Why Do Police Need Discretion?

Police have some discretion on how to handle calls and situations, which is a great way to connect to the community and help mediate problems. However, there are some disturbances where police do not have the luxury to use discretion. The new arrest policy has made it mandatory for police to arrest anyone involved in a domestic violence dispute. The mandatory arrest laws make dealing with delicate situations like domestic disputes much more complicated. There are benefits like fairness and uniformity in doing things by the book but it does hurt the officer because doing things by the book does not really help when every call is different from the next. While mandatory arrests do not allow for mediation between two parties in the domestic dispute, it does allow for uniformity, fairness, and possibly peace-of-mind for the victim. There was an experiment conducted in Minneapolis Minnesota that showed reduced repeat offenses with cases handled with an arrest versus cases that were handled by partner separation and mediation (10,Weisburd and Eck). uniformity especially important when an officer makes an arrest or deals with a situations because it’s widely known that people who felt like they were dealt with fairly are more likely to be cooperative. …show more content…
The misuse of discretion replaces due process of the law, leaving the community members feelings cheated and it also reduces deterrence. If someone assaults their spouse in a domestic dispute and the police mediate the situation, but not hand out any hard punishments, the assailant gets off the hook, more brazen because they know there won’t be much punishment and the victim feels invisible and less likely to call into the police if there is another dispute because they know no punishment will be handed out ( 7,