Character and Cops Quotes

“Roman thinker Cicero pointed out, “Socrates was perfectly right when he declared that there is a direct shortcut to winning a reputation: ‘Make yourself the sort of man you want people to think you are.’”26 Greek historian Xenophon reported that Socrates gave this advice: “If you want to be thought good at anything, the shortest and safest and most reputable way is to try to make yourself really good at it.”27 And James Madison wrote of his brother, “If he wishes to establish himself in the good will of the Country, the only durable as well as honorable plan will be to establish a character that merits it.”28”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“Able leaders understand that nobody can really serve as an example by trying to do so. When we see an attempt to set an example, we suspect it is phony and not deeply rooted. People become real exemplars, trusted and looked up to, by being what they appear to be.”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“Competence As many cases show, a police officer without an understanding of people will not deal competently with conflict, while one who has it can calm adversaries and ease tension.”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“The spirit of service essential to avoiding majority or minority tyranny requires that every official seek to deserve the public trust he may not actually possess. However effective the checks and balances of government, however extensive the prevention of abuses of power by government, the government itself will be less than trustworthy unless individual officials try to be worthy of the trust they bear.”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“Friends and Fellow Citizens, The period for a new election of a citizen to administer the executive government of the United States being not far distant . . . your thoughts must be employed in designating the person who is to be clothed with that important trust. . . . In the discharge of this trust, I will only say that I have, with good intentions, contributed towards the organization of the government the very best exertions of which a very fallible judgment was capable. —George Washington1 In his Farewell Address to the People of the United States in September 1796, George Washington emphasized that a public office is a public trust. He recognized that no person is expected to be infallible; indeed, to suppose that anyone can be infallible in the conduct of public or private life is arrogant and dangerous. The public trust, rather, calls for “good intentions” and the “very best exertions.” Public servants must intend and resolve to put the public good above private advantage for anyone—self, family, friends, political allies, factions, or interest groups. They are obliged to identify the public good and to serve it; this is the sort of “exertion” that public office demands. John Adams wrote that such devotion to the well-being of the public interest “must be Superior to all private Passions. Men must . . . be happy to sacrifice their private Friendships and dearest Connections, when they stand in Competition with the Rights of Society.”2”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“Since the rule of law requires the keeping of peace, America’s government is also an experiment in law enforcement and peacekeeping. It is an experiment in whether policing can promote security and serve liberty for the sake of what Madison identified as the ultimate purpose of government: Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It has ever been and ever will be pursued until it be obtained, or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.4 The drafters of the Constitution were actively concerned about immoderation by both government and individuals. Alexander Hamilton cautioned in 1781 that government must have “a proper degree of authority to make and execute the laws with vigour,” for “too little leads to anarchy.”5 Too much, he believed, leads to tyranny.”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“When a country cannot provide order, its people are victimized by factions—whether in the rebellion in Massachusetts in 1786 (which led George Washington to conclude that America was on the verge of anarchy) or in the drug wars in the streets of our cities two centuries later. Yet when order is brought by the destruction of liberty, the people are victimized by tyrants. Order with liberty cannot succeed if the government or the governed indulge themselves as they wish. Our ordered liberty is an experiment in the rule of laws that are impartial and that apply to governors and governed alike. James Madison, the father of our Constitution, stressed the burden this places on us: In framing a government which is to be administered by men over men, the great difficulty lies in this: you must first enable the government to control the governed; and in the next place oblige it to control itself.3”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“The mission of policing can safely be entrusted only to those who grasp what is morally important and who respect integrity. Without this kind of personal character in police, no set of codes, rules, or laws can safeguard that mission from the ravages of police misconduct. No one need choose to be a police officer or to bear the public trust; but those who do so—no matter how naïvely and no matter how misguided their original expectations— must acquire the excellence of character necessary to live up to it.”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“Integrity. The second kind of wholeness related to good character is integrity. Excellent qualities of character must become integral, not just to certain parts of our lives, but to our entire lives, both public and private. Integrity means wholeness, being one thing through and through, much as homogenization is to milk. Persons of integrity by definition have made certain kinds of excellence integral to all of their lives. A person of integrity is the same person in public and in private. Accordingly, integrity as an ideal flies squarely against the now popular idea that we live public lives on one plane and personal lives on another, and that these are essentially separate and subject to different principles of conduct. Every human life is the life of a person; for this reason, all life is personal life. Personal life has both public and private dimensions, but these dimensions are parts of a single person. Don L. Kooken, who served as captain of the Indiana State Police and chairman of the Department of Police Administration at Indiana University, stressed this point: “Habits that are formed in the home and among working associates are reflected in a policeman’s relations with the public. . . . One cannot be a gentleman in public and a cad in private.”15”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“Balanced Perception. Two kinds of wholeness are related to excellent character. The first consists of a balanced perception of how to make the best of circumstances. On a domestic violence call, police officers must be courageous in ending the violence, just in their treatment of the combatants, temperate in their use of force, compassionate to the victims, respectful of the limits to discretion, honest, timely, and properly equipped and with sufficient backup. But they also need a sense of how all these factors are related. When they conflict, sound judgment of their relative importance is needed.”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing

“Although police can still exercise discretion on the beat, the problems of the criminal justice system are real. Many officers—and prosecutors— consider specific laws self-defeating. When police officers arrest a person who throws his narcotics to the ground, the officers may momentarily lose sight of the package. But if they testify in court that they did so, the case is likely to be dismissed. Some officers perjure themselves rather than lose the case. If an officer admits that he lost sight of the drugs, some police, attorneys, and judges infer that his testimony has been bought by the dealers. Lawmakers sometimes present police with unenforceable laws or fail to provide the funds necessary for enforcement. Courts issue rulings that impose unreasonable standards of proof, undermining public respect for law. Greater wisdom in legislators and judges will be required to square the balance between order and liberty, together with more communication to the public by police organizations, as in the growing opposition to easy purchase of cheap handguns.”
― Edwin J. Delattre, Character and Cops: Ethics in Policing