Law enforcement officers' system of values as the factor of regulating professional officer's behaviour

Introduction. Prevention of violation of professional discipline and legality among the officers is in the focus of the personnel policy of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs. The paper explains the relevance of studying law enforcement officers' system of values as significant factors of regulating professional officer's behaviour because the level of professional discipline violations is still high. The author describes the conducted research of the system of values in different law enforcement units due to the specifics of their activity. Materials and methods. Those under study were 165 law enforcement officers divided into two groups: group 1 consisted of 84 Traffic Law Enforcement officers (average age - 32+1,7 years), group 2 was presented by 81 officers of logistics and human resources departments (average age - 30+1,8 years). The experimental psychological research was conducted with the use of the Sh.Shwartz method and J.Rotter test-questionnaire of subjective control. Results and Discussion. The results of the research show the differences in the systems of values of the departments under study, these values influencing the professional officers' behaviour. In comparison with group 2 the respondents of group 1 have less developed «conformity», “traditions”, “kindness”, but have higher results on the scales of “simulation”, “hedonism”, “power”, which proves that reaching of social status and prestige, as well as dominating people is important for group 1. Group 2 is characterized by low motivational level to perform the duties, passiveness, no striving for career growth, striving for social order and mutual assistance. Conclusions. The system of values in law enforcement departments is one of the key factors of preventing violations of professional behaviour among officers. The authors suggest applying the received results for methodical and practical guidelines for chief law enforcement officers and the officers of human resources departments in regard to values and standards regulation of law enforcement officers' group behaviour.