Ethical Traditions of the Polish Police

Ethical traditions of the Polish police are directly related to the history of this uniformed service. Starting from the interwar period until the present day, with the exception of the communist times when the State Police was replaced by the Citizen’s Militia, ethics has played an important role in the work of law enforcers. It provides basic principles, resulting from universal moral values, without which it is impossible to serve society and the homeland responsibly. The specificity of the professional ethics of this uniformed agency is directly related to its service-oriented character, based on intensive and often difficult interpersonal contacts. The present times witness the emergence of new challenges in the area of good standards of police ethics. In order to better recognize the ethical standards and see their importance in the work of the Polish police, it is worth referring to the standards of the State Police. They were a kind of quintessence of police officers’ moral and professional duties. They were based on such values as: God, Homeland, honour, truth, conscientiousness, responsibility, justice, reticence in speech, friendliness and obedience to the orders of superiors. These values are timeless and still topical, even in our modern times. Resignation from the above mentioned values may result in police officers pretending to respect ethical principles in their work, which was evident in the activities of the Citizen’s Militia. Therefore, the above fully justifies police efforts undertaken after 1990, which are expressed not only as concern for reliably developed legal regulations and operational directives to be followed while performing official duties, but also as compliance with the principles of police ethics, which are based on universal values (including the protection of human life and health, respect for human dignity, truth, responsibility and patriotism). This goal is to be achieved both through education on basic training and specialist courses, as well as thanks to police priests’ work.