The Sheriff's Department of Polk County Florida, run by Sheriff Grady Judd, has announced the arrest of three deputies for their involvement in evidence tampering. This egregious act did outrage the community; however, Sheriff Judd has worked hard throughout his career to build a strong connection with his community. This strong social contract has led his county to have full faith in his abilities to reprimand the deputies and repair the damage done. The official consequences were the immediate arrest of the deputies and being charged with evidence tampering. The department will also conduct an audit of every arrest, and admission of evidence performed by these deputies to find further acts of evidence tampering, in which they will be arrested and charged again. The original suspect whose belongings were taken was also absolved of their charges due to the department being unable to trust the conduct of the deputies. It is unsure if this was a case of intentional theft or accidental misplacement of evidence. Since the deputies did not report the incident to their higher-ups, instead attempting to replace the money themselves, a crime still occurred. This is an abuse of trust, using their position to try and illegally rectify a situation they caused. This could have been avoided had they just been honest about the accident. The transparency and fast investigation performed by the department saved the community's trust. Holding the deputies responsible ensures that no one can be above the law. To avoid this happening again, supervisors need to be more involved with the actions of the deputies.

Link to Video

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RzJ4GoXk6qw

References

Pollock, J. M. (2022). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice (11th ed.). Cengage Learning.