Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Principles of police discretion
Principles of police discretion
Principles of police discretion
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Discretion is usually described as a choice of options or actions one can take in a situation. People exercise discretion everyday. Discretion is like when you want to watch a movie and you are contemplating whether you want to watch a scary movie or a comedy movie. Discretion involves making a judgment and a decision. Although everyone experiences discretion, not everyone makes the same choices or decisions when it comes to discretion. There is a massive amount of discretion in the United States Criminal Justice System. The reason behind why there is so much discretion in the Criminal Justice System is because we tend to treat people as individuals. So one person can commit a robbery and that isn’t the same as someone else who committed …show more content…
He was pulled over and asked if he had his license on him. Samuel didn’t have his license on him. The officer Ray Tinsing asked him several times for his license. Then the officer tugged on the door handle. These events then led to Samuel Dubose being shot in the head. The officer Ray Tensing then tried to lie about the about the events leading up to Samuel being shot and killed. Ray Tensing was wearing a body camera, which showed the truth of the events that happened that day. This police officer didn’t use discretion. He did not take into consideration how minor the situation was that lead to the death of Samuel Dubose. Uncontrolled discretion is what caused this cop to shoot this unarmed citizen. If this officer would have took a second to think about what actions he was going to take next rather then just acting out of anger because the man didn’t answer if his license was suspended or if he even had a license. The law enforcement officers are supposed to be trained and taught how to go about certain …show more content…
Possibly sit in a circle around each other and hear one another out about how they would have such a simple situation and discuss whether that’s the same way others would handle it, or if there should be another way to go about the problem. Either way something has got to give, too many innocent people’s lives are being taken away for unnecessary reasons. I think we need to spend more time getting to know the people we are allowing to be sworn in to become law enforcement officers. Do they really know the title and role of their job? Was either of those people trying to harm people? No, so why was Sandra arrested for a simple stop, why was Samuel shot in the head for a simple stop? It’s the questions that rise that have no good reason or answer besides uncontrolled
Facts: On October 3, 1974, Memphis Police Officers Hymon and Wright were dispatched to answer a “prowler inside call.” When the police arrived at the scene, a neighbor gestured to the house where she had heard glass breaking and that someone was breaking into the house. While one of the officer radioed that they were on the scene, the other officer went to the rear of the house hearing a door slam and saw someone run across the backyard. The suspect, Edward Garner stopped at a 6-feet-high fence at the edge of the yard and proceeded to climb the fence as the police officer called out “police, halt.” The police officer figured that if Garner made it over the fence he would get away and also “figured” that Garner was unarmed. Officer Hymon then shot him, hitting him in the back of the head. In using deadly force to prevent the escape of Garner, Hymon used the argument that actions were made under the authority of the Tennessee statute and pursuant to Police Department policy. Although the department’s policy was slightly more restrictive than the statute it still allowed the use of deadly force in cases of burglary. Garner’s fathers’ argument was made that his son was shot unconstitutionally because he was captured and shot possessing ten dollars that he had stolen and being unarmed showing no threat of danger to the officer. The incident was then reviewed by the Memphis Police Firearm’s Revie...
The Tennessee v. Garner case impacted law enforcement agencies today by utilizing the Fourth Amendment right of not using deadly force to prevent a suspect from fleeing unless the officer is in imminent danger of their life. Consequently, before this was set into place, an officer had the right to use deadly force on a fleeing suspect by all means.” The first time the Court dealt with the use of force was in Tennessee v. Garner, in Garner, a police officer used deadly force despite being "reasonably sure" that the suspect was an unarmed teenager "of slight build" who was running away from him” (Gross,2016). Whereas, with Graham v. Conner case was surrounded around excessive force which also has an impact on law enforcement agencies in today’s society as well. “All claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force deadly or not in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of s free citizen should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment and its “reasonableness” standard” (Doerner,2016).
On October 20, 2014 a young male teen was fatally shot in Chicago, Illinois. The shooting occurred in the middle of the road and the suspect that was fatally shot was named Laquan McDonald. McDonald was just 17 years old and was the suspect after initial reports placed him in the scene of a possible car jacking. It was reported that Laquan McDonald had a knife and was also seen slashing tires of a police cruiser. When police had finally had him surrounded in the middle of the road, one officer opened fire and released 16 shots into his body. Another deputy on hand said the use of force was not needed because Laquan was not in any way trying to attack the officers present. The officer who fired the 16 shots into Laquan is named Jason D. Van
This era is where the shift from a centralized task force has gravitated to a decentralized task force, causing some friction from both the community and the officers that serve it. Police are told that they are needed to listen to the concerns for the community; however, law enforcement is still the primary goal. Police forces now have to defend the values for which the forces were built upon. The idea of problem solving has come into question with police discretion towards certain run-ins with the law. Williams and Murphy argue it is due to the lack of sensitivity from minorities and the concern on crime itself than the community. Kelling and Moore contradict Williams and Murphy, with Kelling/Moore suggesting the era is more about listening to concerns of the community and improving the citizen satisfaction. But both the article came to the conclusion of the silent underlying problems that are becoming more of a “quiet riot” with the police and the
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday, forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have when to use force or when to use lethal force.
