Chief of Police and Discretion

The Police Chief must exercise extreme discretion. Discretion can be described as the use of choices that initiate a deliberate decision. These decisions can often later be questioned by the nature of the decision. The nature of the decision used for making decisions can be related to protocol, accepted verses unaccepted behaviors, and even if an alternative could have been made in lieu of a better decision. Discretion can be very dangerous when ridiculed or judged in the eyes of the public.

A police chief representing a community and acting on behalf of a police department must use extreme caution and thoughtfulness in the deliberate choices he makes at his own preference. Failure for the leader of such a department to make sound, sensitive, moral, consistent decisions can cause public uproar and negative media attention. The concept of discretion via two situations will be examined and how it affects the very unique role of the police chief. Police chiefs’ use many types of administrative and operational discretion and the manner that they may use that discretion can affect the officers who work in the department and in the field under them as well. The situations that will be discussed that require the Police Chiefs discretion will be considered using operational and administrative environments.

The emphasis on discretion and it is used and how it is allowed to be used is demonstrated by the Chief. Patrol Officers use discretion the most. Everyday officers are faced with different situations and some of them the same. The deliberate choice to arrest one person and let another go can be considered discretion. It is important that there is consistency in decision making and consistency in discretion. Most of the daily operati...

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...e problem. If such a situation would occur there is a public potential for outrage and backlash on the entire department. There must be an investigation along with elimination of the problem if findings develop that the reports are true.

The intent of this project was to illustrate the importance of the Chief of Police’s use of discretion for operational and administrative duties. There were situations noted and how it affects the head of the department in different aspects of operational and administrative environments. The way the head of the department uses discretion to handle these issues affects the department greatly and even trickles down to the amount of discretion used for officers on administrative and operational duties. The way situations are handled and the amount of discretion used in the choices that are made are important to Department personnel.