I believe the most important missions include the protection of life and property, enforcing the laws, developing and maintaining a positive relationship with the local community, and to create an atmosphere of safety. Fundamentally, a police …show more content…
I retired out of the U.S. Coast Guard and have adopted those first three core values and feel that honor, respect, and devotion to duty accurately depicts what my department represents and is conducive to the overall purpose of my agency. Having honor will ensure the authority police officers have are carried out appropriately. Respect is absolutely essential both for a productive work environment and for establishing positive community relationships. Choosing to be a police officer, means a certain level of commitment is required. Serving as an officer of the law is by no mean a 9-5 type of job. Working holidays, nights, and long hours is a necessity of the job and officers have to possess that devotion to duty in order to fulfill this obligation as well as continuously improving on their job skills. I have recognized that departments with high turnover rates often have low moral. This is why fidelity is such an important core value, which I initially learned while I served in the U.S. Marine Corps. Fidelity bonds the team concept and instills the trust needed for police work. Finally, I include patriotism as a core value. As police officers are government employees and take an oath too not only uphold the constitution of their respective state, they also swear to uphold the United States Constitution. I believe in order to fully comply with that oath, there has to be a love for your country. Really, I believe this applies for any government employee and having that sense of pride translates into higher moral and a strong sense of