is only an animal.
-Without morality, man as rational being is a failure.

Community Relations