Don't express your political affiliations, police now told in new Code of Conduct

No police officer should show their political affiliations by acting as an agent or further the interest of a political party.

A new set of Code of Conduct for the service says no officer shall engage in political activity that may compromise or seen as to compromise the political neutrality of his or her job.

The code that has been rolled out, however, says police have a constitutional right to vote in elections.

It says police are prohibited from making public appearances or speaking engagements in their official capacity without the approval of their superiors.

"However, a senior officer attending a crime scene or to any other serious community matter may exercise discretion by and while talking to the media or interested assembled persons," says the draft.

The code bars police from maintaining a relationship with any person known to be a criminal or has criminal associations that may compromise his performance.

"The only exception to this rule will be where an employee has an association through operational necessity in the performance of official duties or where unavoidable because of familial relationship."

The code says officers shall properly identify themselves by display of a name and number to any person requesting this information while they are on duty, unless when the withholding of this information is deemed necessary for the performance of police duties such as when it might jeorpadise the physical safety of an officer.

The code outlines the conduct that empowers police employees to be true to those ideals and provides mechanisms against which police will be judged if they fail short of the set standards.

It adds misconduct is a demonstration of inability to act ethically and undermines individual's capacity to perform effectively while putting their professional future at risk.

"Misconduct will also erode community confidence and trust in the police as a whole, making it more difficult for all police officers to do what is already complex for police work,” says the code.

A breach of the code amounts to misconduct for which an officer may be subjected to disciplinary proceedings and penalised as set out under the police act.

The penalities include reprimand, suspension, an order of restitution, stoppage of salary increments for a specified period of time but nor exceeding one year, reduction of rank, dismissal from the service or any combination of foregoing punishments.

The code says behavior of a police officer whether on duty or off duty has to be demonstrated to affect public confidence in the service and any conduct that may discredit the service may be subject to sanctions.

The code is aimed at promoting professional conduct and human rights in policing, prevent and punish unethical conduct, is a primary source of standards of ethical behaviour and decision making, promoting public confidence, elicit public support in policing and provide opportunity for discourse over ethical principles.

It calls for honesty and integrity, fairness and impartiality, respect, honour, professionalism, accountability, courage and unit.

Further, it tells police officers to be professional while on duty and honour all orders but adds they will not suffer administrative or other penalties for reporting a violation in the code unless such a report is shown to be malicious or manifestly ill founded.

The booklet reminds police to investigate and arrest people in a thorough and impartial manner, treat victims and witnesses with sensitivity, treat detained persons in a humane manner and resort to firearms after applying non-violent methods.

"Whenever an officer deems it necessary to use lawful force or firearms, he or he shall report the incident promptly to supervisors and comply with all other reporting procedures as required," says the booklet.

It says even off-duty officers are considered to be on duty.

No police officer shall disclose information gathered in law to any party unless legally compelled.

"Unless on duties which dictate otherwise, police shall always be well turned out, clean, neat and tidy while on duty in uniform or plain clothes."

The conduct also informs officers on how they need to handle property under their custody including stolen and cash.