Rob Banks graduated from the police academy and is now a rookie officer who is starting his six months of training with Field Training Officer, Justin Case.

Officer Case is supervising Officer Banks during the 4 p.m. to midnight shift. At 11:00 p.m., Officer Banks and Officer Case are dispatched to a burglary in progress at the University City Ball Park concession stand.

Jane Chatman was walking her dog near the ballpark when she heard a loud crash near the concession stand. Chatman walked toward the concession stand to investigate the noise. As Chatman neared the concession stand, she saw three teenage boys ransacking the place. Chatman quietly walked away from the concession stand and called the police department to report the burglary.

When Officer Banks and Officer Case arrive at the ballpark, the perpetrators had already fled. Officer Banks said, “The concession stand is a mess it appears the perpetrators have stolen numerous items, where do we start?”

Officer Case replied, “Officer Banks, first, I want you to contact the police dispatcher and have them get in touch with the director of the ballpark and ask the director to respond to the concession stand. We need the director to tell us what is missing and the value of the items for our report.”

Chatman saw the officers arrive at the ballpark and walked over to the concession stand and said, “Hi, my name is Jane Chatman and I am the one who called the police department to report the burglary.”

Officer Case thanked Chatman for reporting the crime, and told Officer Banks, “Go ahead and get Chatman’s information and see if she will write a statement as to what she saw. Remember to ask her to give you a description of the juveniles she saw.”

While Officer Banks was writing down Chatman’s information for the police report, he saw Officer Case picked up a piece of double-bubble gum off the counter in the concession stand. Officer Case then removed the gum from the wrapper, tossed the wrapper on the floor, put the gum in his mouth, and walked over to meet the director of the ballpark who just arrived at the scene.

Chatman looks at Officer Case and then back at Officer Banks and shakes her head back and forth, indicating her disappointment in what just occurred.

After getting all the information from Chatman and the director, Officer Banks and Officer Case return to the police station to complete their police report.

Officer Case continued to chew the bubble gum and blew bubbles with the gum while typing his report.

Assignment:

In 2 to 3 paragraphs, a minimum of 250 words, apply the to evaluate this situation and conclude with an appropriate course of action by Officer Banks regarding Officer Case’s misconduct.

Type all Case Studies in Times New Roman 12pt font – include the header, title page, and reference page; APA formatting is required in this course. Use at least two reference sources – one is your textbook, and one may be taken from the course or the Grantham Library. Additional references may be obtained from the Internet. Citing your references by using parenthetical citations (in-text citations) is a skill that each student must demonstrate in this course.

View your assignment rubric.

This approach is very like the one we will use throughout the book when analyzing ethical dilemmas, detailed in the steps below:

1. Identify the facts. Make sure that one has all the facts that are known—not future predictions, not suppositions, not probabilities.
2. Identify relevant values and concepts. Concepts are things that cannot be proven empirically but are relevant to the issue at hand. Understand that your concepts and values may affect the way you interpret the facts. For instance, the issue of abortion not only revolves around the value of life, but it is also a concept in that there is no agreement of when life begins or ends (although there are provable facts regarding the existence of respiration, brain activity, and other body functions). Many arguments surrounding ethical issues are really arguments about concepts that cannot be proven (e.g., “life”).
3. Identify all possible dilemmas and then decide what is the most immediate dilemma. Identifying all dilemmas can help us see that sometimes one’s own moral or ethical dilemma is caused by others’ actions. For instance, a police officer’s ethical dilemma when faced with the wrongdoing of a fellow officer is a direct result of that other officer making a bad choice.
4. Decide what is the most immediate moral or ethical issue facing the individual. This is always a behavior choice, not an opinion. For example, the moral issue of whether abortion should be legalized is quite different from the moral dilemma of whether I should have an abortion if I find myself pregnant. Obviously, one affects the other, but they are conceptually distinct.
5. Resolve the ethical or moral dilemma by using an ethical system or some other means of decision making. (Ethical systems will be discussed in Chapter 2.)