Police Discretion Police discretion is the ability to choose a course of action because of broad limits of power. It "refers to the autonomy an officer has in choosing an appropriate course of action" (The Police In America‚ 113). It "includes authority to decide which of the various means of helping the helpless‚ maintaining order‚ and keeping the peace are best suited to particular circumstances" (www.worldandi.com/specialreport/1989/january/Sa15878.htm). The police need to have discretion
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Police Discretion Should Be Enhanced Police discretion can be defined as can be examined in many ways. A police officer’s belief system consists of his or her beliefs‚ attitudes‚ values‚ and other subjective outlooks. Regardless of any factors‚ there is always room for improvement and police officer’s discretion should be enhanced. All police officer’s use discretion in every situation they encounter. Officers realize they are constantly in the public eye and every move they make
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In most situations that police officers have to deal with‚ they are given a certain degree of discretion to decide not only when to use force‚ but also about which type of force to use. No matter what the situation is or what it seems to be at the moment‚ it requires the officer on the scene to analyze that particular situation and apply his or her training and moral values when choosing how to react. Police officers and law enforcement personnel hold the lives of each and every individual that
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Police Discretion Should all police officers of America be advised to enforce the law equally in all situations? Before a justifiable response‚ let’s create a scenario; a full grown man in his early twenties is walking in a residential neighborhood‚ carrying a baseball bat and smashing car windows. Authorities have been called and the man is obstructing both officers that arrived in a squad car- the man is swinging the bat in the direction of the officers and is creating a threat to their lives
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Police Discretion Police discretion is freedom or the power of state officers to exercise various alternative actions towards a person. A police officer may choose to give a warning‚ issue a ticket of violation or arrest an offender. Not all circumstances allow police to have discretion. According to a research by Carrington and Schulenber (2004)‚ various factors affect police discretion. These factors include the seriousness and the nature of the crime‚ prior contacts with the police‚ injury to
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POLICE DISCRETION There’s a difference between the ministration and administration of justice. Nobody (except mechanical jurisprudence theorists) wants a ministerial agency of justice‚ one that would ritually and religiously follow every rule and regulation down to the letter in a mechanistic‚ repetitive‚ assembly-line manner. Instead‚ we need responsible administers -- officials who show "good judgment" and exercise discretion by assessing the context of each and every situation. By definition
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Police Ethics Police Discretion G Abstract: This paper is going to cover the unlawful behavior that led to harmful discretionary acts that had taken place in several different police departments; from the big cities of Los Angeles and Chicago to the small department of East Moline. This will cover‚ in detail‚ how these officers went down the wrong path to self-destruct their own departments. “Police discretion refers to the authority granted to a police
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Police discretion Police discretion can be defined as actions undertaken by law enforcers in which they exercise their individual judgment in order to determine the best course of action (Gaines & Kappeler‚ 2003). Before deciding whether a certain action should be pursued against a suspect‚ the police take into account many factors‚ at least in theory. As Kleinig (1996) stresses‚ discretion also gives law enforcers “a permission‚ privilege‚ or prerogative to use judgment about how to make a practical
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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
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The use of force by police in the discharge of their duties can both be reformed and controlled without compromising the capacity of the police to maintain public safety and enforce the law. Violence in the United States has reached epidemic proportions. Violence is most typically an outgrowth of conflict when peaceful dispute mechanisms fail. The use of force by police frequently occurs in situations that are characterized by violence prior to the arrival of police. Crime‚ particularly violent crime
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