706). Yet, this clearly does not eliminate the possibility of abuse of power and wrongful use of police discretion as the disproportionate application of justice upon those of lower class and of minority races is fundamentally present in both lesser and greater crimes.
III. If you were a supervisor within a police department, how would you manage or control the discretionary practices of your officers?
One of the most important aspects of managing and controlling police discretion has to do in part with staffing, recognizing who has the valuable knowledge to use discretion effectively and who would be better suited to stand back and learn this knowledge from those who are more adept with it. Perhaps those who have had more time in a given community or who have worked in many areas of the department and seen a greater variety of regional and community crimes and criminal behaviors should serve…...
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Resources
Miller, E.J. (2010). The Warren Court's Regulatory Revolution in Criminal Procedure. Connecticut Law Review, 43(1), 1-82. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Murakawa, N., & Beckett, K. (2010). The Penology of Racial Innocence: The Erasure of Racism in the Study and Practice of Punishment Murakawa & Beckett the Penology of Racial Innocence. Law & Society Review, 44(3/4), 695-730. doi:10.1111/j.1540-5893.2010.00420.x
Sims, B., Ruiz, J., Weaver, G., & Harvey, W.L. (2005). Police perceptions of their working environment: Surveying the small department. International Journal of Police Science & Management, 7(4), 245-263. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
, Skolnick and Fyfe, and Walker, that conclude racial discrimination has been found in several policing duties, facilitated by police discretion, including shootings, use of force, arrests, street stops, offense charging, search and seizure, and equality of coverage. Police discretion allows for this discrimination to occur.
Skogan and Frydl (2004) concur that police discretion is an increased concern, in relation to racial profiling and discrimination. The authors surmise that pro-active special units often make street stops and searches, in location oriented patrols of high crime areas. This results in the civil liberties of innocent citizens often being impinged upon, due to the officer's misuse of their discretion in this strategy. This further gives rise to the mistrust of officers, among the greater community.
Authors' Positions - Which Agree and Which Disagree:
Bayley and Nixon (2010) discuss police discretion in regards to it's effects on racial discrimination and continuing concerns regarding accountability in law…...
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References
Bayley, DH, & Nixon, C. (2010). The changing environment for policing, 1985-2008 . Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard Kennedy School Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management.
Klockstars, C. (1980). The Dirty Harry problem. The Annals of the American Academy, 452, 33-47.
Skogan, W.G., & Frydl, K. (2004). Fairness and effectiveness in policing the evidence. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.
Walsh, W. (2001). "Compstat: An analysis of an emerging police managerial paradigm." Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 24(3). pp. 347-362.
Police Discretion
The execution of discretion in judgment among police officers has been studied for decades (De Lint, 1998). efore the 1960's,
For some three decades now it has been established knowledge that police officers use discretion (De Lint, 1998). Through the 1960's, officers were expected to use "common sense," with little attention paid to analyzing situations where discretion was called for or for applying specific training to improve the kinds of judgments made in such situations. Obviously, police will have to use discretion, but one response to the problem of discretionary judgments, some of which led to clear abuses of police power, was to make the training of police officers more academic. The assumption was that better-educated people make better judgments. However, research on the outcome of this approach showed marginal improvement at best (De Lint, 1998). While no one is opposed to having well-educated police officers, the other approach is…...
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Bibliography
De Lint, Willem. 1998. "Regulating autonomy: police discretion as a problem for training." Canadian Journal of Criminology, July.
Newfield, Jack; and Jacobson, Mark. 2000. "An Interview with William Bratton." Tikkun:15, July.
Kelly, Sean F. 2003. "Internal affairs: issues for small police departments." FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, July.
olice and Juvenile Delinquency
According to the numbers published on the National Institute of Justice, in 2010, the number of arrests of juveniles was down by a little over half the same number in 1994, when it reached its maximum. The reasons for this "recession" in juvenile arrests in the U.S. may be attributed to better results in the work of juvenile delinquency prevention as well to increased police discretion when it comes to taking decisions related to the arrest of the juveniles caught in "action." Obvious legal factors, such as "the seriousness of the offense, the amount of evidence available to the officer, whether or not the juvenile appears to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs, and whether or not the victim requests that the police take, or not take, some kind of action" (http://law.jrank.org/pages/1664/olice-Handling-Juveniles-Explaining-police-decision-making-outcomes-with-juveniles.html) will be the first to influence a police officer's decision to act a…...
Therefore, it does not seem logical that a police department could exist without at least some form of discretionary decision-making.
Discretion is used at just about every level of a police department, from the officers on patrol to detectives and even management. Another expert notes, "Police encounter a wide range of behaviors and a variety of situations that the law hasn't even thought about yet. One of the most amazing things about policing is not who they arrest, but who and how many they let go (nonarrest options, leniency, underreaction)" (O'Connor, 2004). Thus, discretion lives at every level of a department. An officer lets a speeder go with a warning, a supervisor lets an officer off with a warning about behavior, a detective chooses not to prosecute a domestic violence suspect where an ounce of marijuana is discovered on the premises, and a police chief chooses to suppress information about…...
