The Role of Ethics in Curbing Police Abuses

Abstract

Police abuses have been brought into the limelight recently due to the killing of George Floyd and many other African Americans in the United States. This has led to various protests in other countries, recalling decades of police brutality and abuses. The police exist to serve the community's good, ensure law and order, foster the protection of human lives and properties, and help prevent crime. When police officers deviate from the purpose for which they are set up, abuses arise. In spite of the noble aims for which the police exist, there are police officers that have engaged in abusive practices, thus impeding their services. Police history seems to be rooted in a systematic culture of dehumanization and abuse. Police training and formation have privileged tactics and strategic training to the near negligence of moral character formation in police officers. This paper problematises this issue and argues through critical analytic and hermeneutic methods for the imperative of ethics in curbing police abuses. The paper finds that police abuses are global, and there is police impunity everywhere. It concludes, among other recommendations that police abuses can be restrained through ethical formation of police officers to respect the human dignity and rights of the citizens.