Situational Variation: Situational Factors: Police Discretion?

Police Discretion When police are attending a call or happen upon a crime they are given the power of discretion, where they have the ability to decide how to proceed. This can be used responsibly or taken advantage of as there is very little in terms of control.

Situational Variables The situation in which a police officer apprehends a suspect can influence the officer’s decision on how to proceed. In fact situational variables are considered to be the most influential factor on an officer’s use of discretion (Goff, 2011, p. 184). Rudy listed of some situational factors that can affect a person’s discretion such as “possible educational experience, suspect attitude, community support, policies, and whether or not an officer has filled their ticket quota for the month”

Charging people does not solve the problem so if an officer can use the situation to teach a lesson (most often to teens) than they might take that opportunity instead of issuing a ticket or other penalty (personal communications, November 11, 2015). Police can also base their actions on whether or not the community would support the decision as they want to maintain a good working relationship with the public. As well they are less likely to let people off if it is nearing the end of the month and the officer has not reached their quota of handing out 20 tickets. Additional factors can be the seriousness of the crime, strength of evidence, preference of victim, and relationship between victim and suspect (Goff, 2011, p. 186). If it is a small issue or there is not much evidence than officers may not bother proceeding, especially if there are more pressing matters at hand. An