Police Discretion Leads To Unethical Behavior

After reading all the material regarding Jeffery Bell, Darryl Forrest and Dustin Sillings all 3 whom were members of the Kansas City Police special unit known as (SCORE) Selective, Crime, Occurrence, Reduction Enforcement unit. I came up with several unethical behaviors throughout the course of the year from January 2010 to January 2011. One, all 3 officers violated the victims constitutional rights. Rights that were taken away were the freedom from unreasonable searches and seizures and not to have their property taken without due process under the law. (The Criminal Indictment: United States of America v. Jeffrey M. Bell, Darryl M. Forrest, and Dustin Sillings) Each officer took it upon themselves to steal various items including money from

First, there are several positive aspects of police discretion. One, “that it allows the officer to treat different situations in accordance with humanitarian and practical goals” (82). Meaning that in certain situation where a citizen is breaking the law the officer will have compassion and not enforce the law. For instance, a husband speeding trying to rush to the hospital because his wife is in labor. Even though he’s speeding above the speeding limit, when

Law enforcers are supposed to behave in an ethical manner in order to achieve justice to the community. Where some of the police officers complete their duties ethically, others are caught in ethical misconduct that blurs their vision of administering justice. Several unethical practices have been noted in the course of duty of most police officers, and all corners of the world have their police officers affected by the practices (Klockars, Ivkovic, & Haberfeld, 2004).This paper looks into two most prominent and persistent ethical concerns in police systems, in the USA and worldwide.

With such a broad volume of discretion apparently in nearly every aspect of police decision making what strengths does this level of discretion have? Police work and the work environment require the use of discretion. Decisions must be made very quickly, usually without time for input from another source. This is despite the fact that a bureaucratic structure exists for the department as a whole. Moreover, communities cannot agree on what constitutes criminal behavior or the level to which criminal behavior should be sanctioned or ignored. A prime example is that of the skid-rows areas. The approach taken by most police in dealing with the skid-row “problem” or

A police officer is morally obligated to lie on account of trying to stay ethical. (Ciske, 2009) How many criminals do you know that are volunteering to confess criminal activity? Social media in our society has added to everyone views on the conduct or misconduct of police officers. I believe the focus should be on public safety rather than how police use deception to get an individual to confess. A police officer using trickery to get a confession is no more different than a person lying on the witness stand. Crimes are being committed, and someone has to solve them. However, any statement made during interrogation without being Mirandized usually are thrown out of court. Miranda states that once a person in custody invokes the right to remain silent, whether before or during questioning, the interrogation must stop. (Hall, 2014) The purpose of Miranda is to reduce the risk that coerced confession would be admitted; therefore, police should not be responsible for an individual ranting off during interrogation. Suspects in custody have rights; it’s up to them to exercise their rights.

Recently the US Department of Justice revealed its findings following a request by current Baltimore City Mayor, Stephanie Rawlings-Blake, in light of the Freddie Gray incident. According to the Baltimore Sun, the results detail gross violations of the civil rights of Baltimore City residents by the Baltimore Police Department. The probe also indicated numerous unethical policing practices by the Baltimore Police Department that was targeted at specific city demographics.

Ultimately this course provided me with new ideas on how to handle certain situations in several criminal justice occupations. This course relates very well to officer discretion, corruption and discrimination. In today’s society police officers are faced with problematic situation each day and although we cannot teach fight or flight in a classroom we can try to learn what not to do in a difficult situation. When observing the different controversial decisions that are being made, you learn that when police officers are faced with critical and life changing decisions officers do not have the convenience of time. The decisions are made while that person has adrenalin rushing through their bodies and time moving faster than any person can anticipate. This is the synopsis of ethical issues, the different controversial decisions that must be made as a police officer, judge or correctional officer. What is the correct decision being the topic for discussion? A discussion in which the professor allows all voices to be heard so that we all can learn from one another perspectives.

