Law Enforcement Ethics
Question Bank
Course Introduction
Law Enforcement Ethics examines the moral and ethical challenges faced by professionals within police and law enforcement agencies. The course explores foundational ethical theories, the role of personal and professional values, and the responsibilities law enforcement officers hold within their communities. Through case studies and scenario analyses, students will consider issues such as use of force, corruption, discrimination, accountability, confidentiality, and the importance of ethical leadership. By the end of the course, students will be equipped with practical decision-making tools and frameworks to navigate complex ethical dilemmas in their future careers.
Recommended Textbook
The Police in America An Introduction 8th Edition by Samuel Walker
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15 Chapters
1038 Verified Questions
1038 Flashcards
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Page 2
Chapter 1: Police and Society
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68 Verified Questions
68 Flashcards
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Sample Questions
Q1) Problem-oriented policing represents a(n) _________________ approach.
A)reactive
B)proactive
C)tactical
D)intellectual
E)academic
Answer: B
Q2) The belief that crime scene investigators play a major role in investigating and solving crimes is known as the
A)crime fighter image.
B)community policing role.
C)indirect investigator.
D)CSI Effect.
Answer: D
Q3) Police contribute to social control through both
A)information and informants.
B)prosecutor relationships.
C)community and political contacts.
D)law enforcement and order maintenance.
Answer: D
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Chapter 2: The History of the American Police
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Sample Questions
Q1) During the nineteenth century, a major issue for political reformers of police was A)training.
B)organizational professionalism.
C)corruption.
D)salaries.
Answer: C
Q2) The Germans had the greatest influence in the development of American policing. A)True
B)False
Answer: False
Q3) An important figure in American law enforcement appointed in the 1930s as the Director of the Bureau of Investigation was known as A) Ernesto Miranda.
B)J.Edgar Hoover.
C)Elliot Ness.
D)Darryl Gates.
Answer: B
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Chapter 3: The Contemporary Law Enforcement Industry
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the major weakness with accreditation?
A)Accreditation is mandatory and the process is long.
B)he standards are too high.
C)The standards are not universally applicable.
D)There is no penalty for not being accredited.
Answer: D
Q2) The number of civilian employees continues to increase in city police departments.
A)True
B)False
Answer: True
Q3) Why are most departments below their authorized strength?
A)Police budgets are not large enough to cover the hiring of more officers.
B)Nationwide, police have high turnover.
C)Most police departments have a hard time retaining officers.
D)This is due to retirements, resignations, and terminations.
Answer: D
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Chapter 4: Police Organizations
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Sample Questions
Q1) Friendship patterns are important in the management of a police department.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Robert Peel designed the London Metropolitan Police Department along the lines of
A)the Catholic Church
B)the shipping bureaucracy
C)the East Indian Tea Company
D)the military
Q3) An important criticism of the quasi-military style is the
A)potential abuse of tax funds.
B)potential abuse of military-police authority.
C)increase of personnel morale under false pretenses.
D)the cultivation of an "us versus them" attitude.
Q4) A set of formal and legally binding procedures governing personnel decisions is called civil service.
A)True
B)False
Q5) How are the police different the military?
Q6) What are the major criticisms of the bureaucratic form of organization?
Page 6
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Chapter 5: Police Of cers I: Entering Police Work
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Sample Questions
Q1) The most useful measure of employment practices is the extent to which a police department
A)is able to pay and retain all of its police applicants through the first two years of employment.
B)is able to hire qualified police applicants and reduce its liability to the city.
C)reflects the composition of the community it serves.
D)is measured by the number of appeals to the civil service commission by rejected applicants.
Q2) Most officers select the opportunity to exercise authority and power as a main reason for wanting to be a police officer.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The number and quality of persons in the applicant pool depend in part on a department's
A)recruitment budget.
B)reaction to the economy.
C)ability to secure federal funding.
D)recruitment effort.
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Chapter 6: Police Of cers II: on the Job
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Sample Questions
Q1) Many people are attracted to a career in policing for A)job security.
B)the potential for exciting work, particularly crime fighting tasks.
C)professional status and opportunities for career advancement.
D)a secure pension and medical insurance.
Q2) The disillusionment that new officers experienced with their own department is the discovery of A)favoritism.
B)incompetence.
C)department politics.
D)city influence.
Q3) Research by the Police Foundation indicates that African American officers are generally more conscious of A)physical fitness and race issues.
B)community and force issues.
C)poverty and education issues.
D)entitlement and housing issues.
Q4) What were the findings of the Police Foundation study of policewomen on patrol?
Q5) Explain how the "code of silence" affects a police department.
Q6) Explain the concept of a police subculture.
Page 8
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Chapter 7: Patrol: the Backbone of Policing
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is the easiest way for a patrol officer to avoid work?
A)procrastinate with report writing
B)delay reporting completion of a call
C)take extra lunch time
D)turn off the two-way radio
Q2) Because of community policing, most patrolling done today is foot patrol.
A)True
B)False
Q3) Modern police departments have instituted written policies in an attempt to control high-speed pursuits.These policies fall into general categories.Which category limits discretion by specifying the conditions under which pursuits may be initiated?
A)discouraging
B)restrictive
C)discretionary
D)judgmental
Q4) Criminal law enforcement represents only a minority of all calls to the police department.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 8: Peacekeeping and Order Maintenance
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Sample Questions
Q1) What percentage of police departments has special units for drug education in schools?