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References
Banks, C. (2004). Criminal justice ethics: Theory and practice. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.
Edwards, M.A. (2006). Law and the parameters of acceptable deviance. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 97(1), 49+.
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…...
Limits to Police Discretion
Just as every law environment situation is unique, so too are the police officers that make the decisions concerning how these situations will be resolved. Some police officers appear to have a natural-born knack for knowing how to amicably resolve even seemingly intractable disputes while others routinely incarcerate their suspects with little or no effort made to determine if alternative dispositions might have been more appropriate. The level of discretion afforded police officers has also been the focus of interest following the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, and officers on the beat are now expected to be active participants in the war on terrorism as well. In this environment, identifying optimal levels of discretion for police officers who are confronted with an infinite number of different types of threats to their own safety as well as the safety of the general public therefore represents a…...
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References
Weinstein, J.B. & Quinn, M.C. (2008, Summer). Terry, race, and judicial integrity: The Court and suppression during the war on drugs. St. John's Law Review, 72(3/4), 37-39.
By comparison, more proactive, crime-focused, or zero tolerance policing strategies make discretion more difficult to control administratively for several reasons.
Specifically, proactive officers generally function more autonomously in choosing where to initiate police action; consequently, they are involved in much higher proportions of serious criminal matters, requiring many more spontaneous opportunities to exercise discretion.
As a general rule, proactive police officers engaged in crime prevention-focused administrative strategies encounter more dangerous situations and also come into contact with more minor crimes in dealing with individuals suspected of involvement in serious crimes. Experience (as well as intuition) suggests that officers involved in the more dangerous pursuit of serious crime are less amenable to administrative control where official policy contradicts what the officer perceives to be a matter of officer safety in the field (Klinger 1997). Likewise, greater exposure to serious crime naturally increases the officer's tolerance level for less serious crime, and in that…...
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REFERENCES
Black, D.J. (1971) the Social Organization of Arrest. Stanford Law Review, Vol. 23, No. 6. (Jun., 1971), pp. 1087-1111.
Goldstein (1977) Chapter 5: Categorizing and Structuring Discretion.
Klinger, D.A. (1997) Negotiating Order in Patrol Work: An Ecological Theory of Police Response to Deviance. Criminology, Vol. 35, No. 2. pp. 277-306
Van Maanen, J. (1978) Practice of Policing; the *****, pp. 221-238.
police discretion in connection with mandatory arrest and domestic violence.
What Constitutes Domestic Violence
The term 'domestic violence' refers to an abusive behavioral pattern in a domestic relationship, utilized by a partner for gaining or maintaining control and power over the other intimate partner. It may be emotional, sexual, physical, psychological, or economic threats or actions that one individual in the relationship uses for influencing the other. Domestic violence covers all behaviors that serve to daunt, scare, force, manipulate, sequester, humiliate, blame, threaten, terrorize, wound, hurt, or injure an intimate partner. Domestic violence incidents may be experienced by any individual irrespective of age, race, age, religion, gender, or sexual orientation. It impacts individuals belonging to all educational categories and socioeconomic backgrounds (Domestic Violence -- OVW -- Department of Justice, n.d). Furthermore, it can occur in same-sex as well as opposite-sex relationships, and may occur with married, dating, or cohabiting couples. Acts…...
These individuals instead argue that race is used as an excuse, and that more African-Americans commit crimes, so it only makes sense that they are arrested in higher numbers. While there may be some truth to this argument in some areas of the country the number of African-Americans, specifically African-American males under 25, that are arrested is still highly disproportionate to the number of African-Americans living in this country today (Smith, Visher, & Davidson, 1984). Until this is recognized by law enforcement and steps are taken to adjust this discrepancy, nothing will change. ecause of this it appears that race will likely always be a factor, at least for some officers, when it comes to determining whether to make an arrest.
ibliography
Harrell, S.P., Ph.D. (2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: implications for the well-being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70(1).
Smith, D.A., Visher, C.A., & Davidson, L.A.…...
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Bibliography
Harrell, S.P., Ph.D. (2000). A multidimensional conceptualization of racism-related stress: implications for the well-being of people of color. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 70(1).
Smith, D.A., Visher, C.A., & Davidson, L.A. (Spring, 1984). Equity and Discretionary Justice: The Influence of Race on Police Arrest Decisions. The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-), 75(1).
This alternative essentially redistributes some of the power within the department in order to facilitate more successful service in individual communities. This clearly makes discretion appropriate based on the individual needs of the community. Police Chiefs need to develop "new concepts to better satisfy the demands and needs of the citizens they serve," and as such, may have to use discretion in how the approach and interact with unique communities as they encounter them (Meese, 1993, p 1). Discretion on behalf of a police chief allows for greater success in implementing community policing methods.
