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Pros and cons of police discretion
Police use of discretion
Police use of discretion
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Recommended: Pros and cons of police discretion
Thesis Statement: police discretion is the framework for promoting justice in police-citizen interactions in the traffic sector.
Police officers face a myriad of challenges in their line of duty. Most cases necessitate sound decisions to settle disputes amicably. When they apply discretion in an incoherent manner, they may end up abusing human rights. Therefore, they apply it when dealing with legal sanctions such as making arrests, giving out a ticket and stopping the offending party. Miller, Blackler and Alexandra (2006) state "police are specialized role players who preserve order and enforce the law" (p. 11). Sometimes, vagueness results when communities fail to engage in a consensus to streamline the issues that constitute criminal
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The privacy creates a circumstance that allows police officers’ discretion in the way they react and handle citizens that breach the law. The research community tries to investigate the issues that concern the police officers' conduct while responding to citizen's woes and their interaction with them. The gap that exists in the criminal justice is due to the poor attention that the police departments receive from the public and other bodies. This is especially due to suspicion over their activities once they stop a …show more content…
Cases of police officers using excessive force and violating human rights are quite common in cases where the problem goes beyond the constitutional provisions. The practice helps the entire police department to support community goals due to the environment's needs that require rapid response. When they enforce discretion properly, they respond to margin situations in the best way possible. “However, if they fail to control it, they may infringe the constitutional provisions. Dempsey and Forst (2013) state "one of the ways of controlling discretion, particularly the improper application of discretion is through the establishment of employee early warning systems" (49). Proper discretion is a sure way of restoring sanity in the traffic system owing to its accrued
In looking at the Kansas City Patrol Experiment, it appears that adding more police officers has little or no affect on arrests or the crime rate. Please review the study and explain why more police does not mean less crime. Due Date March 11, 2005
Walker, S., & Katz, C. (2012). Police in America: An Introduction (8th Edition ed.). New York:
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 is when to use force or when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force may or not be a large predicament but should be viewed by both the police and the community.
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.
Skogan, W., Meares, T. (2004) ‘Lawful Policing’ The Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 66 (18)
Police officers are faced each day with a vast array of situations with which they must deal. No two situations they encounter are ever the same, even when examines a large number of situations over an extended period of time. The officers are usually in the position of having to make decisions on how to handle a specific matter alone, or with little additional advice and without immediate supervision. This is the heart of police discretion. As we shall find, the exercise of discretion by police has benefits and problems associated with such exercise. The unfettered use of discretion can lead to the denial of citizen rights. Strategies that control the use of discretion are, therefore, very important. The benefits and problems of police discretion and controlling strategies are the focus of this essay.
The degree of force that officers use is heavily influenced by police discretion in real-world situations rather than espoused by a certain agenda. Discretion can be classified into four different categories where administrators, the community, and the individual police officer exercise differing degrees of influence in decision-making. What is needed to help officer discretion is a central ethos that will guide discretion when all other rules fail to help.
Police discretionary practices vary from officer to officer and every officer is differently trained by departments. Without the proper use of discretion out on the field, police officers are left open for legal suit actions however, if the officers are trained and exercising the use of discretion in a good manner, each individual officer can be held accountable. The second disadvantage of use of police discretion is that it allows the police officers to have too much power on making decisions which can affect the life, safety or liberty of an individual (Bargen, 2005). Police discretion presents a clear danger to society because the average officer can make a poor decision and affect the life of a person or persons. If discretion in law enforcement is used in a wrongful manner, it has great potential for being abused out of the field. Discretion allows police officers to “perform a duty or refrain from taking action” (Gaines & Kappeler, 2003, p. 251). Police officers are supposed to enforce equality under the law, people in society all should have equal rights and should be treated the same. However, discretion allows police officers to misuse it by treating offenders of different genders, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age and more inappropriately (Pepinsky, 1984). Law enforcement officers are
Laws and procedures are the most common basis for officers choosing not to allow offenders to remain free based on their discretion, a study by Mendias and Kehoe (2006) has found. The study found that laws or responsibilities were the main reason for a decision to suspend discretion in eighty-two percent of cases involving an arrest. The study also found that keeping the peace and procedural implications were the primary justifications for ex...
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).
Everyday, police officers across the United States are forced to make decisions while on duty, some are ethical and others are unethical. Police officers are under immense stress when in dangerous situations and have to use their discretion to the best of their ability. One of the most common unethical decisions police officers make is the use of excessive force. Unfortunately, police brutality has taken the lives of many people in our country. This violence that has occurred for so many years has caused outrage among society (Bach, 2014).
The focus is on the issues of police accountability in modern society, and in particular why their accountability is more important than other professions. This is not surprising considering the amount of power and discretion police officers have, and the level of trust that the public holds with these civil servants. Police officers accountability is the biggest thing in their profession which has been an issue of concern they have to be accountable to the police department who want the officer to be an effective and responsible person, to people in the community who have best expectation from an officer and being accountable to themselves for their acts. An ordinary citizen of a country cannot obtain the powers that police officer’s have.
Social media present images of police that misrepresent & twist the realities of every-day police officers work. Though more confidently presented than lawyers and judiciaries, police officers are more often than not presented as useless rule-breakers. Stating back to the year of 1993 police officers constantly rate among the top three institutions out of thirteen in public confidence. Police rates are much higher than the rest of the criminal justice system. Large majorities of adult citizens are fulfilled or very pleased with the police services in their various regions. Though there is difference in fulfilment levels across city powers, most fall within the 80-90 percentage range. The majority of school-age children trust their local police, but a big portion do not, and this disbelief is mainly strong among nonwhite students. These problems com on when researchers found that some of the social values were found to effect the police behaviors mainly when it came to race, gender and class. Differences in police behavior tend to display the deviations in the way the society view, deviations in police force comes more slowly than in society at large. During the revision, the work-related culture of police changed in a number of ways. Not enlightening on related police who engage in delinquency remained the main characteristic of this work-related culture. Nonetheless, the more
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).
Kramer, M. “How Cops Go Bad.” Time. December 15, 1997: 81. EBSCOhost. Web. 10 Nov 2013