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Professor Bertram
Police Discretion
Discretion is a tool that police are provided with to help them make the tough decisions
that keep the public safe. Police officers should be able to use discretion to ensure public safety
and to help the criminal justice system function more effectively. Doing away with this practice
would be cutting off the arms of the police force by not allowing them to do their jobs. However,
this does raise some ethical concerns. By allowing all police officers to make decisions based on
personal judgment and not on strict guidelines and rules will create some problems with people
overstepping their authority. Recently we have seen many of these instances happen among
minorities and officers who may just be doing their job but it appears may be taking the limits of
discretion too far and people have gotten hurt and killed. Questions of diversity comes up with
this topic: do the police treat everyone the same regardless of race? Do they target people with a
different color of skin on purpose? These are questions that are worth researching while on the
The definition of discretion is the ability of individuals in the criminal justice system to
make operational decisions based on personal judgment instead of formal rules or official
information. (Gaines & Miller, G-4) This gives members of law enforcement the ability to
choose between different courses of action in given situations. T Casey LaFrance from the
Department of Political Science at Western Illinois University says that, The exercise of
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responsibility of each police officer to exercise this authority to the best of his or her ability.
There is a lot that rests on their shoulders, the decisions they make every day effect how the
public sees them and responds to them. It is important how they use this not just for the public
but for their safety as well. Officers cant just arrest anyone they want whenever they want, they
do have restrictions. They must have probable cause to believe that a person has or is about to
commit a crime to arrest them. Another thing that effects discretion among police officers are
mandatory arrest laws which require an officer to arrest a person who has abused a family
The use of discretion among the police force does more to protect the public than it does
to harm it, despite popular belief. It is helpful when talking about how discretion protects the
public is to think how the police system would be without it. If officers did not have the ability to
make these decisions on the spot, they would not have the ability to protect people. For example,
if a police officer did not have the authority to make the call to arrest a suspect they have reason
to believe has a gun and is about to rub a store, they would either not be able to act or would
have to get permission from a supervisor to take action. In this case and many others, a quick
decision is required in order to avoid a lethal encounter but in this situation, it would not be
quick and the officer would not have the ability to act in time. There would be a lot more rules
and regulations they would have to adhere to in any given situation. To that point as well, there
are so many different scenarios so how could they possibly have a procedure or a policy on every
Help criminal justice system function more effectively. Thinking about all the things that
go on at any police station can be overwhelming. There are the 911 calls and the dispatchers who
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respond to those calls, the officers on patrol, officers serving warrants, and not to mention the
duties of the administration to hire more employees and keep the day to day things going. From
the chief of police all the way down to the patrol officers and the front desk, if no one had the
ability to make decisions based on their own personal feelings in a situation, it would take even
more time out of everyone elses duties just to deal with the problem of that one officer on hand.
According to updsl.org just in the dispatch division alone there are 47 full time dispatchers, 16
part time dispatchers/call takers, and only 5 dispatch floor supervisors. (Thomas, 2017) Even if
those 47 each had a situation they could not decide for themselves what to do, it would be
impossible for them all to be resolved in time which would really hinder the efficiency of the
police departments.
Ethical concerns with discretion along with diversity. In the text titled Criminal Justice In
Action, it defines an ethical dilemma as a situation that a police officers, Do not know the right
course of action, have difficulty doing what they consider to be right, and/or find the wrong
choice is very tempting. (Gaines & Miller, 205) These three situations effect law enforcements
decisions on a daily basis. Whether or not the officer follows through with the wrong choice or
not is up to them, but having that power to make that decision can lead to overstepping their
authority. This is not a new discussion at all, it has gone back to the 1950s where scholars
identified a discretion problem They suggested that police departments delegated excess
policymaking discretion to individual officers and those officers, in turn, used that discretion
inconsistently if not abusively. (Sekhon, 2012) Another factor that goes into the ethics question
with discretion is the noble cause corruption which is essentially doing something wrong to make
sure the bad guy gets what they deserve such as planting evidence or lying in court (Gaines &
Miller, 205). This is a very serious matter that is the main focus of police discretion. If everyone
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was perfect in the world we would not even need police officers, we also cant expect them to be
perfect, mistakes will happen. It is important to know the difference in these situations between a
mistake and blatant act directed under the direction of discretion. There are also factors of
diversity that go into play here. An African American named Robert Tolan was shot and killed by
a police officer because he thought he had a weapon (Gaines & Miller, 200). Unfortunately, this
is not the only case like this. The perception is that the black community is targeted more often
than any others. A recent Justice Department study reports that although police pull over black,
white, and Hispanic drivers at similar rates, blacks and Hispanics are almost three times more
likely to be searched following the stop (Gaines & Miller, 201). These ethical questions will
While there are many problems and ethical questions that come up with police using
discretion in their everyday work, the benefits outweigh those problems ten to one. From the
examples and facts given in this essay, it has shown that this is true. There would be chaos in the
streets, or more chaos if law enforcement didnt have the ability to make those hard decisions
that protect our lives. Everyone has a responsibility in this. The police officers need to make sure
they are using the same level of professionalism with everyone and the public has a
responsibility to treat them with respect and help them to do their job, which is serve and protect.
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Works Cited
Gaines, Larry K and Roger Leroy Miller. Criminal Justice In Action, 7th Edition. Belmont:
Journal of Police Science & Management, vol. 13, no. 2, Summer2011, pp. 158-171.
EBSCOhost, doi:10.1350/ijps.2011.13.2.227.
Sekhon, Nirej S. "Redistributive Policing." Journal of Criminal Law & Criminology, vol. 101,
direct=true&db=aph&AN=73365191&site=ehost-live.