Police chiefs also find themselves using various types of administrative discretion as well in regards to how they operate their police department and the officers in the field under them. A police chief's administrative discretion could even influence the discretionary actions of other officers in the field. For example, in 2010, a police chief in the…...
Discretion on the Beat: Working in the Best Interests of the Community
The mandate to "protect and serve" is translated in a number of different ways across the country, but in many jurisdictions, community-oriented policing methods are replacing the traditional beat police approach and this shift has had an effect on how altercations and incidents are resolved at the local level. The level of discretion that is available to police officers on the street varies from jurisdiction to jurisdiction, of course, but there has been an expansion of the concept in recent years that has also affected the administration of law enforcement across the country. For instance, according to Skogan and Hartnett (1999), "Historically, police discretion was misused in many of the situations that officers are now being asked to handle flexibly, creatively and without firm guidance from the laws of criminal procedure" (p. 13).
Although every situation will be unique in…...
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References
Skakun, K. (2003, March 1). Recent research: comparing the decision to arrest in community vs. traditional policing. Canadian Journal of Police and Security Services, 1(1), 23-25.
Skogan, W.G. (1999). On the beat: Police and community problem solving. Boulder, CO:
In places such as Richmond, that have an already checkered past in their relationship with the public, the public perception is further damaged by the rise in crime. This is true of the police department in the rest of the country as well. The rise in crime affects the perception of the public with regard to the police department, and not the government. In actions such as racism and extralegal searches the police department and not President Bush is implicated. Many of the harmful effects of current police actions and policies are the result of government policies. The police has thus become somewhat of a scapegoat as a result of the latest government policies.
The profile of violent crimes has also changed dramatically and dangerously. Fewer police officers mean more violent criminals, which raises the crime rate.
Government policy, rising crime rates, and police actions have therefore combined into a cycle…...
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Sources
Barbash, Fred (2005, June 28). Court Backs Town In Lawsuit Over Domestic Violence. In Washington Post online (Washingtonpost.com).
Lucas, Scott (2001, April 23). Good cop, bad cop - police violence against African-Americans - police in movies and TV - Timothy Thomas. In New Statesman.
Maclin, Tracey. (1998, Summer). Terry v Ohio's fourth amendment legacy: Black men and police discretion. In St. John's Law Review.
Seron, Carroll (2004, Dec). Judging Police Misconduct: "Street-Level" versus Professional Policing. Law & Society Review, Blackwell Publishers.
Attitude and Personality:
Most police organizations have in-depth policy and procedure manuals, rules and regulations, or standard operating procedures. Since all organizations are formed for the achievement of specific objectives, they have well-designed structures and clearly established functions. Police organizations are generally highly interactive and dynamic since police officers need to deal with various situations. These officers are expected to work always in accordance with legal provisions despite of the kind of situation they are dealing with. However, for policemen to effectively handle the situations based on the law, they need to have specific and clear instructions for handling the situations.
Police manuals are developed and made available to officers to enable police officers to function lawfully and discharge their various duties effectively ("Indian Police: An Introductory and Statistical Overview," n.d.). In-depth policy and procedure manuals, rules and regulations, and standard operating procedures act as guidebooks to police officers when they…...
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References:
Bronitt, S. & Stenning, P. (2011). Understanding Discretion in Modern Policing. Criminal Law
Policing Policies Analysis
This study seeks to strengthen the practice of policing by demonstrating the effectiveness of the problem-oriented policing. The information provided herein is useful to practitioners as it compares problem-oriented policing against community-oriented policing. Practitioners will be able to create much robust policing intervention when addressing real life situations within the field by grasping the theoretical mechanisms (Hess & Orthmann, 2011). In addition, by linking academic theories to policing, this review helps theoretical criminologists ponder about the most useful concepts for practical police level.
Zero tolerance Policing
Zero-tolerance policing lacks a specific definition; it can be understood in various ways. The recent definition entails non-discretional and strict enforcement of law regardless of the magnitude or circumstances of the crime. While this approach involves positive police actions, it does not equate to automatic arrests of trivial crimes. This is the most aggressive policing approach and cannot be equated to emerging approaches such…...
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References
Wakefield, A., & Fleming, J. (2008). The SAGE Dictionary of Policing. London: Sage Publications.
Palmiotto, M. (2009). Community policing: A policing strategy for the 21st century. Gaithersburg, Md: Aspen.
Do-lling, D. (2013). Community policing: Comparative aspects of community oriented police work. Holzkirchen/Obb: Felix.
Ikerd, T.E. (2007). Examining the institutionalization of problem-oriented policing: The Charlotte-Mecklenburg police department as a case study.
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