You are a rising star in the police department. You are a young Detective in the Crimes Against Persons Division. Your mentor has helped you many times over your brief career and you trust him and have followed his guidance every step of the way. At a recent neighborhood picnic you and your mentor had a brief conversation about your next career move and how to continue on what appears to be a fast moving career. During the conversation your mentor tells you that all you really need at this point is to break a big case and that will lead you to the Chief of Detectives Division within a few years.
A few months later you are working a child abduction and murder case of a young girl. This case has reached national significance because the father is a well-known Fortune 500 Executive. While in the office you receive a call that John Doe is responsible for the abduction and murder. The caller tells you where you can find John Doe and the body. You lead the crime scene team to the location where the caller told you the body could be found. The team discovers a shallow grave and it contains a body of a young girl what matches the description of the missing girl.
You and your partner obtain a search warrant for John Doe’s apartment. John Doe is there and he is taken into custody. While he is being led away he turns to you and yells out that you won’t find anything here and you are not smart enough to link him to anything. A thorough search failed to recover any evidence that might link John Doe to the abduction and murder. You’re angry based on what John Doe told you. You remain calm. You know John Doe abducted and murdered that young girl and know that this could be “the case” that makes your career. As you and your partner are about to leave the John Doe’s apartment you observe your partner take a piece of clothing that the young girl’s parents gave you early on in the case in the event that search dogs could be used to search for a body. Your partner enters the apartment and places the clothing in a clothes hamper. A few minutes later another Detective finds the clothing and marks it as evidence.
For this discussion assignment you are required to identify the ethical issues and provide a course of action.
MINI-PAPER
Instructions
Mini-Papers are single page reflections on a question or exercise. The paper is an opportunity for the student to demonstrate their comprehension of the course material and to apply it to the situation presented. The paper is also an opportunity for the student to demonstrate composition skills. Feedback will be provided for both content and composition.
Assignment: In the week that includes the Mini-Paper, a separate assignment will appear in the Discussions section of the classroom. These special Mini-Paper questions are NOT to be answered in the Discussions. The one-page response is to be submitted as a MS WORD document in your Assignment Folder by the due date specified.
Format: One full page, headed with the student’s name. Narrative must be double spaced, with1 inch margins, written in #12 font. References from the reading materials must be cited in the narrative (page number). For some Mini-papers, outside sources will be required; to be cited in APA format on a separate page.