Expert: Dick Rogers - 10/14/2009

Question
You are a new police officer and are talking with other officers before roll call.The group is loudly and energetically proposing various gruesome torture techniques to get big gang  operatives to talk.There is some amount of hyperbole on the discussion ,but also the sincere belief that torture is justified by the circumstances .How do you feel about this position? If you object to torture,would you make your position known?

Answer
Harri, past regimes in various countries around the world have settled the question of torture to achieve specific aims.  Even in this country, waterboarding has been used by operatives to gain information relative to terrorism.  The basic idea behind the use of torture is that the ends justify the means...that preventing deaths of many people justifies using extra-legal means to gain information.  This is a slippery slope leading to a barbaric culture and invalidates the result of centuries of human progress.  Torture is not justified as it leads to even more gruesome acts.  Typical are the cases in South America where suspects who were interrogated and deemed useless to police were taken up in helicopters and thrown out.  Recall the devices in the prisons after Saddam Hussein was overthrown...hooks suspended from which suspects were impaled. Regarding your question, as a new officer, I would decide to leave police service if it became known that torture was being implemented on any level.  I hope this gives you something of what seek.