Analyzing Moral Ambiguity and Challenges in Public Order Policing

This essay delves into the complex realm of public order policing, focusing on the moral ambiguities that arise in various scenarios. It examines the definition of policing and public order, highlighting the ethical dilemmas faced by officers when balancing law enforcement with the protection of individual rights, especially during protests and demonstrations. The essay explores instances of moral ambiguity, such as differentiating between freedom fighters and criminals, and the challenges posed by unconstitutional protests. It discusses the complexities of the 'Dirty Harry problem,' where unethical tactics are employed to achieve moral outcomes, and analyzes the challenges related to excessive use of force, impartiality, profiling, and interactions with mentally challenged or drug-affected individuals. The essay further addresses the challenges faced by police in maintaining ethics when dealing with uncooperative individuals and the potential use of force during unexpected or unlawful protests. Overall, the essay provides an in-depth analysis of the ethical and practical difficulties inherent in public order policing, underscoring the need for careful consideration of tactics and strategies.

POLICY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE 1
Policy and Criminal Justice
Student’s Name
Institution Affiliation
Date

POLICY AND CRIMINAL JUSTICE 2
Policing means the maintenance of law and order by the use of a police force. Policing
can also be said to be the enforcement of the regulations which give rise to peace and order
among citizens. In relation to this, public order policing is, therefore, the policing of any possible
incidents that may hinder peaceful public relations. Either it is the regulation of any events which
may trigger the public disorder. Public order policing involves regulations of planned public
incidents as well as spontaneous events. Policing of protestors, campaigners, as well as any other
form of massive gathering, is the main role of the public order policing. As the police take part in
maintaining law and order among citizens, there are sometimes moral ambiguities arises. Moral
ambiguity refers to the state of lack of surety about whether a certain act is right or wrong
(Ingram 2013). It results in a dilemma.
As police officers act on their line of duty, they may sometimes find themselves in
trouble especially when under ethical allegations. Basically, everything an officer commits
himself in usually has an ethical component. These ethical components range all the way from an
interrogation of suspects and witnesses, committing a probable cause arrest, writing down of
reports as well as warrants, testifying in courts of law, up to decisions to use force if necessary.
Police officers usually do their duty in terms of morality which is amicably pronounced that it
should be as a result of distinguished aspects of their role in the society (Haberman and Ratcliffe
2012). However, there occur several instances of moral ambiguities in policing.
One of the moral ambiguities in policing can occur in the event of trying to find out
whether or not a given protestor is a criminal or freedom fighter. Basically, criminalizing certain
acts deprives them of their social or political legitimacy. Protestors usually plead for freedom or
human rights but sometimes it is done in a criminal way which may pose a dilemma in the police
trying to understand the situation. An example is the case of a group of protestors who conduct

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their protest in an unconstitutional manner, that is, they do not conduct peaceful demonstrations
as expected in the constitution. In this case, they are really protesting for their human rights and
freedom but they make it seem like a criminal case which may bring ambiguity to the police on
how to handle such cases. This will, however, make the police to end up acting unethically by
employing the state of force.
Criminals usually prey on the moral society unlike protesters who actively participate in
the moral community. Therefore, an action that is dully taken against the criminals enjoys
majority public moral support. On the other hand, an action that is taken against a protester can
result in problems on the given officer. However, any act towards stopping a criminal act is
morally good. Either conflicting ownership of the word ‘violence’ gives protest the air of
criminality and in that particular case a protest is regarded as a criminal act and therefore the
police on the public order policing are given the mandate to use force in ensuring order
(Kleymenov and Erokhin 2018).
Another case of the moral ambiguity of policing is that public order policing is regarded
as more complex. Its complexity appears in the way citizens should be handled in case of
disorder. This happens probably during public demonstrations or protests. Sometimes innocent
citizens protest in a way that is unconstitutional and this makes it difficult for the police to keep
their morals while restoring order in that case as they will be acting out of their ethics. The police
will be forced to use force which may be out of their interests. Public order policing hereby
becomes more complex for the police as they will be acting out of their moral knowingly (Nur,
Zulfadli, Arifin, Abdullah, & Salle, 2018). Either it is because they have no option since it is the
citizens who have turned out like criminals though they are speaking of their rights (which is
publicly allowed).

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Moral ambiguity in policing is not an easy task to handle as it may seem. Therefore, it
can even lead to the Dirty Harry problem while trying to restore order. The Dirty Harry problem
refers to the situations in which restoration of order among citizens through policing is achieved
through the use of unethical strategies by the police. Either the Dirty Harry problem can be said
to be the situation in which public order policing achieves the desired ends by the use of ‘dirty’
means. This situation brings about a very nice question; can an action which is morally
unethical/wrong really lead to a moral outcome? Or, can an action which is morally unethical
intended to bring forth a moral outcome be justified? These two questions, in reality, leave our
minds burning. It is true that sometimes unethical action can give rise to a moral outcome and a
morally wrong action intended to bring forth a moral outcome can be justified. The police can be
forced to use an unethical procedure to restore order among civilians (Heidensohn 2018).
Dirty Harry ambiguities can occur frequently for police officers and this is a major
problem. The ‘dirty’ means often involve use of activities like a false arrest to facilitate a legal
search, heavy-handed interrogations, false reasons for search as well as the use of force to restore
order. It is unethical for an officer to perform a heavy-handed interrogation on a suspect.
However, if that is only the way the police can retrieve information on the suspect, so be it. In
this case, the police will have acted morally wrong but the results are justifiable as they are able
to get what is necessary. It is also morally wrong to perform a search on a citizen without the
exact reason s to why you want to do so. Giving the wrong reason can also be taken as a serious
offense. However, if that leads to getting what was required it becomes justifiable (Oxley 2018).
Due to the moral ambiguities in public order, the police experience a number of
challenges in public policing. Either the public order represents a number of special challenges
for the police basically in terms of choice of tactics to be employed and strategies. The police, in

