Ch 7 Police and the Community- Carter
Chapter 7
ROLE AND POLICE DISCRETION
• Law Enforcement has matured philosophically, administratively, and operationally
• The “gray areas” between right and wrong or proper and improper are pervasive problems
• Our government is one by law not by people
• The law does not cover every situations officers may find themselves
• In complex societies, Law is an indispensable instrument of social control
• In a totalitarian society, Law is a mechanism of tyranny
• In a democratic society, Focus is on procedural law and substantive law
• Jerome Skolnick—“The procedures of criminal law… stress the protection of individual liberties within a system of social order.” … “The police officer is the living embodiment of democratic law.”
A. THE NATURE AND NEED FOR POLICE DISCRETION
a. Choices are constant
b. Judgments made by officers are particularly crucial
c. Interpretations of the law
d. Laws cannot be written to cover all situations
e. Mistakes produce serious consequences
f. Threat of malpractice suits hovers in the background
g. Public does not expect full enforcement
h. Factors:
B. THE ISSUE
a. The character of a neighborhood or the community conditions will affect the character of discretion exercised by the police
b. Link between role and discretion is apparent
c. “Once we recognize that police are craftsmen whose activities are directed by their self-conception of expertise and skill, by their interest in factual guilt rather than legal guilt, and by their perception of differences among individuals, it is not surprising that they have established techniques to evoke and circumvent the rules that would handcuff them in the performance of their craft.
d. Elements of racism tend to emotionalize the issue
e. Michael Brown= The autonomy to act as professionals towards the community presupposed internal control over the actions of police. The resulting conflict between the values of professionalism and the police culture is the root of the
ROLE AND POLICE DISCRETION
• Law Enforcement has matured philosophically, administratively, and operationally
• The “gray areas” between right and wrong or proper and improper are pervasive problems
• Our government is one by law not by people
• The law does not cover every situations officers may find themselves
• In complex societies, Law is an indispensable instrument of social control
• In a totalitarian society, Law is a mechanism of tyranny
• In a democratic society, Focus is on procedural law and substantive law
• Jerome Skolnick—“The procedures of criminal law… stress the protection of individual liberties within a system of social order.” … “The police officer is the living embodiment of democratic law.”
A. THE NATURE AND NEED FOR POLICE DISCRETION
a. Choices are constant
b. Judgments made by officers are particularly crucial
c. Interpretations of the law
d. Laws cannot be written to cover all situations
e. Mistakes produce serious consequences
f. Threat of malpractice suits hovers in the background
g. Public does not expect full enforcement
h. Factors:
B. THE ISSUE
a. The character of a neighborhood or the community conditions will affect the character of discretion exercised by the police
b. Link between role and discretion is apparent
c. “Once we recognize that police are craftsmen whose activities are directed by their self-conception of expertise and skill, by their interest in factual guilt rather than legal guilt, and by their perception of differences among individuals, it is not surprising that they have established techniques to evoke and circumvent the rules that would handcuff them in the performance of their craft.
d. Elements of racism tend to emotionalize the issue
e. Michael Brown= The autonomy to act as professionals towards the community presupposed internal control over the actions of police. The resulting conflict between the values of professionalism and the police culture is the root of the