Definition Of Discretion In Criminal Justice

Discretion and the Criminal Justice Professional

When does the use of professional discretion cross ethical boundaries dealing with the profession of Law Enforcement? Before we can discuss this question we must first define discretion as it pertains to the profession of law enforcement. The criminal justice system uses four main characteristics to go by discretion, resource dependence, sequential tasks and filtering. (Cole & Smith, 2010) For this paper we will only discuss discretion. Just as people have the right to choose whether they will adhere to the laws or not. Police officers have the right to choose which laws they will charge people for and which ones they will ignore. (Wrobleski & Hess, 1997) Through-out the United States …show more content…
Unable arriving at the house the officers determine that there are two kilos of cocaine and 500,000.00 dollars in cash. The officers confiscate the drugs and money and arrest the man found at the house. Officer one tells the officer two who has a prior engagement that night to go on he will finish the paperwork and turn over the evidence. The officer two agrees and leaves. Several weeks later officer two that left attended a party at the officer one’s house. Officer two notices that officer one has a new truck with a trailer and a new boat. Officer two gets suspicious and pulls the report from the drug raid weeks earlier. The report reads that Officer One and two confiscated one kilo of cocaine and 200,000.00 dollars in cash. Officer one has already broken several ethical boundaries. He broke the first one taking confiscated evidence and the other by lying on an official document. Officer one now has a dilemma on his hands. He is now very close to the ethical boundary, does he speak to his supervisor or keep quiet about what his partner has done. If he speaks out about what has been done he will maintain his creditability. If he keeps quiet and does not report what he has found out, he will cross the ethical …show more content…
With excellence it common sense as a law enforcement officer you should try to strive for excellence in everything you do. The core value of community is perfect to be tied into law enforcement. As a law enforcement officer it is your duty to protect and help the community on a daily basis. The value of respect can be applied to not only the respect for citizens, supervisors, coworkers but also to one’s self. Above all you have to have respect for yourself before you can show it to others. You should treat others as you would want to be treated. Personal development is kind of on the same lines excellence, you have to strive to become better than what you are now. This is the only way that your personal development can continue. Just as a caterpillar turns into a butterfly, so should your personal growth as a person and a police officer. As a responsible steward we are here to protect and serve all that need our services. Just as Saint Leo University request that their faculty, staff and student pledge to be honest, just, and consistent in word and deed as a law enforcement officer we must strive for the same thing. We as an officer are bond by our word if we allow it to be compromised we have lost what makes up honest and just, part of the words