A)25 percent
B)33 percent
C)51 percent
D)100 percent
Q2) The Center for Disease Control (CDC) found that not a single police officer in the United States has ever contracted HIV/AIDS as a result of a work-related exposure
A)True
B)False
Q3) Which of the following is the strategy most often taken by the police in managing juvenile crime?
A)education drop-out prevention
B)gang prevention
C)drug prevention
D)law enforcement
Q4) Miethe and McCorkle suggest that there are five different types of prostitutes.Explain each of those types.
Q5) What are the four citizen expectations, as proposed by John C.Meyer?
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Chapter 9: The Police and Crime
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Sample Questions
Q1) The D.A.R.E.program is an example of a __________ for controlling drugs.
A)demand reduction strategy
B)reduction through education strategy
C)reduction through treatment strategy
D)supply reduction strategy
Q2) What are three reasons that a police officer might unfound a crime?
Q3) What does it mean to "unfound" a crime?
A)when police officers complete crime reports
B)when police officers enter the crime report into the UCR
C)when police officers fail to make an arrest
D)when police officers do not complete a crime report
Q4) Eyewitness identification is problematic in investigations as the victim is often A)wrong about the crime.
B)wrong about what happened.
C)revengeful in their complaint.
D)traumatized by the crime.
Q5) The worst corruption in police departments has been found in drug prevention.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 10: Innovations in Police Strategy
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Sample Questions
Q1) How does zero tolerance differ from community policing?
A)Zero tolerance is not based on the broken windows theory.
B)Zero tolerance focuses on crime prevention.
C)Zero tolerance assumes that communities in need are least likely to have strong social institutions.
D)Zero tolerance moves away from the crime attack model.
Q2) In community policing, managers are expected to assist neighborhood officers in A)developing neighborhood contacts.
B)acquiring resources.
C)facilitating training opportunities.
D)all of these
Q3) At the end of the CAPS program, citizens reported that there were no significant changes in the quality of life in the area.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The defining feature of problem solving is that it requires the participants to identify the underlying causes of problems rather than simply respond to the problem itself.
A)True
B)False
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Chapter 11: Police Discretion
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Sample Questions
Q1) What are the situational factors that influence discretionary decision making by police officers?
Q2) The police continue to promote the "myth of full enforcement" for five reasons.What are those reasons?
Q3) The neighborhood environment influences officer discretion.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are the three examples of administrative rulemaking used in your text? Explain each in detail.
Q5) According to the text, definitions of crimes are extremely precise.
A)True
B)False
Q6) The approach of guiding police officers' discretion via written policy is known as A)officer constraint.
B)administrative rulemaking.
C)abolishment.
D)discretionary preservation.
Q7) What are the three basic strategies for controlling discretion?
Q8) Explain the five underlying sources of police discretion.
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Chapter 12: Legitimacy and Community Relations
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Sample Questions
Q1) One study suggests that police are more likely to stop drivers who in their judgment are "out of place;" that is they will stop whites in African American neighborhoods in a similar fashion to stopping African Americans in white neighborhoods.
A)True
B)False
Q2) Young people rate the police less favorably than older people.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The name of the commission created to investigate the Los Angeles Police Department after the 1991 Rodney King incident was
A)the L.A.Kissinger Commission.
B)the Wickersham Commission.
C)the Christopher Commission.
D)the King Investigatory Commission.
Q4) What is the largest minority group in America?
A)African Americans
B)Hispanics/Latinos
C)Asians
D)Haitians
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Chapter 13: Police Corruption
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Sample Questions
Q1) According to Carter and Barker, ____________ includes actions that tends "to injure, insult, trespass upon human dignity ...and/or violate an inherent legal right" of a citizen
A)police violence
B)police profiteering
C)abuse of authority
D)occupational deviance
E)police perks
Q2) The Rampart Scandal occurred in the city of Boston.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The subculture of policing is a major factor in corruption.It initiates officers into corrupt activities, sustains them, and engages in covering them up.
A)True
B)False
Q4) What are the components of an effective internal corruption control program?
Q5) What are the six costs of police corruption?
Q6) The textbook suggests that there are three levels of corruption.Identify and explain them.
Page 15
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Chapter 14: Accountability of the Police
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Sample Questions
Q1) What is accreditation?
A)a process by which departments receive federal funding
B)a system that sets the maximum officer standards
C)a mandatory system setting department standards
D)a process of professional self-regulation
Q2) What are the differences and similarities between civilian review boards and police auditors?
Q3) Police departments suffer numerous penalties for not being accredited.
A)True
B)False
Q4) The program COMPSTAT was originally developed in A)Philadelphia.
B)Milwaukee.
C)New York City.
D)Dallas.
Q5) Which of the following is not one of the Miranda warnings?
A)the right to remain silent
B)the right to have an attorney
C)the right to trial by a jury of 12 people
D)the right to have a court appointed attorney
Page 16
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Chapter 15: The Future of Policing in America
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Sample Questions
Q1) Data-driven decisions that allocate resources, predict criminal activity, and support officers in their technical decisions are known as
A)meta analyses.
B)crime analyses.
C)incident investigations.
D)SARA analyses.
Q2) Traditionally, state and local agencies had no authority to enforce federal laws.
A)True
B)False
Q3) The type of analysis focusing on providing summary statistics and data to police managers is termed
A)administrative crime analysis.
B)meta crime analysis.
C)tactical crime analysis.
D)strategic crime analysis.
Q4) Deborah Osborne and Susan Wernicke describe three of the most common types of crime analysis used by police agencies.Describe each of those types of crime analysis in detail.
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