Question

What are some ethical problems with the mayor’s confinement at the city jail for the five-hour period? Did anyone violate any laws or the mayor’s rights? What should you, Officer Saunders, do to reclaim your good name? Should the newspapers be contacted? Why or why not? Discuss the actions of that eventful evening and the ethical dilemmas that arose

Scenario: As a patrol officer, you, John Saunders, are only doing your job when you stop a car for running a red light. Unfortunately, the driver of the car happens to be the mayor, Delores Claibourne. You give her a ticket anyway, but the next morning you are called into the captain’s office and told in no uncertain terms that you screwed up. There is an informal policy extending “courtesy” to city politicians. Several nights later, you observe the mayor’s car weaving erratically across lanes and speeding. You stop the car and walk to the driver’s side door. When the mayor, Mrs. Claibourne, rolls down her window, you smell alcohol. You decide to give Mrs. Claibourne a sobriety test, having her walk toe-to-toe in a straight line. She fails the test. You want her to take a breath test voluntarily, but she refuses. Therefore, you place her under arrest and take her to the city jail, where she is held for five hours. Refusal to take a breath test or submit to any type of test that would determine blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) is grounds for suspending one’s driver’s license. Mayor Claibourne is belligerent the entire time that she is being held and it clear that she is drunk. At some point, she passes out on a cot. While she is unconscious, one of the deputies in charge illegally takes a blood sample from her and has it tested. Mayor Claibourne registers .26 BAC, well over the .08 BAC legal limits for drunken driving charges. You make a note of this in her arrest report, which you file. Eventually, Mayor Claiborne’s lawyer arrives and arranges for her release. The next day, you are called into the chief’s office and placed on unpaid suspension for 90 days. You protest the suspension, but the general agreement around the station is that there is nothing you can or should do about it. You return to work and discover that all of your paperwork filed about the drunk-driving incident involving Mayor Claibourne has been destroyed. Her BAC results have also disappeared. No report was ever made to the media about the incident. Now, please continue on to the discussions.

Answer 1

When you observed that the mayor’s car weaving erratically across lanes and was in higher speed, You stopped and found that the Driver of the care i.e. the Mayor Mrs. Claibourne is in inebriated state. You decided to go for a sobriety test for Mrs. Claibourne. She fails the test. You also wanted to take the Breath Test for Mayor , but she refuses for the test. Therefore, you placed her under arrest and took her to the city jail, where she is held for five hours. The Grounds for suspending Driver’s License was Refusal to take a breath test or submit to any type of test that would determine blood-alcohol concentration (BAC) .However, it is not specified whether anyone should be arrested or not.

In this instant case Mayor was arrested and placed in the city jail for 5 hours. Hence arrest was wrongfully done. Yes, Mayor’s individual rights have been violated as she was not given opportunity to defend herself. Moreover when she felt unconscious, illegally her blood samples were taken out for test .so this also violates Mayor’s Rights of privacy.

If I were in the position of the Police Officer, I would have tried to defend my suspension through proving that Mayor was at wrong side. I would have tried to prove my actions right in front of the higher officials. I would have said whatever I did was correct keeping in view that Driving car with inebriated condition is not safe and even it may kill someone on the roads.

Yes. Media People should be contacted, because the matter should come into light and people should be aware of the consequences of inebriated   driving.

On that eventful evening whatever happened, it was not expected and against ethics. Because as per the provisions of the law , the Driving License would have been suspended rather the arrest of Mayor. However, the action of Police Officer was also debatable. At one point of time it seems the action taken by Police officer is correct, but if we think from moral point of view his action is wrong. And that is the ethical dilemma .