Running head: POLICE DISCRETION Police Discretion CJA/342 University Of Phoenix Police Discretion Police discretion is an important tool in police work due to the law sometimes being too vague or ambiguous. Police officers are trained on different scenarios that one may come across while they are at the academy. The problem tends to arise when a police officer comes across a situation that they were not trained for‚ and since the academy cannot cover every possible scenario that
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#2 Police discretion is issued to officers for the purpose of maintaining a just society. Discretion is defined the ability to form decisions based on their own judgment. These decisions are concluded through copious reasons such an officer’s experience or through their own individual backgrounds. Police discretion has the ability to dismiss minor crimes‚ yet laws exist where discretion is invalid and officers must accomplish whatever means legally to punish the criminal. Discretion gives police
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Police discretion by definition is the power to make decisions of policy and practice. Police have the choice to enforce certain laws and how they will be enforced. "Some law is always or almost always enforced‚ some is never or almost never enforced‚ and some is sometimes enforced and sometimes not" (Davis‚ p.1). Similarly with discretion is that the law may not cover every situation a police officer encounters‚ so they must use their discretion wisely. Until 1956‚ people thought of police discretion
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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 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 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 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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Term Paper Police Discretion Discretion‚ uncertainly‚ and inefficiently are rampant and essential in criminal justice. Nobody expects perfection. That would neither be good nor fair. Justice is a sporting event in which playing fair is more important than winning. Law enactment‚ enforcement‚ and administration all involve trading off the possibility of perfect outcomes for security against the worst outcomes. Policing is the most visible part of this: employees on the bottom have more discretion
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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 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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