Police Discretion is at the core of policing, allowing officers to approach different situations with different approaches. Discretion is seen as the most essential element of policing, yet discretion is also the source of many problems. Over the year’s discretion has become a more prominent issue amongst the public, and due to social media and the increased use of the internet, videos and new reports can be shared with millions in a matter of seconds. Yet the truth is the discretion an officer’s use is comprehensively subjective to real-world situations rather than adopted by a certain agenda. Police discretion an essential and required part of police work (Schulenberg, 2015, pg.247). In today’s world, the main issue with discretion is
…show more content…
One day an officer will hand out a ticket to a speeding vehicle because of how the civilian is talking to him, while on another day he will issue a warning. In addition to each officer, varying groups in society will be treated to different levels of discretion. When it comes to youth, more emphasis has been placed on lenient discretion because of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. In Police discretion with apprehended youth: assessing the impact of juvenile specialization the author found “a greater emphasis is placed on the structuring of discretion. Under both legislations, police officers have the power, freedom, and autonomy to use formal and informal means to handle youth-related incidents” (Schulenberg and Warren, 2009, p 4). Later on adding, “Police discretion Research finds youth officers effective and fair in their contacts with juveniles, utilizing community referrals and less intrusive measures where appropriate and feasible”. This relates to discretion and an officer having his or her own belief system. Youth receive less intrusive measures due to their age and circumstance in life, thus resulting is discretion that is more lenient. A man on the run for robbery who has a history of assaulting officers will mostly like be treated more harshly than a young teenager who was caught speeding. Officers will look the …show more content…
Since the increased presence of social media, plenty of videos of police have been floating around the web. Most of the videos consist of police brutality or police stepping out of line, and rarely do you see police performing an act of real justice. This does not mean police around the world intend to harm citizens, it simply means that the officers that do take it too far will always be recorded. And the officer that does his job properly will go unnoticed. This is why social media has created a false image for police, because it portrays all officers as corrupt due to a few rotten apples. Instead, all officers should be allowed to have discretion rather than creating rules and regulation for every possible scenario. Creating regulations for all possible scenarios it costly and pointless, at the end of the day an officer will choose whether he should pull his gun, or not give a speeding ticket. Even though the officer understands the law, he or she will use discretion to a degree when coming faced with a
One day an officer will hand out a ticket to a speeding vehicle because of how the civilian is talking to him, while on another day he will issue a warning. In addition to each officer, varying groups in society will be treated to different levels of discretion. When it comes to youth, more emphasis has been placed on lenient discretion because of the Youth Criminal Justice Act. In Police discretion with apprehended youth: assessing the impact of juvenile specialization the author found “a greater emphasis is placed on the structuring of discretion. Under both legislations, police officers have the power, freedom, and autonomy to use formal and informal means to handle youth-related incidents” (Schulenberg and Warren, 2009, p 4). Later on adding, “Police discretion Research finds youth officers effective and fair in their contacts with juveniles, utilizing community referrals and less intrusive measures where appropriate and feasible”. This relates to discretion and an officer having his or her own belief system. Youth receive less intrusive measures due to their age and circumstance in life, thus resulting is discretion that is more lenient. A man on the run for robbery who has a history of assaulting officers will mostly like be treated more harshly than a young teenager who was caught speeding. Officers will look the …show more content…
Since the increased presence of social media, plenty of videos of police have been floating around the web. Most of the videos consist of police brutality or police stepping out of line, and rarely do you see police performing an act of real justice. This does not mean police around the world intend to harm citizens, it simply means that the officers that do take it too far will always be recorded. And the officer that does his job properly will go unnoticed. This is why social media has created a false image for police, because it portrays all officers as corrupt due to a few rotten apples. Instead, all officers should be allowed to have discretion rather than creating rules and regulation for every possible scenario. Creating regulations for all possible scenarios it costly and pointless, at the end of the day an officer will choose whether he should pull his gun, or not give a speeding ticket. Even though the officer understands the law, he or she will use discretion to a degree when coming faced with a