select one of the ten guiding principles of law enforcement mentioned in the textbook. State why you think your selection is the most important. one of the ten guiding principles of law enforcement mentioned in the textbook. State why you think your selection is the most important. Use APA citations as needed for support material

 

1. The police are a general-purpose government agency that provides a wide variety of services to the community, including but not limited to law enforcement and crime control.

 

2. The police get their authority from the law, the community, political superiors, and the police profession, and are ultimately responsible to each of these sources of authority.

 

3. The overriding objectives in every police action or decision must be the protection of life and property and the maintenance of order.

 

4. Protection of life is always the primary objective of policing; the relative importance of protecting property and maintaining order varies from place to place and from time to time.

 

5. Law enforcement is not an objective of policing; rather, it is one method that is sometimes employed in the effort to protect life and property and maintain order.

 

6. The police are rightly constrained in the methods they can employ in pursuing their objectives; they must resist the temptation to employ unauthorized, illegal, or unethical methods.

 

7. The police must treat each individual person and situation according to the particular circumstances encountered; but individualized treatment may not include discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, religion, gender, social class, or other improper criteria.

 

8. The police must be willing and capable of employing force when justified to achieve legitimate objectives, but the use of force should always be a last resort, and the police must strive to develop nonviolent methods of gaining cooperation.

 

9. Police must ultimately be guided by ethical and legal standards that may sometimes conflict with, and should supersede, organizational, community, and peer pressures.

 

10. The police are unavoidably associated with those in power; yet they have a special responsibility to protect those furthest from power and the democratic political process itself.