Police Discretion Case Study

Discretion is an official action taken by a police officer or any other agent of criminal justice in whereby they use their individual judgement to decide the course of action suitable for an occurring incident. In criminal justice, an officer considers the totality of circumstances before reaching on a decision to either take legal action or not against an individual. And to what extend the and kind of action will be take (Griffiths, 2013: 122), for instance; warning or arresting the individual. Furthermore, discretion is the privilege or permission granted to officers to use their own judgement to make practical decisions. However there are also attached constraints to this. Officers cannot go out and make choices of their own freely without underlying consequences. Criminal justice officials are governed by laws, rules and codes of ethics when exercising discretion.

Many police agencies today have established a code of ethics, or codes of conduct, and it easy to find parallels between Peel’s principles and present policies and

“The Lawrence family calls on the Met Police Commissioner Sir Paul Condon to resign. He apologises to them when he appears in October, admitting there had been failures.” (News, 2014) Police standards had dropped dramatically and later 70 recommendations were made and the Metropolitan Police were accused of institutional racism. The Steven Lawrence case is a prime example of questionable police accountability and deterioration of police standards.

Sadly, According to Ross, the training given to law enforcement officers is inadequate and, in many instances, even biased against those who they think are a threat. In truth, there is no uniform preparation of law enforcement officers, no federal rules or guidelines regulating their training, and as of yet, no consistent set of federal standards for police confrontations (Ross). Envisioning a

Both individual officers and law enforcement agencies should be held to account for their actions. Accountability includes both what the police do and how they perform. According to Petter Gottschalk Agency-level accountability involves the performance of law enforcement agencies with respect to controlling crime, disorder, and providing services to the public. (Petter Gottschalk).

Ethics and the Evolution of Police Policing in this present day is defined as an individual or group of individual who prevent and detect crime within a community. Policing compares in many ways. They all attempt to provide services, keep the peace and reduce crime. Policing has evolved into something much more than what it used to be. Within this essay are the many different perspectives and how ethics were learned.

Sam Freeman Jr Introduction to Criminal Justice Ethics (CJUS261) Professor Umeki Ramsey Unit 1 – Discussion Board 2 November 18, 2015 Police officers sole purpose in the United States is to protect and serve the county, city municipality, and state government to ensure that the law is being upheld by everybody within them. Peace officers assume a focal part in the law authorization framework. They screen criminal movement, tune in group watches, react to crisis calls, issue tickets, make captures, examine violations and affirm in court as required. It is no secret that the United States inherited much of Great Britain governmental institutions. In the Bible, Jesus says “to whom much is given, much will be required” (Luke 12:48).

Police work is unpredictable and is very dangerous. In some situations, officers may have to utilize use-of-force tactics in order to gain control of a certain situation. This essay will focus on the discussion of polices discretion to use force limited to a suspect who is being “uncooperative” and what mitigating factors may escalate or de-escalate force response by an officer.

In this week’s module one content. I learned that there should always be police integrity and community trust. “With police and community trust, there is an honored relationship between citizens and a government agency.” (Community Trust and Police Integrity, p.7-16) Secondly, police officers must be trusted to behave in an ethical way on their own.

While it can be interpreted as standing for ones beliefs, a police officer must uphold a high moral code in accordance to the society which is being served. The ethics to which police officers holds themselves, must include the character traits demonstrated in personal life, in addition to operating as public servants. If an officer is deemed untrustworthy at home, they cannot be trusted to work legally within the police department. Honesty within policing is just as important, where failing to admit a mistake can weaken a reputation and call previous cases into question. Although these traits can be trained into an individual, integrity must be developed personally before it can be applied

It is easy to learn about a subject from a book, but it is an entirely different matter to learn about a subject through real life experience. I hope to learn how to serve and protect while implementing the law correctly, especially in today’s world when the level of support for police officers is very low and the level of misconduct cases concerning the police are very high. It is not easy to know what to do in every situation, especially when some reactions are needed with very little or no time to think about. It is one thing to hear about a crime happening and the response that would be best to give, and another thing to need

The officers failed to consider the broader context and potential ramifications of their actions. It could be argued that alternatives, such as engaging with the youths, building a rapport and educating them, as well as treating them with respect and fairness, rather than escalating the situation and disparaging the character of the youths, could allow officers to not only comply with policy and legislation, but also more effectively police their community by building positive relationships, channels of communication, and reduction of future crime (Chan, Bargen, Luke and Clancey 1997). However, these alternatives require the appropriate use of discretion which the officers failed to

It states in the first line, “my fundamental duty is to serve the community; to safeguard lives and property; to protect the innocent against deception, the weak against oppression or intimidation and the peaceful against violence or disorder” (p. 1). The Code of Ethics steers an officer to want to become a servant for the people, treating all individuals the same. In the Code of Ethics, it speaks of not allowing your preconceived ideas and bias interfere with providing protection and due process for all

Police deviance is something that isn’t particularly talked about in the open. The reactions to certain actions by the police are either kept under wraps or blown up in the media to a dramatic extent. The purpose of this paper is to focus on the negative side of police deviance and the repercussions that follow. This will allow some light to be shown on the actions of officers that don’t follow the rules that they set out to uphold. If the peacekeepers aren’t keeping the peace, then the reasoning for having a position of power is null.

Depending on who you ask, what one considers police abuse of power, another may not. Today, regardless of many views to its legal contrast to police organizations, abuse of police power can be realized in forms of action such as verbal, harassment, false arrest, assault, excessive use of force, and illegal killings. However, regardless of what one considers, when those consistent actions of abuse by the police become the norm, it not only creates abuse, but also a stigma towards the police.