James Walker LEPSL 599: Integrative Capstone University of San

Diego: Professional & Continuing Education

James Walker Reflections and Exemplary Work

At the University of San Diegos Law Enforcement and Public Safety

Leadership program, I have had the opportunity to work on many
pieces of research and write assessments of law enforcement as a
profession. One of the most important outcomes we hope to develop
through this program is to promote ethical and effective leadership
for law enforcement and public safety organizations. Through this
course I have written three specific pieces that have given me
insight into that ethical leadership I hope to promote. The three
pieces are a memorandum on the exceptions to the use of warrants,
a paper on the importance of emotional intelligence in law
enforcement, and a paper on the importance of transparency in law
enforcement. In my paper on the exceptions to the uses of
warrants in law enforcement I pointed out the importance of only
using exceptions to warrants when they are clear cut. Warrants offer
a failsafe way to guarantee that the evidence we gather will be done
so legally and will be admissible in court. The most important part of
the paper to me as applies to ethics in law enforcement is that
treading the line and slipping into gray area sets a dangerous
precedent when looking at ways to avoid using warrants. That
precedent is a slippery slope that can lead to violations of the right
of the citizenry we have sworn to protect. My paper on the
importance of emotional intelligence in law enforcement focused on
the issues of moral faced by the San Diego Sheriffs Departments
Detentions Services Bureau. Deputies who work in corrections face a
significant uphill challenge and regularly feel that the department
has not backed them. In this paper I explored ways the department
can ethically attempt to increase motivation. My final paper
was on the importance of transparency in law enforcement. In this
modern age of policing transparency has become one of the most
valued traits of the public. This paper focused on the importance of
honoring a commitment to transparency in particular with high risk
incidents in which individuals are harmed in use of force incidents.
Throughout these three papers the most important trend is the
commitment to the betterment of the public and working in
accordance with rules and requirements of the land.