This paper explores the inequality in our criminal justice system today. Several examples were cited from movies, textbooks, court cases and articles on the topics, bringing to light the controversy that our society is dealing with every day. Our police force and court systems are being manipulated by the use of money to influence outcomes in trials, and it provides a prejudicial backdrop for many in our communities today. If we are to come together as a society, and break down these barriers, we must be diligent in our efforts to reduce racial profiling casualties, where innocent people are being persecuted for

State and territory police play a pivotal role in protecting community safety and protection. ‘Policing’ was a combination of national economic interests, domestic and international security, and represented in time by distinctive organizations (Chapman, 1970; Emsley, 1994). They have responsibility for peace preservation, and crime prevention as well as upholding the laws, providing assistance in personal emergencies, and coordinating and managing emergency incidents. Since the police can employ the discretionary powers, which is a flexible way to dispose of social problems, in a manner that either directs offenders to or diverts them away from, further penetration into the justice system, they are seen as the ‘gatekeepers’ of the criminal justice system, model authority, and law-abiding enforcement (Rob and Santina, 2015, p.348; Wortley, 2003). “They seek to sustain politically defined order and ordering via tracking, surveillance, and arrest. As such, they require compliance to command from lower participants and citizens. " (Peter and Jeffrey, 2015, p.246). Discretion is universal and legitimate power applied by criminal justice professionals in modern policing, which requires employing individual judgment for adjudicating whether they use a legal sanction in a particular situation (McLaughlin, 2013).

"Proper use of discretion is probably the most important measure of a police officer or department." -- Rich Kinsey (retired police detective)

Discretion is not doing as you please. Discretion is bounded by norms. The future of policing as a profession depends upon whether discretion can be put to good use. Two problems impending police professionalization, however, in that there are few uncontroversial areas in police work, than in other professions. Sometimes the public wants no enforcement, and other times they want strict enforcement. Citizens will scream false arrest in the first case, and some groups may file a write of mandamus in the second case.

Police discretion by definition is the power to make decisions of policy and practice. Police have the choice to enforce certain laws and how they will be enforced. “Some law is always or almost always enforced, some is never or almost never enforced, and some is sometimes enforced and sometimes not” (Davis, p.1). Similarly with discretion is that the law may not cover every situation a police officer encounters, so they must use their discretion wisely. Until 1956, people thought of police discretion as “taboo”. According to http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/ 205/205lect09.htm, “The attitude of police administrators was that any deviation from accepted procedures was extralegal and probably a source of corruption.

In the United States of America, law enforcement has the ability to make their own judgement, while encountering criminals. Although discretion is at all levels of the police department, law enforcement agencies can easily make unlawful decision. Researchers determined that police officers are prohibited from using offensive language or speaking discourteously, abusing their authority, and using unnecessary force (Carroll, Kovath, & Pereira, 2004). Law enforcement officers are expected to respect their community and ensure that all citizens are kept safe. Some police activity can occur in a private view without supervision from the public, which allow police officers to make a reasonable decision. Police often make quick reaction when it comes

One aspect of the criminal justice system that has been debated for many years is that of police discretion. Police discretion is defined as the ability of a police officer, a prosecutor, a judge, and a jury to exercise a degree of personal decision making in deciding who is going to be charged or punished for a crime and how they are going to be punished. This basically is saying that there are situations when these law enforcement officers have to use their own personal beliefs and make choices coming from their own morals and ethics. The subject of police discretion was discovered in 1956 by the American Bar Foundation and has been an important problem in criminal justice since that time. When it

Discretion is defined as the authority to make a decision between two or more choices (Pollock, 2010). More specifically, it is defined as “the capacity to identify and to document criminal and noncriminal events” (Boivin & Cordeau, 2011). Every police officer has a great deal of discretion concerning when to use their authority, power, persuasion, or force. Depending on how an officer sees their duty to society will determine an officer’s discretion. Discretion leads to selective enforcement practices and may result in discrimination against certain groups of people or select individuals (Young, 2011). Most police officer discretion is exercised in situations with individuals (Sherman, 1984).