Police Officer Discretion

Discretion of a police officer is the subject I would like to tackle. In this paper I will discuss the issues I have with the discretion, the problems with these discretions I have, and how some officers may use discretion to their advantage. By the conclusion of the paper the reader will be educated on the subject of discretion and the issues facing it.

Discretion is defined by Pollock (2010) as, “having the authority to choose between two or more courses of behavior. Law enforcement professionals have a great deal of discretion regarding when to enforce the law, how to enforce it, how to handle disputes, when to use force, and so on. Every day is filled with decision-some minor, some major.” (p.198) When I look at this definition of discretion I feel that these officers are faced with many different issues when it comes to making decisions that can be viewed as fair. This is when I feel that the officer has to make ethical decisions in order to be considered fair, creating trust in the public, while making a good name for the department.

When considering some common abuses of police and discretion, I think about a lot of young police officers, new on the force, their new sense of power and the ability to let that young attractive woman go with a warning. I can see that officer pulling over a man for the same offense and hitting him with a ticket that comes with a large fine. I believe this is abuse of their authority and using their discretion to their benefit. When a police officer is out on duty he is expected to make responsible on the spot decisions for what ever situation may come up.

There are some consequences to discretion. There are the facts that since theses officers have discretion over what will hap...

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...n to it if an officer uses discretion to his benefit the he isn't doing his job in the first place. If a Christian officer pulls you over and decides that you have a good reason to be arrested, or to get a ticket, or to get by with a warning because of the circumstances he is doing the right thing. Making a rational decision and using good judgment to enforce the law and to serve the community.

Works Cited

Knodle, K. (1978). Discretion and dispositional alternatives in police handling of juvenile cases. Retrieved March 1 , 2010, from http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=75217

Pollock, J. (2010). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, Cengage Learning

Scott, M. (. (2005). Police discretion Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Reference, 2005. 337-339. Gale Virtual Reference Library. Web. Retrieved: March 2, 2010