Perhaps the minimum standards of integrity, honesty, courage, and so on demanded of police officers, ought to be higher than for many, even most, other professions. Yet police are subject to moral temptations to an extent not typically found in other professions. The conjunction of extraordinary powers and moral vulnerability justifies higher minimum standards of moral character for police than for members of many other professions. The importance of Public Perception We have so far been speaking in terms of deficiencies of character that might in a general sense count against a police officer. But now we need to be more precise about the implications of a deficiency in character.
Character is relevant only insofar as it translates into identifiable misbehavior.
This view has some plausibility in relation to traits of character that are not central to the police role. Suppose an officer is mean spirited or jealous of the achievements of others. This might make her difficult to work with, but in a world consisting of persons less than perfect, the officer in question would have to be tolerated. But now consider a police officer who is a coward, fearful of danger to the point where he could well put the lives of fellow officers and citizens at risk. On the view in question, so long as the officer did not break the law or violate police regulations, there would be no grounds for dismissal or other serious disciplinary action.