Ethical policing requires courage, respect and empathy, and public service.

These principles help us make and reflect on our professional decisions.

As policing professionals, we commit to...

Courage – Making, communicating and being accountable for decisions, and standing against anything that could bring our profession into disrepute.

Respect and empathy – Encouraging, listening to and understanding the views of others, and seeking to recognise and respond to the physical, mental and emotional challenges that we and other people may face.

Public service – Working in the public interest, fostering public trust and confidence, and taking pride in providing an excellent service to the public.

Ethical policing principles help people in policing do the right things, in the right way, for the right reasons.

As a policing professional, you are expected to carry out our responsibilities in an honest and professional manner. This means demonstrating care, attention and diligence, as well as fulfilling your role to the best of our abilities at all times. You:

• Always act diligently and efficiently by being conscientious and thorough in your work and in exercising your responsibilities;

• Promote a positive professional image of the police service at all times;

• You are conscious of the impact that your behaviour and decisions have on others;

• Take ownership for resolving problems;

• Demonstrate courage and resilience in dealing with difficult and potentially volatile situations;

• Act on your own initiative to address issues;

• Show a strong work ethic and demonstrate extra effort when required;

• Remain calm and professional under pressure, defusing conflict and being prepared to step forward and take control when required;

• Abide by all instructions, policies and procedures set by the Los Santos Metropolitan Police Service, where you are reasonably expected to know these, unless you have and are able to provide a clear rationale for not doing so;

• Do not let fear of being criticised divert us from your professional duties;

• Prioritise the demands on your time and resources where necessary;

• You are punctual and maintain a professional appearance following our Appearance Standards as stated below in the collapsible group;

• Understand that you can seek advice and support from your fellow colleagues and supervisors. If you wish to take a personal matter to the workplace but don't wish to disclose to others, you may also speak to your Senior Management Board.

PEELIAN PRINICIPLES - NINE PRINCIPLES

Sir Robert Peel and his commissioners established a list of policing principles that remain as crucial and urgent today as they were two centuries ago. They contain three core ideas and nine principles.

1. To prevent crime and disorder;

2. To recognise always that the power of the police to fulfil their functions and duties is dependent on public approval of their existence, actions and behaviour, and on their ability to secure and maintain public respect;

3. To recognise always that to secure and maintain the respect and approval of the public means also the securing of the willing cooperation of the public in the task of securing observance of laws;

4. To recognise always that the extent to which the cooperation of the public can be secured diminishes proportionately the necessity of the use of physical force and compulsion for achieving police objectives;

5. To seek and preserve public favour, not by pandering to public opinion, but by constantly demonstrating absolute impartial service to law, in complete independence of policy, and without regard to the justice or injustice of the substance of individual laws, by ready offering of individual service and friendship to all members of the public without regard to their wealth or social standing, by ready exercise of courtesy and friendly good humour, and by ready offering of individual sacrifice in protecting and preserving life;

6. To use physical force only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient to obtain public cooperation to an extent necessary to secure observance of law or to restore order, and to use only the minimum degree of physical force which is necessary on any particular occasion for achieving a police objective;

7. To maintain at all times a relationship with the public that gives reality to the historic tradition that the police are the public and that the public are the police, the police being only members of the public who are paid to give full-time attention to duties which are incumbent on every citizen in the interests of community welfare and existence;

8. To recognise always the need for strict adherence to police-executive functions, and to refrain from even seeming to usurp the powers of the judiciary of avenging individuals or the state, and of authoritatively judging guilt and punishing the guilty;

9. To recognise always that the test of police efficiency is the absence of crime and disorder, and not the visible evidence of police action in dealing with them.

PEELIAN PRINICIPLES - THREE CORE IDEAS

1.  The goal is preventing crime, not catching criminals. If the police stop crime before it happens, we don’t have to punish citizens or suppress their rights. To be an effective police service we don't need to have high arrest stats; our community need to have low crime rates.

2.  The key to preventing crime is earning public support. Every community member must share the responsibility of preventing crime, as if they were all volunteer members of the force. They will only accept this responsibility if the community supports and trusts the police.

3.  The police earn public support by respecting community principles. Winning public approval requires hard work to build reputation: enforcing the laws impartially, hiring officers who represent and understand the community, and using force only as a last resort.