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Strategies on how to reduce crime
Principles of police discretion
Principles of police discretion
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Police discretion is given to officers to use their individual judgment concerning decisions that they must make throughout their career. Police Officers use police discretion to deal with people who may or may not have committed a crime. Citizens wondered if officers treat every situation equally. Police officers in the United States should enforce the law equally in all situations. There are a lot of situations that require officers to fully enforce the law. Statutory laws, case laws, administrative laws, and civil laws can be used to enforce the law. Felonies is another situation that officers can enforce law on. Officers can decide whether or not they should enforce law on misdemeanors or minor crimes. Misdemeanors aren’t seen as serious crimes in …show more content…
An officer's goal is to prevent a crime from happening in their society. The reason why Police discretion exist in the United States is because it gives officers the ability to perform their duties. Officers use police discretion all the time to prioritize and to be efficient with their work. Officers also must be fair and nondiscriminatory when they use police discretion. The thing that officers focus on when they make a decision is their individual backgrounds. It's been widely accepted and became a universal practice that allows officers to make their own decisions based on their experience working in the field. There are many advantages and disadvantages of the usage of police discretion. Soma advantages of police discretion is that it gives the police the ability to use force in cases a offender of a crime to be violent. The most important rule of a police officer is to protect the citizens. Therefore, discretion allows an officer to do anything possible in that situation to
Decision Making – Police officers have considerable decision making powers at their own discretion. This is true for low ranki...
I think police discretion is very common. Police officers exercise the choice of whether to question someone, arrest a suspect as well as several other duties and each of these decisions are made without the presence of supervision so perhaps this is the reason it exists. Discretion may be decreased but I don’t think it can be eliminated, even with supervision police officers together hold the authority to make discretionary decisions even if the public disagrees with their tactics. I don’t necessarily think police discretion should not be eliminated because, majority of the decisions that are made by them are made in the best interest of the public or victim.
Law enforcement is the act of discovering and punishing whose people in society who don’t follow the law, rules and policies properly. Moreover, enforcement
These outcomes are determined by the community and states. At times the community supports the police officers and at times they do not which that also depends on the state and the budgeting. The police discretion can also be limited depending on economic hardship, social services agencies for youth. Another important part that plays an important role in discretion would be changes in political climate and public
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.
As stated in the textbook, police often have to make decisions on their own, with only their moral compass to guide them. Most ethical dilemmas that police officers face derive from their powers of discretion. Moral dilemmas that police officers face are often frequent and unavoidable. They are often unpopular with many people, resolved quickly, and are often dealt with alone.
In law enforcement, discretion is left up to each police officer to make responsible and reasonable decisions on situations while in the field. A police officer will have no choice but to use discretion in certain situations and make decisions on what type of force or punishment is necessary for the situations. Many people in the society always believe that police officers can make any decision they wish to at any time while working. This is very wrong because there are situations whereby a police officer or even the chief of police has no other choice, but to follow the law in making decisions. The role of the police administrator is double challenging because, he/she must determine how best to use discretion as well as encourage or dissuade discretion by subordinate members ...
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.
Officers are able to use discretion in many situations that their morals would guide them in. They have the right to pull a person over with probable cause or a violation and they can choose whether to give them a ticket, a warning, or nothing, depending on the situation.
Police discretion. Police discretion is defined as the decision-making power afforded to Police Officers that allows them to decide if they want to pursue police procedure or simply let someone off with a warning. Police discretion can be also defined as the individual’s ability to make a decision based on the principle of courses in the actions. Police officers are usually in the position of having to make decisions on how to handle a specific situation alone, or without immediate supervision. In other words, police discretion is the choice the officer has on how he or she enforces the law. Discretion in law enforcement includes whom to arrest, whom to investigate, whom to talk to, and whom to interview (Pollock, 2014). Use of discretion
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).
Question #1: “Please define police discretion and abuse of police power. Explain the difference(s). - Police Discretion: Police discretion is a fairly broad term used for the measurement in which an officer interprets criminal intent from a person potentially running into troubles with the Law. Police discretion is what’s referred to when talking about the process of seeking the most effective level of justice necessary to calm a dispute/situation. -
There are several ethical issues that surround police corruption and discretion. Police corruption is defined as police misconduct. This occurs when police officers break their social contract by abusing their authority for personal advantages, department advances, or both. According to social contract theory, police officers are obligated to follow the code of ethics and moral standards of the criminal justice system. Police discretion is defined as the power to make decisions as to whether or not to follow police procedure and protocol, or give someone a
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).