Police Discretion
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 is watched by someone. Now with today’s technology, police officer’s are subjected to being recorded by mobile devices of all types during traffic stops and many other types of encounters. Officers who have made mistakes in the past can vouch that they should have used better discretion in their decision-making. A review of definitions of police discretion notes that there is no legal definition of the term, but the most widely quoted definition is that of Kenneth Culp Davis: “A public officer has discretion whenever the effective limits on his power leave him free to make a choice among possible courses of action or inaction.” Culp also stated that, “The police are among the most important policymakers of our entire society. And they make far more discretionary determinations in individual cases that any other class of administrators; I know of no close second.” (Sanders) James Q. Wilson and other scholar’s opinions differ from Davis and Remington. Wilson were aware of the possible abuse by police but understood the certainty of discretion and the innate opportunities for problem solving it offered police and agencies. Wilson wrote in 1968, “The patrolman, in the discharge of his most important duties, exercises discretion necessarily, owing in part to his role in the management of conflict and in part to his role in the suppression of crime.” The issue was to get rid of unnecessary discretion and enhance and shape discretion. (Wilson) Police
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 is watched by someone. Now with today’s technology, police officer’s are subjected to being recorded by mobile devices of all types during traffic stops and many other types of encounters. Officers who have made mistakes in the past can vouch that they should have used better discretion in their decision-making. A review of definitions of police discretion notes that there is no legal definition of the term, but the most widely quoted definition is that of Kenneth Culp Davis: “A public officer has discretion whenever the effective limits on his power leave him free to make a choice among possible courses of action or inaction.” Culp also stated that, “The police are among the most important policymakers of our entire society. And they make far more discretionary determinations in individual cases that any other class of administrators; I know of no close second.” (Sanders) James Q. Wilson and other scholar’s opinions differ from Davis and Remington. Wilson were aware of the possible abuse by police but understood the certainty of discretion and the innate opportunities for problem solving it offered police and agencies. Wilson wrote in 1968, “The patrolman, in the discharge of his most important duties, exercises discretion necessarily, owing in part to his role in the management of conflict and in part to his role in the suppression of crime.” The issue was to get rid of unnecessary discretion and enhance and shape discretion. (Wilson) Police
Cited: Klinger, D.A. "Bringing Crime Back In: Toward a Better Understanding of Police." Journal of Research in Crime and Deliquency 33.3 (1996): 333-336 Carl R Metzgar Pratt, C. E. "Police Discretion." Law & Order 40.3 (1992): 99. Ohlin, L.E Reiner, R. "Policing, Volume II - Controlling the Controllers: Police Discretion and Accountability." National Criminal Justice Reference Service II (1996): 6-12. Sanders, F. "Justice Studies for Police and Criminals." (1992): 1-6. Walker, S. "Taming the System: The Control of Discretion in Criminal Justice 1950-1990." (1993): 207. Walker, S. & Katz, C. M., The History of American Police: The Police in America: An Introduction, Fourth Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill (2002): 22-56 Worde, R.E Klinger, David A. 1997. Negotiating order in patrol work: An ecological theory of police response to deviance Wilson, James Q., Varieties of Police Behavior, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, (1968): 278.