Police Discretion And Dilemmas: Case Study

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.

Discretion is defined as “ power of free decision or latitude of choice within certain legal bounds” ( merriam-webster dictionary ).Police have discretion in most jobs they take on while out in the field. This could range from a wide variety of choices from drawing his weapon to shooting his weapon, or just issuing a traffic ticket or smaller violation. With such a wide gap between little choices to life or death a policeman’s discretion can either make or break himself, his department, and how the citizens look at policing today. Regardless discretion must be used in a lot of the police officers day, and when it's used right it gives the officer and community to have a more just society.

When and how officers use discretion is not always seen in a positive light by some members of the community; for example some officers feel that an assault between two blacks is an acceptable way for them to handle disputes, therefore there would be no need to invoke the criminal process (Goldstein, 1960). An officer’s negative appraisal of minorities is one of the reasons they are so over-represented in the criminal justice system. If officers are making the decision not to invoke the criminal process when dealing with white upper class males, but in most cases invoking the criminal process when dealing with members of the minority community, that is a violation of due process. In that case, the net affect of police discretion is negative.

There is no question that police brutality, when it occurs, is one of the most egregious violations of public trust that a public servant can commit. Police officers, those individuals taxed with protecting the public from danger, should never be in a situation where they pose a threat to the public. Furthermore, there is no question that police brutality occurs. Moreover, generally when there are allegations of police brutality, there has been some type of underlying violent incident. In addition, while issues of brutality may seem clear-cut to a disinterested observer, it is critical to keep in mind that law enforcement officers are not presented with textbook examples of the appropriate or inappropriate use of force, but real-life scenarios involving quick decisions. There are many arrest and non-arrest scenarios where officers need to use force to protect self or others; and the degree of force required may be greater than what a disinterested observer would assume. Another recurrent issue in debates about police brutality is that racial bias appears to be a motive behind police brutality. When one considers that minorities are disproportionately likely to be arrested and convicted of crimes, one would expect to find a disproportionate number of minorities among those alleging police brutality. Therefore, while acknowledging that police brutality, when it occurs, is a serious problem, the reality is that most

The way in which a police officer reacts to a situation relies on the characteristics of the suspect and location, and the personal beliefs of the police officer. The characteristics of a suspect include the individual’s race, ethnicity, gender, economic status, and behavior. These aspects play a single role in a law enforcement officer’s behavior under a nerve-wracking situation. People will argue that an officer judging by a suspect’s characteristics is sexist, racist, etc., but, truth is, everyone judges by

Chapter 4 in The Color of Justice: Race, ethnicity, and crime in America, was about the relations between society and law enforcement officers. This has been a major topic, especially in the United States for a long time. The unfortunate statistic that minorities are more likely to encounter being killed, arrested, and victimized by excessive physical force; has been a real issue even in today’s society. However, police departments are trying to combat the way police officers interact with the community; especially those of color. Although steps have been takes there are still some instances where police aggression happens. With all of the issues that arise between certain minority populated community’s police it is evident that conflict

Discretion in policing and the court system is a necessary and unavoidable facet of criminal justice work, yet it is still very controversial. Discretion exists when courtroom actors (police officers, attorneys, judges) have the flexibility to choose an appropriate response to a situation. Police discretion is defined as “The opportunity of law enforcement officers to exercise choice in their daily activities” (Nowacki, 2015). This means that actors with a great deal of discretion at their disposal may allow biases to affect their decision-making. These decisions lead to important implications throughout the criminal justice process, especially in the courtroom. The process begins with the decision to arrest by a law enforcement officer in the field. Once the case is forwarded to the prosecuting attorney, multifarious avenues of discretionary decisions are available to resolve a case. Potential issues that could arise and that are ever-present in everyday policing include racism, sexism and socialism (Miller, 2015). These issues ultimately have a negative affect on the criminal justice process, leading civilians to not trust the one process and actors that are there to help them. While discretion should play a role in the actions a courtroom actor takes and cannot be eliminated entirely, instead it should be limited and controlled throughout the criminal justice environment so that citizens can once again trust the process and so that there will be no disparities.

In this paper, I will be writing about Police Discretion. I will start by defining Police Discretion then briefly discuss the use in domestic disturbances, minor misdemeanors, and traffic enforcement. I will also discuss the application of police discretion, the provisions it uses and how it is currently practiced. At the end of these brief descriptions, I will then present the myth that exists in regards to police discretion. And finally, I will end this paper with my personal opinion as well as a brief conclusion.

