Police Discretion
The use of discretion is extremely important in the Criminal Justice field. Discretion is the ability for an individual to make a choice based among a number of possible courses of action. Police officers are trained on as many possible situations that they may encounter during their academy days. The problem arises when they get into the field and encounter a situation that they were not trained for. Their training cannot possibly cover every situation that a police officer may encounter. Our laws also do not cover every situation. There are new laws constantly being placed on the books that an officer will have to use discretion with due to it being new. There are also cases in which the law may not be clear, and an officer may have to ignore certain interpretations of the law and use his/her own discretion as far as a decision. Police discretion is used by officers when they are in situations where they need to make a choice from a number of choices given.
Analysis
The mythical aspects of Police Discretion come about when police agencies are questioned about whether their officers practice full enforcement on a consistent basis. Police are often questioned about whether or not they followed policy in certain situations. The myth comes about due to the fact that although society believes officers follow all policies and that full enforcement is always used, this simply is not true in all cases. This is when discretion comes into play. Society can see through the myth of full police enforcement when incidences like traffic citations vs. traffic tickets are given. Discretion is used during traffic stops many times due to factors involved with the traffic stop. If full enforcement was always used, there would never be citations issued, there would only be tickets issued. Three reasons as t why this myth has come about are” legality, the nature of the police organization and the authoritative image of the police.” (Walker, 1999)
The legality aspect deals with an officer’s power to make arrests. From a legal perspective, “police officers are governed by statue(s) requiring them to make arrests.” (Dantzker, 2003) If we believe that an officer’s job is to enforce the law, if an officer disregards these laws, or uses discretion, it becomes a question of whether or not laws are followed through properly. The nature of the police organization is simply stating that police agencies would lose a sense of secrecy about what they do if they admit to discretion. If an agency admits to using discretion they are ultimately giving up some control to the outside. When we talk about the authoritative image of the police we are pointing out the edge that an officer has with the public. The image an officer portrays is that of authority and if discretion is pointed out an officer may feel as though their image could be affected.
There are three sources that appear to be primary contributors to discretion: environment, administration and individuality. When we talk about a police officers environment, the use of discretion comes into play all throughout their environment. An example would be a patrol officer that is forced to make decisions throughout his/her shift out in the field. The officer has little supervision, they are usually put in situations where decisions need to be immediately and discretion must be used at times in order for society to be accepting of officers and their role in society. The administration aspect of discretion deals with the laws and the fact that not all laws have simply one meaning. When we talk about individuality and discretion we are pointing out that each person has individual thoughts and traits. Police officers are individuals just as citizens are. Officers make mistakes, just as citizens do. Discretion comes into play due to the fact that not all officers will make the same decisions in certain situations. Officers are not robots and it is because of the diverse backgrounds and values that an officer comes from that helps to make our police agencies strong. A perfect example of individualism and police discretion would be comparing the ideas of a seasoned police officer to that of a rookie officer. A seasoned officer has been using discretion for years where as a rookie cop is new to the idea. A rookie cop is usually only concerned with enforcing the law exactly how the law was written, where as the seasoned cop understands that each law has room for discretion.
In order to control discretion the only concrete way to do this would be for officers to follow all laws exactly how they are written in every single situation they encounter. In reality this just isn’t possible. There needs to be discretion in order for situations to be fair. Police need to be able to feel as though the decisions they make are not always predetermined. They should be able to use their own minds and feel as though they are human.
There are such a huge amount of situations that deal with discretion. The following situations are ones that officers are faced with on a daily basis. Their use of discretion determines the outcome of these situations. For each of these situations I believe that an officer should be able to use discretion in a way that is fair for the individuals involved in these situations.
1)Domestic Disturbances: when discretion is used, the only problem I can see if that an officer may feel as though they have the final say due to discretion and the laws that have been proven to be effective may not be applied. An example is an officer making a discretion decision to allow the abuser to stay in the house because the officer may feel as though both parties are equally responsible and no action should be taken.
2)Public intoxication: in most of these situations I believe that little discretion should be applied by an officer. The only situation I could see that could deal with discretion would be making sure an officer is sure the individual is intoxicated vs. possibly having a medical issue.
3)Disorderly conduct: discretion could be used in these types of situations due to each individual’s perspective as to what is disorderly. An example could be a group of college kids who have their music playing loudly in their own backyard. A neighbor may think this is disorderly even though there is no other commotion going on besides the music.
4)Trespassing: the laws of trespassing are fairly straightforward. If someone has been told not to go into a certain area, then an officer should follow through with the law and punishment for this action.
5)Use of force: this is a situation in which I could see an officer abusing their powers. A perfect example of this could be the Rodney King video. Although there was more to that video than we were able to see, the fact that the officers felt as though they could beat an individual to the extent that they did Mr. King was definitely a misuse of discretion.
6)Traffic stops: this is an area where I believe officers can use a vast amount of discretion. There are so many different reasons for individuals to be driving a certain way, or for having an issue with their vehicles.
In the following areas of contacts, I believe that officers can use discretion, but at the same time I can see situations where officers could abuse this power of discretion. An officer needs to be able to know how to interact with all individuals regardless of age, race or sex. The problem comes into play when you have an officer that may be prejudice and they use their ability of discretion to go against the laws that protect individuals from prejudice behaviors.
7)Contact with juveniles
8)Contact with mentally ill individuals
9)Contact with female vs. male individuals
10)Contact with minorities
Conclusion
In conclusion, “the use of discretion by police officers has a tremendous impact on police performance and behavior.” (Dantzker, 2003) Some individuals believe that discretion should not be used and that the laws need to be followed just as they have been written. I believe that discretion should be used, but only under certain situations. We have to be able to have faith in our officers and their decisions.
References
Dantzker, M. (2003). Understanding today’s police. 3rd ed. : Prentice-Hall Inc.
Kelling, G. (1999). Broken windows and police discretion. Retrieved Mar. 18, 2005, from www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/178259.pdf
(n.d.). Retrieved Mar. 18, 2005, from An Analysis of Official Crime Statistics Web site: http://www.solent.ac.uk/law/crime.html.
Walker, S. (2004). Retrieved Mar. 18, 2005, from Police Discretion Web site: http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/205/205lect09.htm.
