Professionalism Is A Center Of Any Criminal Justice Organization

Everyday police officers are faced with two difficult decision to make. Whether to intervene in the situation and how to intervene when they observe something suspicious or illegal happening. Police discretion is defined as having the power to make decision, and choosing how to respond to a given situation depending on the circumstances. Even though, there are law in place it is still up to a police officer own discretion. Ultimately, police officers have the choice to enforce the law and how to carry it out in public. In the text book “Policing America” by Ken Peak he states that there are two criminal law in discretion. “the formality and the reality. The formality is found in the statute books and opinions of appellate courts; the reality is found in the practices of enforcement officers” (82). He also, demonstrate when should each criminal law be use. However, there are negative and positive aspects of police discretion. Also, there are pros and cons of allowing patrol officers to make discretionary decisions.

Webster’s describes professionalism as “the conduct, aims, or qualities that characterize or mark a profession or a professional person.” I can see why people would say that about professionalism. However, I personally don’t fully understand the true meaning of professionalism. That might be because professionalism wasn’t an important part in my life. But now that I’m beginning to grow and learn more about my career and my future, professionalism is something that I’m going to have to work on in order to gain the skills to be respected in the business world.

What does Professionalism mean to me? Professionalism in my term means it is someone who is very dedicated to their profession. It is an important and great decision to follow by the rules and ethics of professionalism. If we did not have anyone that cared about their profession it would cause a lot of problems in our society today. It could cause a lot of disruption in your workplace. In order to abide by professionalism you must take pride in your job, percieve realistic goals and values, and know what your expectations are.

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).

Police discretion is the ability to choose a course of action because of broad limits of power. It "refers to the autonomy an officer has in choosing an appropriate course of action" (The Police In America, 113). It "includes authority to decide which of the various means of helping the helpless, maintaining order, and keeping the peace are best suited to particular circumstances" (www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1989/january/Sa15878.htm). The police need to have discretion since it is impossible to record everything on what they are supposed to do and not do. We can also understand that if you could record all the rules and regulations it would be too extensive for an individual to comprehend.

First, I will define Police Discretion. Police discretion is the power or authority that is given to a police officer to act officially in a manner that appears to be just and proper under the presented

Law enforcement officers have the freedom to make quick decisions on what to do in a particular situation without having to check with their supervisors. Discretion is an important contributor to the integrity of a police officer, and just as much, the compromise of the use of this discretion discredits the integrity of the police officer and the reliability to be an enforcer of the law. The working definition provides a contextual look at the concept of discretion for a law enforcement authority, along with the situations, which may cause a law enforcement officer to act in an unethical manner including issues like the difference in gender and race. Included are the instances where the officers cross the ethical line when dealing with their

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 &ump; 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 situational situations with individuals (Sherman, 1984).

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.

Police discretion is a decision made by an officer whether to enforce the law or to let the offense go as a warning. An easy example of police discretion is when a person gets pulled over for a traffic violation, something like speeding. The officer could either let you off with a warning or he or she could give you a ticket. Depending on how the person is behaving the officer will use some discretion, if you're mean with a attitude the officer will probably give you hefty ticket. If you are a well mannered law abiding citizen who normally doesn't get into trouble the officer will hopefully let you go with a warning.

Police corruption: An ethical issue in criminal justice CCJS 380 6980 Ethical Behavior in Criminal Justice Krystle Ellis September 27, 2015   Part One Police corruption is a form of misconduct when a police officer uses legitimate authority illegally for personal gain. Police have a duty to protect the citizens and create a sense of law and order (Beigel, 1974). To protect citizens police are supposed to curb crime and investigate it to bring the offenders to justice. Corruption is a crime that has become rampant today. Therefore, corrupt police forces cannot create a sense of order and legitimacy.

Police officers make numerous, complex decisions throughout the duration of their shift. Decisions such as, whether or not to stop a speeding car, write a citation, make an arrest, etc. Officer discretion is defined as “the exercise of individual judgement, instead of formal rules, in making decisions.” (Bohm & Haley 2014, p. 255)

The Role of Discretion in Policing As a law enforcement officer, every situation will be handled differently. Everything is not always black and white. In fact, when it comes to policing, there are a lot of grey areas.

Police are what is known as street-level bureaucrats. This basically means that police are civil servants working on the “street level” in direct contact with the general public enforcing the laws of the local, state and federal law. Police officers work alone or with a partner patrolling the streets within their beat, therefor they are given a lot of discretion with their title. Discretionary judgment is necessary for a well functioning police department, but it must be demonstrated properly in order to have positive outcomes. A police officers ability to use discretion properly can help build the relationship between law enforcement and the community, but if officers abuse their discretionary judgment then it can lead to decisional influences / biases (Dempsey pg. 144, 2018). A few solutions have been implemented in order to counteract / remove these discretionary negatives.

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.