Police Officers' and Candidates' Views on Professionally Unethical Behaviors: The Elazig and Malatya Case

Abstract

This study aims to determine the views of police officers and police candidates regarding professionally unethical behaviors of police officers as observed by the former. For this purpose, a descriptive study model was employed in this research. The study group comprised 89 police officers and 231 police candidates working/studying at Malatya and Elazig Police Vocational Colleges. The related research data was collected using an "Unethical Behavior Scale" developed by the researcher. In the analysis of obtained data, descriptive statistics and t-test were used and the quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS software program. The results of the study can be summarized as follows: in the context of the overall arithmetic mean of the police officers, they believe that their colleagues "Never" perform any professionally unethical behavior. According to the police officers in this study, the most unethical behavior performed by their colleagues is "using bilateral relations for improper appointment," while the least unethical behavior is "accepting a bribe while conducting his duty." However, the police candidates in this study generally think that police officers "very rarely" perform professionally unethical behaviors. Police candidates also considered "using bilateral relations for improper appointment" as the most unethical behavior performed by police officers and "accepting a bribe while conducting his duty" as the least unethical behavior. Although the views of the participants remained unchanged in terms of the school variable, they differed according to the job variable. Based on the findings, it is suggested that training programs should prepare police officers and candidates in their pre-service and in-service training to help them become more sensitive to professional ethics and principles, and the necessary precautions and controls that need to be taken on this issue.