Police discretion is a term used to explain a situation where the police either choose whether to apprehend a suspect or to let them off with a warning. It is viewed in an uncategorized aspect since it is constantly used across all levels of enforcement. In other situations, some view it positively while others have negative views towards it. There are merits and demerits associated with police discretion. some merits include the fact that officers are given flexibility in the manner through which they enforce the law. It also allows for police officers to balance their work with available resources needed to sustain them. For example, if police discretion would not exist, there wouldn’t be enough jail space to put all the wrong doers. However, there are some demerits such as the amount of vagueness associated with the term ‘police discretion’. there is no clear guideline that governs the amount of discretion that should be allowed on different scenarios and chances of misguiding the community due to inconsistency of law enforcement practices.
For there to be a standard in how police officers carry out their tasks, there is need to have a general definition of laws so that there can be a certain level of discretion. Benefits of discretion override the disadvantages on condition that there are boundaries and limits set as to what the officers can and cannot do. This will help in the elimination of conflict and doubts between police officers and the general public. In addition, police discretion should be properly governed in order to avoid biasness. Some officers may be tempted to use discretion to help people they have close relation to or may have a tendency to favor because of same ethnic background among other factor.
References
Smith, M. R., & Alpert, G. P. (2007). Explaining police bias a theory of social conditioning and illusory correlation. Criminal justice and behavior, 34(10), 1262-1283.
Smith and Alpert explain the bias within the police force which exists and from their research they have developed theories which correlate to illusions and social conditioning. The authors address the issue of police discretion in regard to some of the activities which need police to make decisions on the spot usually if they are by themselves and for some which require for them to take measures such as calling for back up in order to fully handle the situation. They attempt to distinguish between the lines that police discretion is allowed to cross as well as the limits allowed for them in carrying out their policing duties.
Tillyer, R., Klahm, C. F., & Engel, R. S. (2012). The discretion to search a multilevel examination of driver demographics and officer characteristics. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 28(2), 184-205.
Tillyer, Klahm and Engel have carried out research on discretion and how it is used in criminal justice and the effects it has on the powers an officer has in carrying out their duties. From their research, they have been able to outline the negatives which arise from how officers make use of discretion without boundaries and how citizens may be affected. Also, they focus on the advantages of making use of boundaries within which they can function and carry out their tasks. The authors also make attempts at defining what is considered as criminal behavior as per different societies and defining what is allowed to be ignored and what needs legal measures taken.
Goldstein, J. (1960). Police discretion not to invoke the criminal process: Low-visibility decisions in the administration of justice. The Yale Law Journal, 69(4), 543-594.
In his journal Goldstein looks into how Law can be interpreted differently as per officer also as per a situation. He says that this nature of law in itself brings out cases where discretion of police officers is usually extensive to them having different interpretations of a statutory text. Therefore, due to this there is impossibility in equal enforcement of the law due to the numerous interpretations a single law can carry. He adds that lacks a set agreement as per what criminal behavior constitutes of and which criminal behavior needs sanctioning and which can be ignored. A case of such can be identified in skid row areas where most police officers in attempts to deal with risks which may affect the normal society are to contain those in such areas. Making use of such approaches therefore allows for some crimes to continually occur with little or no intervention. Therefore, the police might tend to overlook acts such as drunkenness, drug abuse and prostitution on condition that the activities do not cross skid row area boundaries.
Cunneen, C. (2001). Conflict, politics and crime: Aboriginal communities and the police. Conflict, Politics and Crime: Aboriginal Communities and the Police.
Cunneen in this book admits that Communities failing to reach a consensus on what criminal behavior constitute of, or the approaches which need be taken in addressing different situations those police officers may be tasked with. He also talks of the vagueness in the definition of discretion in police work leads to negation of the understanding of the laws by the public such as making them understand to what limits police officers are to work within and what levels would be a violation of the statutes. Finally, he talks of how this can bring about distrust and confrontations between the public and the officers of the law. He however, mentions that the greatest challenge is uncontrolled use of discretion which can lead to various rights being violated and citizens may develop different views of the officers and could also bring about conflict.
