By: Daniel Abushery Daniel
“You are not a thief because you arrest thieves and put them in jail. You are not a moocher because you chase moochers out of town” By: the author.
August 7, 2011 (SSNA) — As a law enforcement officer, your fundamental duty is to serve mankind; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the week against oppression or intimidation, and the peaceful against violence or disorder, and to respect the constitutional rights of all men to liberty, equality, and justice.
As a law enforcement officer, you must keep your private life unsullied as an example to all; maintain courageous calm in the face of danger, scorn, or ridicule; develop self-restraint; and be constantly mindful of the welfare of others. Honest in thought and deed in both your personal and official life.
As a law enforcement officer, you will be exemplary in obeying the law of the land and the regulations of your department. Whatever you see or hear of a confidential nature or that is confided to you in your official capacity must be kept ever secret unless revelation is necessary in the performance of your duty.
As a law enforcement officer, you never act officiously or permit personal feeling, prejudice, animosities, or friendships to influence your decision. With no compromise for crime and with relentless prosecution of criminals, you must enforce the law courteously and appropriately without fear or favour, malice or ill will, never employing unnecessary force and never accept gratuities.
You must recognize the badge of your office as your symbol of public faith, and you accept it as a public trust to be held so long as you are true to the police service. You must constantly strive to achieve these objectives and dedicating yourself before God to your chosen profession as law enforcement officer.
The slogan “trusted hand, and vigilant eye” which is printed on the doors of the vehicles of many agencies throughout the nation and engraved on their official letterheads, is intended to notify the public that we are dedicated and committed to those objectives and that means more than just words.
The protection function is accomplished in a variety of ways that include both reactive and proactive patrol. The reactive aspect is covered by the officers responding to calls for service and investigating complaints of criminal or antisocial behaviour, and the proactive aspect begins with your investigation of the incident and bringing it to successful conclusion “to bring the offender in to justice”.
Also essential, ethics and integrity are the major requisite in the persona of police officers, thus, their integrity and ethical behaviour are constantly tested to the breaking point. Therefore, once an officer goes beyond that point, his/her professional career should be over. The pervasive problem of civil liability claims against the field officer, the spectre of criminal charges looms overhead for the officer who is negligent in carrying out his duties or guilty of outright criminal behaviour in violating the sacred trust conferred upon them, and they should be mindful of the fact that they are not above the law of the land, but the enforcers of that law should be violated by anyone.
Therefore, public trust is not to be taken lightly; you are expected to be completely honest in all aspect of your relationship with the people you serve. Trust involves someone expecting you to step into an unlocked bank vault containing millions of uncounted pounds and it is completely safe while in your hands.
Excellent decision, comrade Gier. Caliper Nuor Mohamed and his gang are nothing but a total disgrace and insult to Criminal Justice System and their rightful place is behind bars. It’s really just that time to clean up our own backyard and restore the image of the police officer.
Are we in good hands?
The author is a criminologist, and can be reached at [email protected].