Police Discretion Research Paper

Discretion refers to the authority granted to a police officer that allows him to decide how best to deal with a certain situation. This is aimed at increasing the flexibility of the justice system as punishment may not always be the appropriate mode of dealing with crimes. Discretion may empower a police officer to overlook a minor offense giving the offender a warning. Police discretion is a very important aspect in matters concerning criminal justice. There has been a constant dilemma between enforcing the law to the spirit of the law. During training, the police officers are presented with different possible scenarios that they may encounter when they are out on duty. However, the situations presented are not exhaustive and the police more
Philosophers Ronald Dworkin and H.L.A. Hart have referred to discretion as “the hole in the doughnut” (Ndsaystarr, 2006). Discretion is the void in the middle of a ring consisting of policies and procedures. However, police are not always supposed to exercise discretion. In some instances, the law and departmental policies do limit or eliminate the discretion altogether. Discretion is usually bound by certain norms including professional, legal, social, and moral
If the police were to follow the laws to the latter, they will be perceived to be unfair by the society and hence rejected. Police discretion promotes realistic goals. In this regard, discretion takes into account the fact that the police are presented with unique situations on the ground that requires personal judgment depending on the situation. Discretion is also necessary for efficiency in the criminal justice system. If the cops were to follow the law to the latter, then the criminal justice system would be overwhelmed with the number of cases presented before them. For the police officer, discretion promotes job satisfaction for the cops in that they are allowed to exercise some powers which are provided for within the