By Kevin Earl, Doctoral Candidate
Capella University
MINNEAPOLIS, Minn. — On a daily basis, it is possible to read about police officers who commit acts of misconduct, with many of these acts having causes that are unfathomable to other officers and the public. An important area to examine in understanding law enforcement misconduct is the role of peer officer leadership.
Misconduct incidents repeatedly show the effects of unethical peer officers on their fellow officers. While officers receive formal training in ethics throughout their careers, law enforcement subculture related to ethics is learned through informal social processes among officers. These informal social processes linked to ethical climate may lead to ethical perceptions and decisions that may not be in line with normative law enforcement ethical practices and codes of ethics.
This study is being conducted to develop quantitative understandings of ethical climate in law enforcement.
Ethical climate is defined as the perception of what constitutes ethical behavior within organizational contexts, focusing on broad-based organizational characteristics that effect decision-making in relation to what is considered right behavior.
This doctoral research study focuses on ethical climate in law enforcement organizational contexts. The researcher wants to evaluate how sworn peace officers conceptualize ethical climate within organizational contexts, and the effects of peer relational leadership and peer ethical leadership on ethical climate within the law enforcement profession.
The attached web link will open the informed consent form and Internet survey web link for Police1 members who are sworn peace officers to complete the survey instrument:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/DT8YDSL
All information collected in this study will be kept confidential, and no identifiable personal or organizational information will be collected. Police1 readers may review this study upon its publication through Capella University as part of the researcher’s doctoral dissertation.
Thank you for your assistance in this important law enforcement study.