Suspects are individuals who are suspected of committing criminal offence. When an individual is apprehended by law enforcement officers on suspicion of committing criminal activities there are procedures that should be followed by the law enforcement officials in handling the suspect. These procedures are put in place to ensure that the suspect's constitutional rights are not violated. These rights include informing the suspects of the crimes that they are suspected of committing.
Suspects are also informed of their rights to have an attorney presents during their interrogations (Banks 2004). For under age suspects they have a right to having their parents or guardians present during an interrogation. If a suspect is apprehend and confesses to a crime without the proper procedures being followed the evidence is inadmissible in a court of law. That is if an individual confess to a crime without his or her rights being read to them the confession can not be admitted as evidence in a court of law.
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In law enforcement most cases are worked by officers in pairs. Therefore when officers in the course of their duty apprehend a suspect and one of the officers obtains a confession without duly informing the suspect of their rights. His or her partner has a moral and ethical obligation to report his partner to the supervisors. It is his ethical duty because law enforcement professional ethics demand that officers follow the guidelines and rules set for their profession in order to ensure that their actions are above board. It is a moral obligation in that one can not break constitutional laws in order to enforce the same laws.
In other words it is immoral for officers to apprehend suspected law breakers and in the process of carrying out their official duties end up breakings the same laws that they are entrusted to enforce (Banks 2004). Legal rights for suspected offenders are put in place to ensure that suspects are treated fairly and in the process of an investigation the law enforcement officials will not gain undue advantages and deny suspects their rights to a fair trial which is entrenched in the constitution.