A study conducted by The Police Foundation surveyed 80 police officers regarding their power of authority. The survey revealed that the majority of police officers disapprove the use of excessive force. However, when situations escalate to a certain point that requires excessive force, police were asked a series of questions. They were asked questions about their attitudes regarding excessive force and their perceptions of behavior with their fellow officers. The results showed that, “Almost 25 percent felt that it is sometimes acceptable to use more force than legally allowable to control a person who physically assaults an officer (Weisburd, 24).” The survey asked police officers a question that dealt with The Code of Silence, when a police officer sees misconduct from another officer and does not report it. The response of the survery revealed that “80 percent of American police do not accept that the code of silence is an essential part of the mutual trust necessary to achieve good policing (Weisburd, 26).” When asked about the attidues of civilians of a different race, the survey results came back as, “Almost 2 in 10 police officers in the U.S. believe that whites are treated better than African Americans and other minorities (Weisburd, 30).” Is there an issue of racism or targeting certain races when it comes to police and their authortity?

Many of the problems and conflicts between the community and the police are based on situations involving police misconduct and race. Other issues occur because of an experience one has had with the police because he or she is minority. Early resentments from White officers cause a different outcome when handling a police situation that involves a different race as oppose to his or her own. This begins to shape the perception of the residents that witness these actions. It has been shown that an officer’s attitude and behaviors when dealing with a minority is harsher and unfair. Several situations like the Rodney King story and police brutality where a minority was the victim is viewed by the public and discriminatory behavior solely caused by a person’s race or ethnicity. This creates distrusts and suspicion with regard to the way a police department handles these issues. The public is disappointed and reluctant to construct a relationship with his or her fellow officer.

A police officer is a law enforcement official whose job is to protect and serve the people, not to abuse their power. Due to the fact that the U.S is consisted of many different races and ethnic groups, the ongoing conflict between police officers and citizens of color is at a constant rise. Although policies today no longer directly target those of colors, the policies applied by law enforcements in African-Americans communities are discriminating. Officers sometimes abuse the policies resulting in citizens viewing it as discrimination. By changing the way laws and regulations that unfairly impact Black and Brown communities can improve the justice system (Policy 5).Racial impact has changed the view of the government resulting in more inclusion of people of color in the system. Policies that are not racially excluding anyone of color should be used within police departments to evaluate the impact of different policing.

In the New York Time Article by Timothy William, Inquiry to Examine Racial Bias in the San Francisco Police Department, first thing to remember known as implied social perception, implicit bias refers to the attitudes or stereotypes that affect our understanding, actions, and decisions in an unconscious manner. Another key point of argument is that there is no systematic bias in the criminal justice base on race. To point out, in performing their policing duties, police officer are able to exercise a high degree of discretion. This means that they have a have a broad freedom to make a decision about how to act on the given situation. For this reason some police officer deliberately use their wide power of discretion and their authority to perform acts of misconduct. In this article it is generally agreed that discrimination based on racial or ethnic origin is morally wrong and a violation of the principle of impartiality. In fact impartiality principles requires that those who are equal be treated equally based on similarities, and that race not be a relevant consideration in the assessment. However, in May, District Attorney George Gascon appointed a three-judge body of distinguished jurists to look into bias in the department following a series of misconduct scandals, the most troubling being a group of police officers who were caught sending racist text messages. Now, the scope, aim, participants and timeline of the ongoing investigation have been revealed in a series

Police discretion is a very important approach in matters concerning criminal justice. There has been a consistent problem between enforcing the law and the spirit of the law. Discretion in the broader sense can be defined as the individual’s ability to make a decision basing on the principle of courses of the action. During training, police officers are given different possible scenarios that they may experience while on duty. However, the situations presented are not exact and the police come face to face with more riveting situations that demand their personal choices. The

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 officers are given a lot of discretionary power that they would use to enforce the laws as they are implied or use their discretion to not enforce the law, but give a warning when necessary. This discretion has called into question their use of force. The media has displayed officers involved in use of force situation that seems unprovoked and again people of African American decent. For instance on September 4, 2014 a South Carolina Highway Patrol trooper stopped a vehicle for allegedly not having on a seatbelt. The individual was stop in a gas station and step outside his vehicle, then officer Sean Groubert asked for his license, the individual turned quickly into his vehicle to retrieve his license, officer Groubert yelled "Get