William Westley
Discuss the police code of ethics as described
by Westley. Take into account these questions:
1. Did the police officers recognize that they
had a code of ethics separate from the morality of other people?
2. Did all of the police officers agree to this
code of ethics?
3. Did they expect other people to agree with
their code of ethics?
4. Did officers freely accept this code of
ethics or did they accept it under compulsion?
5. Why was so much stress put on secrecy?
6. Did their code of ethics enable the police
officers to really see themselves as good people?
7. Why were there such strong reactions to
little acts of kindness to other people?
8. Did their code of morality enable these
police officers to be morally certain about their actions or did it create
moral confusion in their minds?
9. What did Westley mean by “legitimations”? Did
he think that the various legitimations were valid?
10. According to Westley, where and why did
these police officers enforce the law?