Ethical Foundations for Policing Policy Development: An Ethics Matrix

During the development of the 2022 – 2025 Police and Crime Plan for London, the London Policing Ethics Panel sought to develop ethical principles that could underpin the prioritisation of police and crime policy commitments. ​It became apparent that developing an ethical framework that could supply a definitive answer to questions about what should be done, and - more importantly when resources are limited - what should not be done, was an implausible aim. However, the Panel concluded that it is both desirable and possible to articulate the ethical foundations informing a Police and Crime Plan, both as a whole and in specific areas of action. It has developed and ‘bench tested’ an ethical framework that appears to be a useful aid to policy development in the discrete areas that London’s Police and Crime Plan addresses. This report summarises the model and the ethical principles that underpin it. It also sets out a worked example of how the model can be applied to one area of policy, the Violence against Women and Girls (VAWG) strategy.

Abdul-Hye Miah contributed to this report as part of the London Policing Ethics Panel.