The Importance Of Discretion And Continuing Education

One important work which highlighted some of the shortcomings of officer discretion was a survey sponsored by the American Bar Foundation. Among other things that survey noted in the 1960’s a national crisis arose with certain problems relating to law enforcement. The survey noted that the possibility existed that discretionary decision making could represent a pattern of discrimination, it did say, on the other hand, the survey was unable to say definitively rather discrimination existed in

Training is one of the most important roles at a law enforcement agency. It is never-ending as “concepts, theories, philosophies, practices, procedures, and techniques are constantly changing to meet social needs” (Iannone et al, 2009, p. 60). Without training, even the best officer will turn into one that is not respected by his peers or society. Gone are the days when an officer is sent to the training academy and has no more except for yearly inservice. This can be accomplished with field training after the academy, roll call training, inservice, emailed updates from the training staff, and outside the agency training. It does not always have to be expensive. Most think that the effectiveness of training can’t be measured, but successful training can easily be seen through “higher morale, less job stress with its high economic cost, greater esprit de corps, a lessened need for punitive discipline, greater effectiveness, in crime suppression, increased public support and confidence, fewer errors, better

When it comes to police officer disciplinary actions, the lines becomes thin and more difficult to read between. It is not such a black and white situation and when it comes to properly disciplining a police officer it can become difficult to do so especially when that officer has either been on the force a long time so there is an established relationship, or the inappropriate act they committed happened just once and they claim it will never happen again. These types of things make it much harder to decide what the right discipline may be for that officer.

Ramsey mentions the prejudices present in today’s police officers. After reading this article I have thought about my own prejudices and how it would affect my police work. Ramsey explains that it is human nature for officers to have prejudices, but it is up to the individual officer to not let those prejudices control his/her police work. It would take self-discipline and self-control for officers to not let their prejudices surface and become a problem while working. However, officers are taught self-discipline and self-control at the Police Academy to prevent this problem.

As being a police officer becomes more and more scrutinized by the community and the media, it is difficult to find citizens to fill these positions. When a lot of what officers do day to day currently is continually watched, it makes it hard to please the community and also keep the safety of everyone, so it is ever more excruciating that officers stay safe. With our ever changing world police officers have to keep up as well to learn and adapt to how the world works to keep everyone and themselves safe. The Greeley Police department should provide more extensive training on educating officers to stay safer because it will keep officer safety a priority, create a better understanding as to why they should have body cams and dash cams, and learn to properly deal with mental health patients.

As a law enforcement officer, their standards should be higher. They should be constant checking a validation of all actions right or wrong. As much as I hate to say this, unless the current law enforcement system is removed completely and made from scratch their will never be the change required.

Perceptions of what constitutes a qualified police officer have been crafted as a result of numerous television shows and movies. They are often portrayed as heroic, invincible, and possessors of brute strength. While some of these physical attributes are in fact expected and required of police officers, they are not the only ones and at times,

My classes taught me well, there were few things I did not understand during my time with the LRPS. I knew which forms should or are being used whenever an officer was dealing with a violated offence. I also knew what needed to be done before, during, and after an investigation. The things I was mostly learning about was the policing culture and mindset. Quite of few of the officers exercised their discretion to not tarnish the image of the agency or keep individual people happy. There was more than one ticket-able violation where Constable Norman Smith could have given a much harsher ticket or numerous ones, but he chose not to. He explained this as he did not want to be, “That guy”. Some the officers went to calls at the request of some co-workers,

For instance if an individual acted in a disrespectful manner towards law enforcement officers or blatantly disrespected them (i.e. making threats or degrading them) were more likely to be treated in a more punitive manner. The National Research Council (2004) concluded that demeanor and attitude is a powerful predictor of police use of force. Moreover, I believe that this also has a lot more to do with the location as well as the particular shift and zone being patrolled or policed that has a strong barring on the individual officers behavior and effectiveness. On the contrary, Sun and Payne (2007) found that an officer’s educational background significantly affects his or her likelihood of providing supportive actions to citizens (i.e. showing investment within the community/citizens). Lastly, Sun, Payne, and Wu (2008) found that law enforcement officers who worked on later shifts (evening, night) were more coercive to hostile

When an officer does something completely wrong in the field he or she is given a punishment. Examples of these punishments include a fifteen-day suspension for the threat to beat a pregnant woman after calling her the N-word, but the report that followed points to most cases of police misconduct going unpunished (Podesta). In the Vanity Fair article when the Justice Department did their thirteen-month investigation on the CPD they also pointed out that the city’s discipline process is ‘toothless’ and lacks integrity. The same article also commented on the poor use of proven crisis-intervention techniques, so not only are they not using these tactics that they have been trained to use but they also are not being punished when they do not use

Hello Sarah, great post. I agree with you that law enforcement agencies must follow certain protocol with strict rules that standard for everyone. This is because over the years, these procedures are put in place because after many years of researching individual that best fit for law enforcement. Thus, police department have come to realize that officer must meet the necessary requirement to qualify for employment. An example is that extensive background check as well polygraph examination, education, and the ability for individual to able to pass a physical ability, and the minimum requirement is a must. Moreover, police officers are individual that are entrusted with a lot of responsibility so law enforcement agencies throughout the country

It is simple that there is an incredible degree of responsibility and expectations placed on the officer. Whereas most professions give careful thought and designing, an officer is commonly thrust into a scenario with very little advanced intelligence concerning what is occurring. Usually, an official is concerned in a scenario that has the potential to show violence. The law enforcement has to understand that typically it would be unfair to judge an entire race of people. Along with the citizens, they would also have to understand that its unfair to judge a profession based off of stories seen in media.

When writing this training briefing, it was asked if officers have too much discretion, which leads to unethical behavior. An officer's discretion is a powerful. Police discretion is defined as the power to make decisions that allows them to decide rather or not to pursue police procedures. Proper use of discretion is very important. If the decision to remove this discretion is made, offenses would d result in many unnecessary arrests. While "must arrest" offenses may be considered harsh. Creating” can’t arrest" offenses may result in people disregarding the laws of the town. Those gullible to unethical behavior use their police discretion to abuse the system in many ways. Engaging in corrupt behavior such as gratuities, bribes and disruptive

Police officers with a minimum education are likely to use poor judgment. They will follow their instant before making a better

I selected the introduction to ethics as it is a requirement prior to applying to the nursing program. Even if it were not a requirement, this class I feel should be the foundation of continuing education no matter your major or area of study. For many years I worked for a large insurance company, almost daily my morality was tested. Customers asked me often if claims could be documented to make it appear as though they were not at fault for an accident they did indeed cause. They hoped by documenting the claim in such a way it would keep their rates down, and money in their pockets. While it would have been much easier for me and my client to document the claim as fault free, ethically it was wrong. It would have done more harm than good and