FEATURES OF THE PROFESSIONAL ETHICS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT BODIES' EMPLOYEES

Abstract

The article is devoted to the study of the peculiarities of the professional ethics of law enforcement officers. The purpose of the scientific article is to clarify the importance of ethics for the implementation of law enforcement activities and outline the features of the professional ethics of law enforcement officers. The professional ethics of law enforcement officers is defined as a set of moral principles, requirements and rules based on the general values of the legal profession, which apply to officials of state bodies authorized to carry out law enforcement activities, with the aim of properly exercising their powers and preventing violations in the process of their implementation. It is substantiated that the professional ethics of law enforcement officers has both general features inherent in the professional ethics of a lawyer and features determined by the specifics of law enforcement activities. First of all, it indicates the possibility of the use of coercion by law enforcement officers. It was found that the ethics of a law enforcement officer should take into account not only the organizational (belonging to a certain law enforcement agency), but also the procedural component, which is acquired by his law enforcement activities in criminal proceedings. It is argued that the unformedness of a unified approach to the professional ethics of law enforcement officers is largely due to the vagueness of the concept of "law enforcement activity" and the list of law enforcement agencies. It was concluded that it is necessary to create a single code of professional ethics for employees of various law enforcement agencies, which will allow unifying moral and ethical standards, requirements and rules of conduct for all law enforcement officers, regardless of their departmental affiliation. Such a code may be approved by a joint order of the heads of relevant bodies.