Reference no: EM133460076

Case Study: You and Officer Bob are the first officers on the scene of a drug deal that went wrong. You and Officer Bob begin to canvass the area and notice a bag of money nearby. Officer Bob advises you not to photograph or tag the evidence at this time. Officer Bob calls the money "dirty street money" and actually moves the money out of view and appears to be hiding it behind a tree. You later notice Officer Bob with a backpack as he is walking toward his unmarked car. You look behind the tree and notice the money is missing. You later notice Officer Bob staring at you in a menacing way; you know in your heart that Officer Bob has taken the money and has no plans on tagging it as evidence. You know Officer Bob has a daughter in college, and his wife was just laid off from her job. He is a seven-year veteran on the police force and has met the criteria of no felony arrests.

Questions:

• How has Officer Bob ethically rationalized keeping the money? Are there any moral or psychological theories that support this?
• What ethical dilemmas do you face as a witness?
• How can you justify not reporting this? How can you justify reporting this?
• What would be your course of action if you were morally corrupt as well?
• What if Officer Bob was the only minority in the department and has a pending Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) case against the department; would that change how you would handle this?