Police Discretion Essay

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?

To illustrate this imagine that two men get into a fight in Times Square. A nearby police officer notices the disturbance and attempts to separate the two men instead of arresting them on the spot. In this hypothetical situation the police officer needed to use discretion to decide how to best handle the situation. At times however, police discretion causes more problems than it resolves. There have been reports of police being called to a scene were a husband is being extremely aggressive towards his wife. The police feel as the situation that is occurring is not severe, and therefore leave the scene. The next day, the police station receives a call that there was a homicide. As they arrive to the scene, the police realized it was the same couple from day before.” The report details in-depth reviews of 84 cases in which 135 people died, including some instances of homicide-suicide — cases when abusers killed victims as well as themselves. In 48 of those 84 cases, police had previously responded to a domestic-violence call”- (WA Report: Criminal-Justice System Fails Domestic-Violence Victims). At times the unfettered use of discretion can lead to the denial of citizen rights, at times the unfettered use of discretion can lead to the denial of citizen rights, and cause many flaws in the justice system; for example, many communities might have different definitions of what constitutes criminal behavior or what

In the criminal justice system, discretion is often performed by the police, prosecutors, judges and juries, correctional officials and

Discretion, undoubtedly plays a massive role and is implemented in various aspects of the system. But what is discretion? Discretion, as defined in Canadian Criminal Justice: A Primer, is merely the freedom to choose among different options when confronted with the need to make a decision. As significant part of the criminal justice system in Canada, being a police officers “involves the use of a significant amount of discretion” (McKillop & Pfeifer, 2004) . Due to the portrayal of the police by the media, the general public believes that there are certain methods and procedures that officers have to follow where it is clearly stated that if this happen you have to arrest them or if that happens you have to detain the person. In reality, police officers have to put forth their own judgment based on all the other surrounding circumstances which include the presence of a weapon or what the aggravating or mitigating factors were. This act of making a decision based off of the surroundings is also known as the totality of the circumstance. For example, if a police officer stops a vehicle that was speeding and finds out there is a toddler on board, the officer now has the decision to either arrest the driver and take custody of the toddler or to just let the driver go home safely with a warning involves their own judgment. Nevertheless, discretion does not mean that the officers can completely depend on their judgment; they still have to follow certain guidelines the Canadian

Discretion allows individual circumstances to be taken into account when applying the law. The criminal justice agents such as judges, can implement sentencing policies in line with their own views (Kessler and Piehl 1997). It is vital for criminal justice agents to displace themselves in an individual’s circumstances in order to issue out a just punishment. Often police will issue out a warning for less serious crimes as Ryan stated in his example of jaywalking. Discretion is all dependent upon the circumstances of the offending and the manner of detection by the police. A recent run of mine with a static RBT site resulted in no discretion being applied for a relatively minor offence (failure to display rear P-plate as it fell off during transit) and resulted in a very hefty fine for an offence as minimalistic as that. I’ve come to realise that during intensive police operations such as traffic operations like RBT sites results in a lack of discretion being applied and a more outcome or statistical driven focus being applied by the police. Does that mean that it adds or detracts from the law? I believe that in

Police discretion is a unclear term that has an appropriately vague explanation. It is stated as the decision-making ability given to police officers that permits them to determine if they want to engage in police procedure or just let someone go with a word of warning. How it seems in drill is altered from situation to situation.

In order to fully control police discretion, officers would have to uphold the laws in every situation they encounter (Pozzulo, J., Bennell, C., & Forth, A. 2013). This is the benefit for the needs of discretion for situation to take into account other life factors. The disadvantage is that there are several possible variations in how a cop might perceive a given crime; ultimately, allowing the law to be influenced by the personal factors that the officer uses to arrive to an decision (Pozzulo, J., Bennell, C., & Forth, A.

Police discretion is one of the most complicated topics. The general definition for police discretion is technically up to how one looks at it. Each police officer has their own discretion in handling every situation they go through, and of course there are guidelines on police discretion. Merriam-Webster’s dictionary definition of discretion is still broad but answers the missing parts, “The quality of having or showing discernment or good judgment: the quality of being discreet: circumspection; especially: cautious reserve in speech (Webster, 2017).” Simply put, discretion is the ability to make good logical decisions. So, police discretion is extremely important.

From a criminological perspective discretion can be defined as the authority granted by law to agencies and officials to act on their own considered judgement and conscience in certain situations; and each area of the legal system (judges, parliament and law enforcement) has its own discretion. Police discretion is the ability granted by the legal system to police offices, in certain situations, to act in a manner that allows authorities to make responsible decisions and individual choices or judgments, within certain legal bounds. In law enforcement, discretion is left up to each individual officer to make reasonable and responsible decisions out in the field everyday (Beech, 2008). Discretion is used in many situations, such as when an

The role of a police officer can be rather intense at times, but they play a central part in the law enforcement system. Police officers monitor criminal activity, take part in community patrols, respond to emergency calls, issue citations, make arrests, investigate crimes and testify in court as needed. Although officers have a delegation of authority such as their chain of command, they are also given the discretion on which laws to enforce based on their trustworthiness, experiences, situation and training. Though I'm for officers having the entitlement of discretion, I strongly feel their background, values and beliefs can also cloud their judgement. While an officer's discretion has been up for debate publically due to the unnecessary

The first being that the use of police discretion creates the opportunity for fewer arrests. This is a crime prevention technique in itself. With less prisoners, jails and arrests, that creates the opportunity for community building and an alternative to incarceration. When the officer has a chance to understand the situation they have encountered, they can decide what is ethical and what should be done. They can also make decisions like choosing to give warnings instead of citations and tickets. Police officers should absolutely be given their amount of discretion in making decisions for all of the situations they encounter on a daily basis. But with the changing of laws so frequently and with the times we live in, I feel that may change or that this issue will be a topic of debate in discussion for some

Discretion is an essential component of policing because not every set of laws or regulations prescribes what an officer must do in each and every circumstance. It is impossible nor necessary to enforce the law all the time

Now, with police discretion, it gives the officer a lot of power. There are proper ways to handle situations and then also, improper ways. The proper ways to handle police discretion are making the correct arrest the first time, to investigate crimes correctly and thoroughly, taking notes to report from a crime on what you have been told and not what you think might have happened,

Police officers are given the tool of using discretion and although this is a good tool to possess, discretion sometimes is the key that unlocks

Police officers are charged with enforcing the law and there is a level of permissible expectation that discretion will be used when making an arrest. The use of discretion by police officers aid prosecutors in successfully prosecuting a trial. Police officers are the first ones on the scene of a crime and they are the ones who initiate the case of probable cause. Court systems are bursting at the seams with cases and the police officer’s ability to use discretion will help to alleviate some of the backlog.