Police discretion and mechanisms influencing internal external practices

¶ … police discretion? How do the internal and external mechanisms influence police discretion? Is there a better solution to improving police discretion?

Police discretion is when the officer will have the responsibility to make their own determinations as to how they should be enforcing the law. The way that this is accomplished is through giving them the flexibility to decide how much emphasis they should place on dealing with specific situations. For example, assuming that someone is speeding three miles per hour over the speed limit is considered to be a gray area. Technically speaking, the patrolman has the right to pull the driver over and give them a ticket. The discretionary part takes place if it appears as if other crimes could be committed during the process (such as the driver of the car is swerving radically). This will give the officer the power to pull the vehicle over based upon the belief that this person could be driving while intoxicated on drugs or alcohol. While simply pulling someone over for speeding, might not be an issue based on the fact that the rest of the traffic could be moving at this speed. This is important, because how discretion is used will determine the way the law is enforced on a regular basis. (Scott, 2011)

The internal mechanisms establish various policies and procedures as to how discretion is applied. This takes place by having a specific unit inside the department that will monitor what actions their officers are involved in (i.e. internal affairs). As they will investigate issues that will have an impact on the way the law was enforced. This is designed to serve as a tool that will place the actions of the entire department in check. (Scott, 2011)

External influences are the standards that are established by the community and the courts. This is because there are certain actions that officers will take when they are enforcing the law. In situations where they have gone too far, the community can become angry about what is happening (which will place pressure on the department to control its officers more). While the courts have the ability to throw out cases when it is clear that law enforcement overstepped the boundaries of their authority (based on the techniques that were used). (Scott, 2011)

As a result, this is the best system for monitoring the overall scope of police discretion and how it is applied. The reason why, is because the internal affairs division of the department can deal with issues and how the officers are reacting to situations. Once this fails is when an individual can go to the courts to seek out some kind of remedy for these actions. While at the same time, the community can place pressure on politicians and the department itself. This is when these actions will be continually brought into question. (Scott, 2011)

How would you describe police culture? How does stress affect the policing community? What hypothesis can you make between stress and police officers who have to make difficult / easy situational decisions?

Police culture is when the department will share: a set of values, ideas and principals about how the organization should be enforcing the law. This is accomplished by focusing on specific areas that will help to improve camaraderie based upon the most common experiences that they are dealing with. Once this takes place, is when there will be a change in how everyone is interacting with the community and the way they are looking at their job. (Pelovangu, 2010) ("Police Culture," 2010)

Stress affects the police force because everyone must endure two different extremes. Where, their jobs can be very tedious and boring, based on the fact that they must be constantly monitoring for different kinds of events to occur. However, there are times when officers will have to deal with situations that can be very tense. The two extremes can create added amounts of stress by making the job seem as if there is not much going on (which creates as sense of complacency). This can have an impact upon the community based upon how aggressively the law is enforced and the way officers are interacting with various ethnic groups / organizations. These different elements are important, because it is showing how added amounts of stress can lead to increased pressures in enforcing the law and dealing with a host of challenges. (Pelovangu, 2010) ("Police Culture," 2010)

The basic hypothesis is that police officers who have constant amounts of stress will have more difficulty in enforcing the law. The reason why, is because they are always on edge and will not know how to deal with a host of challenges. Once this takes place, is when they will overreact to situations through the use of excessive force. (Pelovangu, 2010) ("Police Culture," 2010)

While at the same time, the lack of excitement will cause the police to aggressively enforce the law. This is because officers may not have anything to do and will often overreact to the slightest incidents that are taking place. Once this occurs is when they will try to go after someone who they believe may or may not have violated irrelevant provisions of the law. (Pelovangu, 2010) ("Police Culture," 2010)