Matt Bader
Just 497-03
Professor Cunningham
2/17/16

Ethics in Practice

This article discusses a dark marriage that ended in divorce between an officer from Neptune, New Jersey and his ex wife. When Philip Seidle was married to Tamara Siedle he was a police officer in the town of Neptune. The story between them ends sadly with now ex officer Philip Seidle gunning down his ex wife Tamara Seidle. Throughout the duration of their marriage Philip and Tamara had numerous phone calls to the local police department, which Philip worked at with the issue of domestic violence. It seemed as the Neptune police department had tried to keep the domestic abuse reports between the two very quiet and secretive since it had one of their own officers involved in the matter. A total of over 20 reports spanning over 80 pages have been documented from March 24, 2001 through the week before Tamara was fatally gunned down by her ex husband Philip. Chief James Hunt only released four reports that had either Philip or Tamara named as citizens all of which were not the domestic related reports. The department had good reason to try to keep quiet about the domestic issues between the two. Philip was a 22-year veteran for the department.
With laws set in place the department is able to not make public records about domestic violence with the privacy protections it has. The department would not give any comments as to what the domestic calls between the two are about. With their domestic history documented in the police records and their connections to the local Neptune police department it has now become an investigation being handled by the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office. The ways in which the department tried to keep this to be as little known as possible makes you have to think if they took the calls from Tamara serious or if they somewhat brushed it off and let it be since it was accusing a fellow officer. In court records it had been stated that Tamara has shown genuine fear for her well-being. Tamara had also made statements that could be detrimental to a person’s career especially for a police officer. In the book Criminal Justice Internships, chapter eight discusses how some officers may want to avoid cases with people that they may know. In this case that would be very hard to do, as one of the people in the case is an officer. With this case the department should have assigned an officer that did not know Philip Seidle very well to handle this case. With a Philip Seidle being a police officer at the time this was happening it makes you think to the possibility that he may have influenced the officers looking into the case to not worry about it. He may have been able to convince them that it was just a regular marital fight. With his position of power being that he was not only an officer on the force but a 22-year veteran he must have had a level of respect that would possibly allow him to get the investigation of domestic abuse to be looked over.