Police Officer Discretion Paper

Environmental factors are likely to influence an officer’s use of discretion, when it comes to juveniles. For example, should a child be picked up in a affluent neighborhood, he or she may be more apt to be dropped off at home with parents. However, should a child be picked up in a more socio-economically challenged neighborhood, the officer may be less apt to leave the child, due to potential troubles in the neighborhood. Regardless of the community, officers are charged with making split-second decisions that could have life-long impacts on their lives.

As part of the police force trainings, officers are trained to use force progressively along a continuum and policy requires that officers use the least amount of force necessary to accomplish their goals. The use of force typically occurs when police are trying to make an arrest and the suspect is resisting. And when injuries occur because of the use of force, they are likely to be minor. This is also based

1. Some of the cues in deciding whether to handle a case officially or unofficially include the age of the officer, the wishes of the complainant, race/attitude/gender of the offender, and the nature of the offense. In most instances, it is up to the officer’s discretion to determine how they will handle the situation. The dangers in relying on these cues from an officer’s point of view could be deception. For example, if a young officer encounters a juvenile misbehaving they might be deceived by the teenager since they do not have much experience with them.

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?

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

Discretion, uncertainly, and inefficiently are rampant and essential in criminal justice. Nobody expects perfection. That would neither be good nor fair. Justice is a sporting event in which playing fair is more important than winning. Law enactment, enforcement, and administration all involve trading off the possibility of perfect outcomes for security against the worst outcomes. Policing is the most visible part of this: employees on the bottom have more discretion than employees on the top.

While being a police officer, you have guidelines and rules that you need to follow just as if you worked as a chef or even a sales associate you have rules

Officer are supposed to handle a call in an effective manor discretion plays a huge part in that.

I do not believe that police have to much discretion. This essentially helps making unnecessary arrest for citizens; thus, helps and provides justice. Although there are plenty factors, some influences that may influence decision making of a police officer could be there age and environment. An example of a police exercising proper discretion is a police offer stopping a lady to to give a ticket. As a result, he saved her front choking; thus, saving her life.

make bad judgment calls on a possible offender and resort to using more force than needed. With

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

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.

Police have the uncontested right to use force when necessary to apprehend a suspect. If the force exceeds that which is necessary it is defined as excessive force and is illegal. An officer’s discretion on use of force is a based on judgment. They do not know if a judge will later rule an instance of use of force as excessive or not. There is a fine line between what is considered acceptable force and what is considered excessive force. All an

Police officers take an oath to protect and serve the community. The community looks to police as a leader. I believe leaders set the standards, so police officers should be held to higher standards than the general public. Police officers are considered to be at the top of the organization chart. A wise saying states, “If the head (brain) is not working correctly the other parts of the body is lost.” The police are considered to be the head and the community is the other part. How could they enforce the laws that have been set by the government if they had no ethics and morals? There would be complete turmoil through the country.

Cesar, I agree with you. Full enforcement,(Bohm and Haley, 2011) when law enforcement officers are to make an arrest for every violation of the law, is unrealistic. Officers are overworked;using selective enforcement, our resources would be depleted and morale would be low attempting to use the full enforcement.