Cambridgeshire Constabulary
Ethics Playing Cards
Copyright © 2025 Compass Ethics
10
An experienced officer is first on scene at a potential drowning. They are told by a superior officer on the radio not to enter the (shallow) river to recover the body. Is this appropriate?
Case Studies
- How confident are you that the person in the water has actually drowned and cannot be saved? Would this make a difference?
- Would it make a difference if the first at the scene was a PCSO? If so, why?
- What happens if the situation appears to be an apparent hanging? What other factors need to be taken into account?
- How do you get the most out of people with different experience, training or even professional roles and authority?
Discussion
Officers are required to make judgment calls/dynamic assessments as to what they can do to save life. While looking after your team is important, second guessing when you are not the person on the ground may not always be the most appropriate thing to do.
- Consider how an officer with perhaps two decades of experience will feel if told to do nothing despite their own mature professional judgement indicating that they should act?
- What would a member of the public expect an officer to do in this type of situation, and is that a reason to do it?
- Does it make a difference if it is a PCSO or a warranted officer? The guidance for both may not be that dissimilar for many situations. Would the public distinguish a difference? The advice to PCSOs is “never put yourself at risk”. How does that feel if a member of the public is potentially at risk?
Although the majority of risk decisions that police personnel make are successful, terms such as ‘risk’ and ‘risk taking’ have negative connotations. The media and public tend to focus on decisions that result in poor outcomes and this has led to the police service becoming risk averse with some officers and staff afraid to make decisions in case things go wrong (see links to Risk in the College of Policing docs).