Police Officer Discretion

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

Police officers are faced each day with a variety of situation in which they must deal; therefore we should ask ourselves the following questions: Should police officers enforce the law equally in all situations? In what situations should police officers be allowed to not enforce the law? What types of situations would they be required to fully enforce the law? Why does police discretion exist? What are its strengths and weaknesses? And what is the relationship between police discretion and police ethics?

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

Pollock (2015) explains how power and discretion is a vital characteristic when building positive relationships between the police agencies and the public. Furthermore, power is used to overcome resistance, or to gain a sense of domination over a person, or a situation. As police officers face many situations, where their power is necessary to subdue an individual, it is easy to abuse the power that is given to them. Even though there are policies, rules, and guidelines in place to aid in reducing the abuse of power, often police officers use discretion in addition to the power they receive. Discretion can be understood as deciding between choices which may impact ones’ behaviour (Pollock, 2014, p.86).

In this essay a discussion will be explored about the benefits and problems associated with police use of discretion. Which current policing strategies have the most potential for controlling officer discretion and providing accountability, and which have the least, and why is that the case? And finally, how might these issues impact the various concerns facing law enforcement today?

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).

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.

Throughout history, there has been very few careers that require such a high degree of an ethical standard such as the one required for law enforcement. There is, however, a multitude of careers that require the dedication and heart such as required for a police member. Where this dedication and heart differs relies solely on the difference in the job. Officers are required to be aware of their surroundings nearly all the time as if something were to happen they would be required to navigate through the situation successfully. Somebody such as a CEO for a multimillion dollar company would not require this same quality due to the fact it is not part of their job description and the only individual that he/she needs to be worried about is themselves. However, in today’s society, and with media being an ever growing aspect, some police officers have decided on their own personal way to handle justice. So unfortunately, this small percentage of police contract a huge amount of negative eyes to the profession. This small number of individuals bring a negative view to the police department as a whole and for this cause an issue in the public’s eye. Regardless of what many individuals believe, many of the police officers decide on the ethical side of the job and are hardworking professionals who seek out to just serve the public. However, being an African American male myself the main issue I have and want to combat is the punishment officers should face if

Have you ever asked yourself what it would be like to become a police officer. Becoming a police officer isn’t an easy take because they have to risk their life everyday to protect and serve the community. They have to go through the dangers of arresting criminals when there is a chance that they could die. However, in today’s society only a small amount of the police officers actually serves their community and protect citizens from danger. Right now, most police officers abuse their power to the point where they don’t seem to care for the safety of the community. They would usually arrest innocent people, make accusations, and even use their power as a source to show their dominance. If you think about, whenever you are stuck in traffic

Today, police discretion is a very important aspect to the criminal justice field. There are different substances where discretion is not discipline enough or not monitored enough even though having discretion is not always bad. There are still ways to abuse it and today police officers have their own way of using police discretion for different situations. Discretion can be defined as someone having the power or authority to make a decision based on what they feel should be done in a certain situation. Police officers are taught how to handle certain situations according the law. But when the officer is on duty no one is there to make sure that they are making the right decisions that follow the law and according to the law, there are not set guidelines in the law for police discretion which give the police officer an advantage. Discretion is used by police officers when they are facing a decision with a bunch of results that could handle the situation but the officer has control to pick which result they would want to choose.

It could hinder an officer because they can misuse their discretion and make poor choices by not picking wise decision. Another way they can hinder police discretion by the officer deciding to use force and force might not be needed for that situation. It is very important that law enforcement agencies should be able to exercise their discretion in the field. Yes, officer need to use their discretion in the field, I think the officer need to make positive choices and not negative ones because it will show that officer could be misusing their power of discretion. I feel that sometime police officer uses their power of discretion and make choice base on stereotype, race or what they believe in, instead of looking at the situation both ways, what will be the good thing and look at the bad and make the decision basic on the right thing to do.

Police officers are given a significant amount of discretion simply due to the nature of the job. Officers are faced with many threatening situations forcing them to react quickly, yet appropriately. They have the power to infringe upon any citizen’s rights to freedom and therefore they must use this power effectively. One major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is their power to decide when to use force or when to use lethal force. Manning (1997) argues that it is generally accepted that police should be allowed to use force. He also explains that there are an uncertain amount people who agree on as to what constitutes excessive force. The line

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