A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the
Award of the Degree of Master of Public Administration (MPA) of
Mzumbe University
The study assessed ethics in Tanzania Police Force. The specific objectives of the
study were to find out ways in which ethical code of conduct is practiced or adhered
to by the Tanzania Police Force; to examine community perception of the ethical
practices among the police officers in Tanzania; to determine the perceived impact of
unethical practices to the Tanzania Police Force and; to examine mechanisms taken
by Tanzania Police Force in ensuring ethical practices among police officers. A Case
study design was used whereby the sample size of the study of 200 respondents was
taken with interview, questionnaires and documentary review as data collection
techniques were employed. Interviews were conducted with police staff officers
while questionnaires were administered to police officers and the public. Since the
approach of the study was mixed, then the content/thematic analysis was employed
for qualitative data whereas Microsoft excel was employed for quantitative analysis.
The findings indicate that Tanzania Police Force observe code of ethics and codes of
conduct. There is evidence that, police officers in their respective areas live within
ethical standards as a moral principles or values that guide officials in all aspects of
their work. It is indicated that, among many other things, the causes of corruption
include lack of integrity, low salary, lack of accountability, low level of transparency
in working places as well as weak punishment. Moreover, the study results revealed
that, unethical practices by Tanzania Police Force have impact to not only the police
force but also to the general public. For instance, the study found that, unethical
practices have impacts like loss of credibility to the community, loss of trust by the
community, loss of respect by the community, delayed justice and inefficient
performance of TPF in general. The study also found that TPF has to invest much on
training its staffs to cope with changes that occur in today’s world. The study
concludes that the subject of ethics is not easy to define or implement in an unwilling
organizational setting. Isolating the police from the political environment and the
general public has resulted in an atmosphere of mistrust and misunderstanding. The
study recommends that the responsible authorities should put in place more
initiatives to improve in working condition since employees ethical conducts is
positively connected with organization performance.