Basic Values and Principles of Police Professional Ethics

Abstract

The article takes a comprehensive approach to the study of the achievements of the legal and philosophical sciences in the study of the problem of values and principles of professional ethics of police and the importance of these phenomena in the professional. The purpose of the article is to determine the essence and values of professional ethics and their role in the professional work of a police officer, which is impossible without defining the mission and tasks of the police. Methodology. The methodological basis of scientific search is a set of philosophical and philosophical principles of scientific knowledge, methodological approaches, general methods of thinking, philosophical and general scientific methods, the use of which provided the validity and reliability of the results of the study of basic values and principles of professional policing. The scientific novelty of the research is: the laying down of fundamental basic values of the professional activity of the police, the rule of law, humanism and professionalism; formulating the definition of «basic principles of police professional ethics»; typologization of the basic principles of the professional ethics of the police officer in two schemes: a) structuring the principles in accordance with the basic values of the professional activity of the police – the rule of law, humanism, professionalism, which are the «formulas» of professional morality; b) semantic structuring of the principles of professional police activity enshrined in the normative acts: conceptual, ideological and procedural principles of professional activity. The study’s conclusions include the formula of the optimal police mission model: «Police officers serve the people of Ukraine by satisfying their needs for state services»; it will be noted that such important factors in forming the police professional philosophy, such as fixing the rights and social protection of police officers, working conditions and training, require clearer articulation, refinement and addition in national legislation; problems of formation of personal internal, actually moral and ethical qualities of a professional deserve more attention, that, in further scientific researches of the stated problem, it can find its concretization in such concepts as «virtues» and considered in the plane of «corporate culture», «culture of professional activity», «Police culture». Therefore, the adoption of the Police Code of Ethics would solve a number of problems with the clarity of the wording of the basic categorical apparatus of the police professional philosophy, would prevent a fuller understanding of the ethical problems of police professional activity and a willingness to discuss and solve these problems, which would bring the quality of police work closer to the standards of the Western professions.

Keywords: values of professional ethics of police officer, Rule of Law, humanism; professionalism; principles of police professional ethics, conceptual principles of professional activity; worldview principles of professional activity; procedural principles of professional activity; virtues.