Ethics in Action: Gratuities
The formal law enforcement code of ethics disapproves of a police officer accepting gratuities if they negatively influence a police officer’s actions (Hess & Wrobleski, 1997). Even though the formal law enforcement code of ethics generally disapproves of police officers accepting gratuities, accepting gratuities is a debatable issue. The reason for this is that there are both costs and benefits for both the police and the public when police officers accept gratuities. Furthermore, there is disagreement on what constitutes a gratuity. In short, police officers should not use their public office for personal gain and that they should not accept gratuities from people with whom they do official business. One problem with police officers accepting gratuities is that there is no clear definition of a gratuity. According to Prenzler and Mackay (1995), a gratuity is a gift, reward, or
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Police officers are paid out of a budget that has been collected from the taxpayers. Because all taxpayers have contributed toward this budget, the police services for the entire community have already been purchased. By business owners providing gratuities, this is considered an additional payment in order to receive personalized police services. Thus, by accepting gratuities, police officers are double charging the public.
A seventh con with police officers accepting gratuities is that if the gratuity is offered by a person who is unauthorized to offer gratuities, then the police officer is condoning theft (Coleman, 2004). For example, if only managers in a restaurant can offer gratuities, but the cashier offers them instead, then the cashier is giving away items that do not belong to her. By accepting these gratuities, the officers are participating in