Essays on Police Discretion

The law enforcement police have been on the spot in the recent past for misuse of their discretion in policing. Police discretion is the decision-making power that the law gives police officers to decide the best course of action or procedure to take in particular circumstances or situations, most of which involve contact with members of the public, such as in the enforcement of traffic rules. The police usually use discretion to make a decision as to whether to perform a search, draw a weapon, issue a traffic ticket stop and assist someone, and shoot a gun. Some of ...

Introduction

In criminal justice, law enforcement agencies are institutions mandated to ensure that law and order is put into effect in a certain area of jurisdiction. They include police officers, patrol officers and prosecutors. Discretion in law enforcement refers to the capability of implementation agencies such as the police to point out and file incidents that are criminal in nature (Boivin and Cordeau, 2011). In criminal justice, discretion is also seen as the action by officers based on the opinion about the appropriate course in an encountered situation. In the process of enforcing the law, these agencies face different situations ...

Criminal Justice

Introduction In many ways, the work of police officers encompasses situations in which their sound judgment is being challenged. There are circumstances where the officers find themselves in a position where they need to make a decision on specific matters in which a lack of foresight would result to an act of lawfulness or abuse of authority. Police discretion draws the thin blue line in which law enforcement are given the freedom to make a decision in taking actions about certain situations whether to let a traffic violator off with a warning or to issue a violation ticket. The ...

Discretion is the basic right to act in relation to one’s own judgment. This is an essential aspect of criminal justice. Within the criminal justice system, those who have any form of authority, including police officers, court officials, and probation officers, are given a level of discretion in order to utilize their ability to process those who have broken the law. Beginning with the police, who are given the discretion to make arrests, an individual is then given to the discretion of the court system, and the scrutiny of judge and public attorney. After this, a person might ...

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 ...

This article by Stephen Mastrofski on “Controlling Street-Level Police Discretion” is a discussion of some of the problems related to the use of discretion by the police in various situations as presented in the report by the Committee to Review Research on Policy and Practices titled Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: Evidence. I have chosen this source because it gives a critical analysis on why and how the current research on police discretion and practices or actions such as use of force is inadequate, questionable and problematic. According to Mastrofski, the contemporary research on police discretion including use of ...

The Police in America have always been Controversial

The establishment of the police is a mandate of the constitution to ensure law enforcement, as well as public order and safety. It is created as an instrument to maintain a civil nation. As Egon Bittner asserts, the police, as an agency, are empowered and responsible to provide short-term solutions to emergent problems. Its manpower is competent enough to provide intervention to any form of emergencies, without any exceptions (Bittner, 1974). It is an institution created by the state as part of its efforts to police the people and protect the state and the people from lawless elements. Unlike ...

Introduction

The use of police discretion is a major challenge to the police today. Police discretion is the availability of a choice of options one can take in a situation. Discretion involves making a judgment and a decision, Dempsey J. (2009). The criminal justice system involves various amounts of discretion. A police can sentence a defendant on bail or order the defendant incarcerated until trial. In police, there are huge cases of discretion because the crimes committed by the people are not always the same. The police have to perform broad discretion behind a façade of performing in ministerial fashion. The police use discretion to arrest, ...