Which topic is addressed in Ethics?

• A. Core values
• B. Use of Force
• C. Confidentiality
• D. Duty to Intervene

Answer: (A)

Ethics centers on what guides what’s right and wrong in professional conduct. It’s about the beliefs and standards that shape decisions when rules aren’t explicit. In ethics, officers study core values—integrity, honesty, fairness, accountability, and service—that drive how you act toward the public and toward colleagues, especially in difficult or ambiguous situations. When you understand ethics this way, you see that its main purpose is to anchor behavior in those values, making core values the foundational focus. The other topics—use of force, confidentiality, and duty to intervene—are specific policy areas or obligations that ethics informs, but they are not the broader focus of ethics itself. Use of force is about when force may be used; confidentiality is about protecting information; duty to intervene is about taking action to stop misconduct. These are important applications and standards, but ethics is about the values that underlie all of them.