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this case, do not really understand the best tactic to use to solve or handle a certain situation. The
police can end up employing a given strategy which in turn may be problematic or against the
law. However, some strategies may be justifiable but as well they can be employed beyond
justifiable frames. There are several challenges that the police face in relation to the policing of
public order as discussed below.
One of the challenges faced by the police in relation to public order policing is the excess
use of force. The police abuse their power is one of the dominant issues in their policing as they
can end up using it beyond justifiable margins. Basically, the police are only allowed to use
physical force, and it should be used only as of the final option where all other options did not
bear any fruits. The police should not hurt protests. Instead, they should protect them (Carter II
2010). However, when the protests end up acting like criminals then the police can use force to
restore order. It appears like a challenge since the amount of force used should not exceed the
expected amount of force. The force used however should be withdrawn immediately a state of
order is achieved. This is due to the fact that continued use of force will be dully unethical.
Another challenge experienced by the police in public order policing is the need to act
impartially. Either this idealistic kind of oath leads to a number of problems in real-world
situations. It is not always an easy task for a police officer to act impartially especially for that
kind of police officer who operates in a small remote location and handles the same group of
people throughout their entire career. It is possible that the officer knows nearly everything about
the given group of people. The police officer knows all that the people are engaged in and knows
every right and wrong that takes place in the given location. However, the police officer has no
court acceptable evidence that can permit him to pursue a given wrong that persists among the
people. The officer is thereby expected to follow a channel of law enforcement ethics and

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morals, but he is also constrained in his power to uphold the law by following certain laid
procedures (Cerrah 2018).
Profiling is another challenge that the police go through in relation to public order
policing. The police are supposed to use genuine methods in establishing the criminals and not
their assumptions. It is critical for an officer to use his judgment in finding out the wrongdoer or
the root cause of action on a case-by-case basis. Unfortunately, today’s society is used to
assumptions which may be incorrect and may result in ingenuine profiling of cases. As a
challenge, an officer in his line of duty has only seconds to asses a given situation and doesn’t
have enough time to break down the situation which often may result in an incorrect outcome.
Another challenge faced by the police in their line of duty in trying to bring order is the
interaction with mentally challenged persons. The mentally challenged people may become
violent and confrontational during the interactions. It is established that police encounter persons
suffering from mental illness for between 7% and 10% of their serving life. These mentally
challenged people may end up harming the police. The police are thereby forced to arrest them
or even use excess force on them due to their violence as they are not easily tolerable. However,
the police have been criticized as a result of getting to arrest such persons for offenses which
may seem to be minor as a way of handling their intolerable behavior.
Police also face a challenge in handling persons under the influence of drugs. These
persons also act violently and may be unresponsive. People under drugs do not always
collaborate or cooperate and this may make a police officer act out of his ethics. The officer may
be forced to use excessive force which is not required of the police. The officer may also be
forced to engage the given person in heavy interrogation for the person to cooperate. All this is
dully posing a hard time for the police. People under drugs may also engage in demonstrations

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that are necessary and which root cause can not be established and to control a crowd of violent
civilians is not an easy task and neither is handling uncooperative persons.
It is always a challenge for the police to maintain his ethics where there are
uncooperative people. Police know their ethics and are not entitled to bring any harm neither
should they breach either of the ethics. In restoring public order during policing, if the protest
turns out as unexpected by the law, then the police have no other option other than using force
(Ambos and Heinze 2018). The use of force is usually a breach of ethics, but there is no other
alternative to this. If the force is not employed, perhaps the demonstrations may turn out being a
more or less criminal activity. With this, the police really experience a challenge in upholding
their moral ethics while policing public order.
Another challenge faced by cops in their line of duty is being forced by circumstances to
use the Dirty Harry problem. They are sometimes forced to do what is unethical anticipating a
moral outcome (Hickman 2013). This happens when the police don’t have an alternative which
may bring forth a solution. For instance, the police can be forced to conduct a search on a suspect
out of his consent anticipating that the search may uncover some hidden and important
information. In this case, they will have acted unethically but succeeded in what they wanted.
The Dirty Harry problem is mostly a result of an uncooperative suspect.

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Conclusion
In conclusion, it is the work of the police to carry out public order policing and ensure
that there is a state of peace and that law is enforced. However, this does not always turn out as
an easy task. The police are tied to certain ethics in their duty and they are not expected to breach
either of the ethics. There occur some ambiguities of policing and this leads to challenges in the
police duties especially in public order policing. Some of the challenges include the need to use
excess force on the protests/freedom fighters, encounter and interaction with persons suffering
from mental illness, and the need to employ the Dirty Harry problem.

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