Police Discretion Paper

In his book, "Working the Streets: Police Discretion and the Dilemmas of Reform," Michael K. Brown defines the role of a police officer as "the coercive regulation of social behavior among the members of a community in the interests of the protection of life and the preservation of order." In the same book, Arthur Woods, a New York Police Commissioner, said "they (Officer's) have to decide whether or not a law is violated and therefore whether to take official action."

It is not a mystery of what a police officer goes through when he or she is protecting the community and upholding the law. Sometimes the officer has to play two individuals of the Criminal Justice System, and they are the peace officer and a temporary judge, for the decisions they make on whether a law has been broken or not. This paper points out certain situations the officer has to deal with, and with every outcome being different at any given time depending on the officer's conclusions.

Discretion Is Not Unconditional

An officer witness's a robbery, he or she may not just say "I think I will just ignore it," the officer must, by law and sworn testimony, take actions against the suspect or suspects. They are bound by law to uphold the law. This may not be true with minor crimes, should an officer enforce only the crimes that the society deems as a crime and ignore "the small stuff?" The "grey" area of crimes is where the police officer must decide whether to take action or not.

There are thousands of laws that are written in the law books that are outdated from the centuries ago and are still in the books as laws the society must obey, so it is up to the officer's to know by use of discretion, if he or she wants to enforce the "little" violations.

Flexible Thinking

Should the officer let someone go after a firm lecture or teaching or take the person in to jail for committing a minor offense? The officer must use his or her good judgment on minor violations. He or she must think ahead of the recourse of the actions taken from the public's viewpoint and his or her superiors. Filling up the jails with minor offenses will not leave room for the suspects who commit major offenses and will cost the city time and money to transfer the suspect to another jail. The officers not only have to protect the society and public financially, but also themselves from any punishment or disciplinary action that might arise from this action.

Different Situations, Different Discretions

Domestic situations do not always fall under domestic violence. For example, Officers get a call about a couple arguing and screaming at each other, each individual is a law abiding citizen and no physical violence has occurred, the officers can just escort one of them from the premises until both of them have settled from their anger. If the scenario is different and there was physical violence, then the officer is deemed necessary to take the abuser or abusers to jail.

Everyone drives over the speed limit. An officer pulls over someone who is driving 30 miles over the speed limit and finds out that the driver's passenger has had a heart attack or is seriously injured with life threatening results. The officer's discretion could be to hold the person from driving anymore and call in emergency services and tend to the person who is injured while waiting for emergency services to arrive. The reason for not letting the person go and continue to drive the injured person to the hospital is that the driver might cause injury to themselves and the public in an accident.

If the driver was driving reckless and does not have a suitable explanation or a life threatening situation, the driver must be dealt with at a more serious level.

Driving under the influence also can be taken care of by the officer's discretion if the driver passes the field sobriety tests but is known to have been drinking alcohol beverages. In some cases, if the driver is barely over the level of being intoxicated, they might under their own discretion, call a cab or have the driver call a family member or friend to come pick him or her up.

Public Intoxication, this situation leaves little or no discretion for the officers to use. Public Intoxication is not only harmful to the suspect who is intoxicated but also to the public around them. Discretion comes into play when the suspect is publicly intoxicated by prescribed medication. The suspect might have taken too much of their medicine without knowledge and therefore needs medical attention not a jail cell.

Disorderly