Police Discretion

Paper Summary:

This paper explains that the problem of discretionary police judgment, in some cases, clearly leads to abuses of police power, even among police who are academically educated and have attended structured training in discretionary decision-making. The author points out that any time a police department uses racial profiling as part of a process to decide whom to stop, that practice requires judgment and discretion on the part of the officers. The paper reveals that police officers routinely choose whom to stop for traffic violations and how to deal with them once they have been stopped because they do not have time to stop everyone who commits a traffic violation; but the departments should have clear priorities about traffic violations, so that officers can be free to deal with more serious issues, such as reckless driving and incidents of road rage.

Table of Contents
Public Substance Abuse
Different Neighborhoods Handled Differently
Racial Profiling
Traffic Violations
Public Soliciting
Public Drunkenness
Domestic Abuse
Public Disturbances
Police Chases

From the Paper:

"When William Bratton, former New York City Police Commissioner, was interviewed, he argued that different neighborhoods might want laws enforced differently. He argued that this was the basis for "community policing." He said that different communities want different kinds of crime made a priority. He used Harlem as an example, and said that in 1994 and 1995 they had to deal with drug dealing, prostitution, gaming, and other public crimes. He also said that after public street problems were under control the police were under pressure to make more arrests, which to Bratton didn't make sense (Newfield & Jacobson, 2000). However, it's hard to imagine any neighborhood that would be willing to have those crimes, when taking place in full view of the public, ignored. If the police target drug dealing say, in Harlem, more than, say, the Upper East Side, charges of racism would inevitably follow. While there may be a place for police discretion, it should not be up to the police officer on the street to decide which public crimes get ignored and which get dealt with."

More papers on Police Discretion:

• Term Paper # 127860 : "An Overview on Police Discretion"
• Term Paper # 119672 : "Police Discretion"
• Research Paper # 101843 : "Police Discretion"
• Persuasive Essay # 105242 : "Police Discretion Position"

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