Police discretion?

Question

I'm working on the subject of Police discretion in my Corrections in America class this week. The topic is Police discretion. There isn't much information in the text, so I was hoping to get a few answers from a few officers or other people in the CRJ field. My main question is what exactly is meant by police discretion? (what does police discretion mean--I know what discretion means, but I am assuming actual "police" discretion is a bit different in its own--and what does police discretion involve?) How does the pratice of discretion by todays officers affect your department and the policing profession as a whole?

Any insight on this would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Police discretion refers to the judgement of the officer in charge or on site. It is up to them whether or not they pursue enforcing the law to the fullest extent. Meaning: if a cop pulls you over for speeding. It is his (or her) discretion whether to give you a ticket, or just a warning.

Answer 2

questions approximately discretion cope with the ideals of "the letter of the regulation" and "the spirit of the regulation". you're probable to work out extra "letter of the regulation" with new officers and extra "spirit of the regulation" with extra matured officers. maximum voters prefer their police forces to apply the "spirit of the regulation" meaning that extra verbal warnings are given out than citations (tickets). while employing discretion an officer is employing "the spirit of the regulation" and is making use of elementary experience while imposing site visitors regulations. that is in site visitors regulations the place that's maximum ordinarily utilized. that is undemanding to make site visitors stops to tell those that they've been caught breaking a site visitors rule and then purely supply them a warning hoping that they'll comply. a large style of officers are swayed in whether to jot down a quotation or not via the physique of recommendations of the violator. that is plenty extra undemanding to talk your self into getting a value ticket than that is out of a value ticket. sometimes the law enforcement officials are obtainable just to make a presence and purely supply warnings, yet some human beings purely might desire to be damaging which continuously costs them. that is distinctive once you're employing the regulation to violations the place there is an certainly sufferer. maximum sufferer's does not like it plenty in case you in basic terms instructed a thief to not do it anymore and enable them to flow. So the "lettter of the regulation" is oftentimes utilized via the police while there are sufferers. this does not propose that a thief won't get a ruin down the line via the prosecutor or choose implementing a sentence, it purely potential they gained't get it from the police. Your question says "forms of policing of law enforcement officials". i think of you meant to declare forms of policing via law enforcement officials. There are too many to declare because of the fact officers are human beings and surely each physique are distinctive. IMO

Answer 3

I personally know of one police officer who worked 20 years and retired without exercising nothing but discretion. He never arrested anyone, issued a summons even for parking.

Did he do his job? I don't think so, but who I'm I to judge.

Answer 4

http://faculty.ncwc.edu/toconnor/205/205lect09.htm

This article explains it in great deatail