Discussion: When and how whistle-blowing is ethical

As a new department policy, your Superintendent feels it is important to encourage whistle-blowing. You have been asked to prepare a four-page draft proposal on the new policy to be delivered at the next departmental meeting. Be sure to use a conversational tone to foster confidence in the officers. In your proposal, address the following issues:

The importance of whistle-blowing to the criminal justice system.

Explain when and how whistle-blowing is ethical, if at all. Is it a betrayal or a public duty?

The key factors for success of the new policy and the threats.

The importance of confidentiality — how to retain anonymity to protect the whistleblower from being punished.

In addition, in your proposal:

List the procedures for reporting infractions.

Outline the support that will be given to whistleblowers. Be sure to provide an example and apply at least one of the articles of the police officer’s Code of Ethics to the example.

For more information on whistle-blowing, visit the following Web sites:

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.

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