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Advantages of police discretion
Police discretion and use of force
Police discretion and use of force
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“Discretion is the availability of a choice of options or actions one can take in a situation” (Dempsey 143). Discretion is a huge part of being a police officer because you come across problems that give you many options to choose from and as an officer you must be ready to make a quick choice. Police officer must face tough choices that involve a small amount of thinking and can put their lives at risk. Discretion is not only used by officers but by every living person that has to make everyday choices, such as waking up for school or not waking up. Problems we see today concerning excessive force from police can be because of bad discretion and that can be because they’re afraid or just they just simply don’t care.
Discretion is heavily used in the U.S and that’s because people are individuals and they don’t allow one person to speak for everyone else; meaning that everyone does something with different reasons. Whether they were angry, had mental problems, looking for revenge, etc., everyone’s different and that’s how they’re treated in the U.S (Dempsey 143). Police officers the toughest time when it comes to
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A good way of using discretion would be letting someone off with a warning for going five over the limit but a bad way would be using discretion without thinking. In the case of Sandra Bland; she was stopped for not signaling when she was switching lanes. Sandra did not want to leave her car after being asked by the officer so he took her out of the car himself. Bland was then arrest and taken to prison where she was later found dead (Death of…). In my opinion, I believe that the officer was not thinking things through and did not think of the outcome of the situation. I understand that the officer was doing his job but a changing signal could have been forgiving. In this case I think that the officer abused his power by forcing her to step out of the car and using excessive force against
Over the years, our nation has witnessed countless cases of police brutality. It has developed into a controversial topic between communities. For instance, deindustrialization is the removal or reduction of manufacturing capability or activity can lead to more crimes when people are laid off. Police officers are faced with many threatening situations day-to-day gripping them to make split second decisions; either to expect the worst or hope for the best. The police are given the authority to take any citizen away for their action that can ruin their lives. With that kind of power comes great responsibility, which is one main concern with the amount of discretion officers have is when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force might or
Delattre then writes about force and deadly force, saying that, force usage, depending on department, is vague and mostly allowed. Deadly force on the other hand, limitation is vague and as long as the officer abides by the department’s standard, the officer’s deadly force may be justified. The use of dead force is really up to the officer’s discretion, while as some people find there is too much or too little discretion in deadly force; the department has a responsibility to address the issues in policy, while respecting the limits and allows the officer to exercise discretion. Delattre then explains in anticipation and planning, that departments and officers often should anticipate problems in correct decision making to avoid discretionary issues. Anticipation also can prevent to less media attention, good or bad, just as Delattre brings up, the media coverage can create copycat criminals. On the other hand, the media attention can bring reform to discretion and judgment calls, which can be good or bad, depending if the policy created is good or
The ethical theory I will rely on for my scenario is formalism. Considering that this is a public servant and that the main goal of formalism is to carry out obligation and duty, formalism is the theory that will apply. Adhering to this theory means you treat everyone, regardless of status or relationship, the same. It would also mean that you could not use one person as a means to an end (Albanese, 2012). Therefore, doing a favor for the mayor for personal gain, such as a promotion, is clearly not alright.
These outcomes are determined by the community and states. At times the community supports the police officers and at times they do not which that also depends on the state and the budgeting. The police discretion can also be limited depending on economic hardship, social services agencies for youth. Another important part that plays an important role in discretion would be changes in political climate and public
Furthermore, many individuals believe that the police officers are misusing their power by taking extreme measures when situations arise. In shootings for example, we see that many police officers claim that their lives were in danger and the individual displayed threatening behavior that required them to fire. Many people contend this as they think that the police officers did not have sufficient discretion in firing their weapon and used their deep rooted, or even subtle, racism in handling the situation. In other words, had the individual been White the situation would have ended differently, and not with a dead African American person. The fact that in each of these cases of police brutality the individual ends up dead and unable to tell their side of the story is extremely alarming to
"Proper use of discretion is probably the most important measure of a police officer or department." -- Rich Kinsey (retired police detective)
The degree of force that officers use is heavily influenced by police discretion in real-world situations rather than espoused by a certain agenda. Discretion can be classified into four different categories where administrators, the community, and the individual police officer exercise differing degrees of influence in decision-making. What is needed to help officer discretion is a central ethos that will guide discretion when all other rules fail to help.
Discretion is defined as the authority to make a decision between two or more choices (Pollock, 2010). More specifically, it is defined as “the capacity to identify and to document criminal and noncriminal events” (Boivin & Cordeau, 2011). Every police officer has a great deal of discretion concerning when to use their authority, power, persuasion, or force. Depending on how an officer sees their duty to society will determine an officer’s discretion. Discretion leads to selective enforcement practices and may result in discrimination against certain groups of people or select individuals (Young, 2011). Most police officer discretion is exercised in situations with individuals (Sherman, 1984).
A Critical Assessment In defining police ethics, ethical policing and police ethics are not synonymous or interchangeable connotations to or for one another. Aside from establishing a police role independently from establishing any definition of ethics or police ethics, the semantics tend to complicate the defining process. Some of these complications include, but are not limited to, sociological aspects, psychological conditions, or philosophical reasoning. Examples of sociological complications include historical, political, cultural, or economic aspects. Some psychological examples include one’s ability to discern sociological implications from other implications; namely, the condition of post-traumatic stress disorder, hydrophobia, or even weary dreams. Lastly,
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday, forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have when to use force or when to use lethal force.
Police discretionary practices vary from officer to officer and every officer is differently trained by departments. Without the proper use of discretion out on the field, police officers are left open for legal suit actions however, if the officers are trained and exercising the use of discretion in a good manner, each individual officer can be held accountable. The second disadvantage of use of police discretion is that it allows the police officers to have too much power on making decisions which can affect the life, safety or liberty of an individual (Bargen, 2005). Police discretion presents a clear danger to society because the average officer can make a poor decision and affect the life of a person or persons. If discretion in law enforcement is used in a wrongful manner, it has great potential for being abused out of the field. Discretion allows police officers to “perform a duty or refrain from taking action” (Gaines & Kappeler, 2003, p. 251). Police officers are supposed to enforce equality under the law, people in society all should have equal rights and should be treated the same. However, discretion allows police officers to misuse it by treating offenders of different genders, race, class, ethnicity, religion, age and more inappropriately (Pepinsky, 1984). Law enforcement officers are
I think police discretion is very common. Police officers exercise the choice of whether to question someone, arrest a suspect as well as several other duties and each of these decisions are made without the presence of supervision so perhaps this is the reason it exists. Discretion may be decreased but I don’t think it can be eliminated, even with supervision police officers together hold the authority to make discretionary decisions even if the public disagrees with their tactics. I don’t necessarily think police discretion should not be eliminated because, majority of the decisions that are made by them are made in the best interest of the public or victim.
Laws and procedures are the most common basis for officers choosing not to allow offenders to remain free based on their discretion, a study by Mendias and Kehoe (2006) has found. The study found that laws or responsibilities were the main reason for a decision to suspend discretion in eighty-two percent of cases involving an arrest. The study also found that keeping the peace and procedural implications were the primary justifications for ex...
Communication is a vital tool in our society today because police officers could not serve the public effectively without good communication skills. A lack of the ability to listen or to speak effectively could result in a misunderstanding. Communication plays a very important role in the lives and jobs of police officers. Communication allows officers the ability to better manage evidence by interrogating witnesses and suspects and gathering information. This allows them to make quick and informed decisions. Police officers can only succeed if they master communication, both social and professional, so that they can be comfortable with the public and get their jobs done behind the scenes.
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).