Arguments Against Police Discretion
Patrol officers use discretion each and every time while on shift. They will respond to a variety of calls and have to make a decision on scene whether to charge a subject or arrest them. Patrol officers also work traffic and enforce moving violations and equipment violations. Try to imagine if officers did not have discretion and had to fully enforce the law each time a violation occurred. This would have a negative impact on community relations and would also completely saturate our court systems that struggle already with caseloads. However, discretion allows the officer to make a judgment in the field based on the totality of the circumstances to decide which offenders should be tried through the criminal justice system and which should
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Maybe there is justification by the driver for the speed, such as getting a family member to the emergency room. In this case, the officer may even use the discretion to provide an escort to help ensure a safe arrival. Perhaps the officer gives a verbal or written warning rather than a citation. This can affect the community positively. The driver is likely to talk to several people about being stopped for speeding and share that he/she was let go with just a warning. Perhaps there are other factors that impact the officer’s discretion such as ice and snow on the road with pedestrian traffic. The officer may take all these factors into consideration and decide the best course of action for this driver is a citation.
Of course, in that same scenario, there may be folks who are upset that a citation was issued to them for speeding 10MPH over the limit and does not believe its fair other drivers have only received a warning. That’s because most people are “tunnel- visioned” on the speeding violation, and do not consider the totalities of the circumstances. The officer’s investigation may have reveled the drivers license was expired or the registration was several months out of date. This could have provided the officer the reason to cite the driver. I’m confident based on my training and experience that discretion is a necessity for good police/community relationships and to maintain a functioning judicial
Maybe there is justification by the driver for the speed, such as getting a family member to the emergency room. In this case, the officer may even use the discretion to provide an escort to help ensure a safe arrival. Perhaps the officer gives a verbal or written warning rather than a citation. This can affect the community positively. The driver is likely to talk to several people about being stopped for speeding and share that he/she was let go with just a warning. Perhaps there are other factors that impact the officer’s discretion such as ice and snow on the road with pedestrian traffic. The officer may take all these factors into consideration and decide the best course of action for this driver is a citation.
Of course, in that same scenario, there may be folks who are upset that a citation was issued to them for speeding 10MPH over the limit and does not believe its fair other drivers have only received a warning. That’s because most people are “tunnel- visioned” on the speeding violation, and do not consider the totalities of the circumstances. The officer’s investigation may have reveled the drivers license was expired or the registration was several months out of date. This could have provided the officer the reason to cite the driver. I’m confident based on my training and experience that discretion is a necessity for good police/community relationships and to maintain a functioning judicial