This book is a study of the nature and formation of the moral integrity and intellectual competence that make individuals
and institutions worthy of the public trust. The book focuses above all on the achievement of integrity and competence in policing and law
enforcement. The fourth edition emphasizes ethics in the future of policing and in the capacity of police
departments and law enforcement agencies to seek to prevent and mount first responses to terrorist atrocities. The author is a professor of philosophy and a resident scholar in the Center for School Improvement at Boston University and an adjunct scholar at AEI. A summary of the book follows.
Since the third edition of Character and Cops was published in 1996, leading police departments have continued to refine the mission of policing. Many have renewed or expanded their efforts to help local residents turn fragmented and dangerous neighborhoods into safe and livable communities. A substantial number of police departments are making themselves into progressively more complex and sophisticated institutions dedicated to community service, public safety, crime prevention, and law enforcement. Yet policing faces persistent and familiar ethical problems and unexpected levels of incompetence and grave wrongdoing within some departments.