Criminal Justice Essay

Brent Alan Johnson Jr.

Criminal Justice 2

11/8/2012

Behavior Paper

Integrity, honesty, courage, dedication, trust, and respect are key elements to becoming and serving as a police officer. In this Criminal Justice class, we did not have any of these values when we had the substitute teacher. On Monday and Tuesday, it was completely unacceptable. These core values can be used day to day even without being a police officer.

Integrity is the quality of being honest and having strong moral principles; moral uprightness (google.com). This is, in my opinion, the most important value a police officer should have. Being honest is a very important role in being an officer. Without integrity, how can you hire a person who would lie in their reports? Honesty is a key factor in integrity! Courage is strength in the face of pain or grief. Which is doing the right thing when no one else will. Even though conformity tells you to stay on the side lines, sometimes its time to get in that game and show them what you believe in. Even when no one else agrees, it’s doing what you think is right. Why would any police department want to hire a recruit who has no dedication in their work and only half butts his police work? I feel that they wouldn’t even waste their time with someone like that. Trust is a touchy and debatable subject. In my eyes, trust is easily tested but hard to earn back if it is lost. A police officer would most likely get fired if he or she lost trust. Respect is also like trust. Respect is very easily given but once it is lost, it’s like searching for a the end of a rainbow! You're not going to get it back! If Brent Dite would