Criminals in the United States often get an unfair prison sentence due to the current imperfect system. The laws and guidelines that are used to determine an offender 's sentence are greatly flawed. Some crimes are much more severe than others; therefore using the same rules and regulations for all crimes as if they are all the same is unfitting. A drug dealer, a murder, and a fraudster could receive the same amount of prison time which is clearly unfair and unreasonable. Changing the guidelines that are followed would be lawful and the morally right thing to do.
In the Ferguson article (2015), there was an example given about an African American man claimed that he was standing outside of of Wal-Mart, an officer called him a “stupid motherf****r” and a “bastard.” According to the man, a lieutenant was on the scene and did nothing to reproach the officer, instead threatening to arrest the man (p. 80). This demonstrates that the police in Ferguson had no respect for the civilian and even though the lieutenant was present, they did nothing. The officer was not suspended nor held responsible for this incident. By failing to hold officers accountable, it sends a message that officers can behave as they like, “regardless of law or policy, and even if caught, that punishment will be light.” (Ferguson, 86). This message serves to excuse officer wrongdoing and heighten community distrust. This is also to say that police can possibly get away with murder because they are higher officials and work for the
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).
All police officers should be required to wear a body camera and a microphone that should be turned on at all times. These body cameras and microphones would eliminate lies told by police officers, and would create a true picture of the crimes. Court systems should not just provide any public defender to those who cannot afford a lawyer. Social status should not interrupt the due process of law. Public defenders should be trained to be adequate lawyers and provide adequate service to their clients. As Muhiyidin D 'Baha stated, we need a citizens’ review board that has subpoena power, so as a community we can monitor officers and review their actions to prevent events such as the death of Walter Scott from happening. The biggest thing that should occur is trust should be restored with our community and officer. Somehow we have to make sure that officers respect our communities and our people, and in return we must trust them to protect. We have to erase the idea of officers fearing black men because of the color of their skin, and we have to not fear officers due to other officer killings. There has to be some balance and understanding between officers and communities, where they trust us and in return, we trust them. Finally, we should honor and protect the fourteenth amendment, which states equal protection. Obviously, we do not have
The similarity between confidentiality, privilege information, anonymity, and protected health information is small when comparing their differences. Although they all protect clients in some extent, they are distinct from one another regarding their boundaries. Confidentiality focuses on protecting information shared between a client and social worker. To keep confidentiality between a social worker and clients, the social worker must keep the information away from the media, and away from court unless they must report it under law. Privilege information is any information that cannot be disclose, and cannot be part of a testimony in court. Anonymity is when the clients’ identity is kept a secret. Protected health information is any information
Discretion is a useful tool within many situations within society; however, it can also act as a double edged sword. Dictionary.com (2017) identifies discretion as the power to decide or act based on one’s own judgement. Where the difficulty exist is having no discretion can handcuff organization or staff into only being able to follow exactly what is outlined with no ability for adjustment based on different situation. Conversely, having too much discretion provides little to no guidance for individuals and give the subjective nature, the outcomes could vary greatly. Within the Urinalysis Testing CD, there are element of protocols and procedures where the use of discretion is present, as well as absent. Where discretion is absent is within the procedures of random selection testing, as a specific list is generated and the staff must abide by the procedures exactly. There are however exceptions to straying from
...s of Business Ethics are saying that people typically use three different ways to base their decision. These three ways are the actions, agents, and ends. Some people look at the actions and if that action was a good choice. Others may look at how the decision will affect the person or their character. There are some people look at the how the decision will affect their goals in life, specifically the consequences.
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. When it was finally exposed, people like the American Friends Service Committee (1971) called for its abolishment, and police administrators sought a clampdown on discretion (administrative rulemaking).” The use of discretion is not necessarily an unpleasant thing as long as it is used properly and it is not being abused. “Adequate mechanisms for control of the exercise of that discretion are also a requisite for more rational decision making. If discretion implies a lack of control – that is, the freedom to choose from among available alternatives completely unfettered by constraints of law or policy – then the idea of controlled discretion may seem to be a self-contradiction” (Gottfredson p.276). Discretion can be used in many different situations. I will be discussing discretion used in dealing with the mentally ill, drunk driving, disorderly conduct, the use of force, and domestic violence. If a police officer uses his/her discretionary power correctly, not only will it help the police officer in their situation, it will help the general community as well.
It says in the Guardian article, “Salt Lake officials have claimed that the killing of Harmon was legal because the officers feared for their lives, even though the video, released the local media, revealed that Harmon was not advancing toward them.” If it’s not racial profiling then why did the police officers have to lie about the situation, when clearly their body cameras don’t show Patrick going after the police? In the report, if the officers had to lie about the shooting of Patrick, then they know that shooting him was
Discretion has the right to make or initialize decisions in the claim of normal rules and can be seen as “individualizing discretion." Openness to fill in spaces in ordered authority in order to execute assigned administrative functions may be called "executing discretion." The power to take action to further collective goals is "policymaking discretion. This is the reason why administrative is necessary and desirable for implementing public policies because of discretion they are giving.” Wise choices will watch over you. Understanding will keep you safe. Wisdom will save you from evil people, from those whose words are twisted.” Proverbs 2:11-12 NLT. Discretion shall preserve thee, Which wisdom or the Gospel gives, or the Lord by the means of it; for the Gospel makes a man wise and discreet in the business of salvation, and in his conduct and deportment; and the discretion it gives him will put him upon his guard, and direct him to watch against every error, and every false way. And so the words may be rendered, "discretion will watch over thee"; to keep thee from everything pernicious in doctrine and practice (Gill’s