Although discretion can originate from many sources (e.g., officers, situations, structure), relatively few studies examine how organizational variables affect officer discretion.” Discretion is entirely up to the officer but that discretion is generally influenced by the department and the administration. Administrative policies are responsible for keeing officers in check and making sure that they are acting within the parameters of their job. However the use of discretion is not only for minor offenses but it also used for interpreting the vaugue laws that might be in place. While discretion can be used for good it can also be over used and lead into corruption, police misconduct, and can cause the public to not like officers. A couple of mitigating factors that influence an officers discretion is the administrative policy mentioned before and the department size. While a large police force can get away with using more discretion it can also lead to those officers becoming corrupt and abusing their powers. On the other hand the same can be said about the smaller departments; they are much smaller and in a smaller communtiy so everyone knows everybody and they might be willing to let the community members bye with a lot more stuff. Bureacracy is one of the biggest things in law enforcement agencies. No matter what size agency you go to there will be some level of bureacracy. This bureacracy influences how an officer will use disretion. An example of this would be an officer letting a known polititcian off for any kind of offense in hopes that it will help them out in the long run. This is the wrong way that officers use discretion. Discretion is something that is supposed to help the general public out and to help keep things peaceful by letting officers let people by with little things so that they won’t do the big
Although discretion can originate from many sources (e.g., officers, situations, structure), relatively few studies examine how organizational variables affect officer discretion.” Discretion is entirely up to the officer but that discretion is generally influenced by the department and the administration. Administrative policies are responsible for keeing officers in check and making sure that they are acting within the parameters of their job. However the use of discretion is not only for minor offenses but it also used for interpreting the vaugue laws that might be in place. While discretion can be used for good it can also be over used and lead into corruption, police misconduct, and can cause the public to not like officers. A couple of mitigating factors that influence an officers discretion is the administrative policy mentioned before and the department size. While a large police force can get away with using more discretion it can also lead to those officers becoming corrupt and abusing their powers. On the other hand the same can be said about the smaller departments; they are much smaller and in a smaller communtiy so everyone knows everybody and they might be willing to let the community members bye with a lot more stuff. Bureacracy is one of the biggest things in law enforcement agencies. No matter what size agency you go to there will be some level of bureacracy. This bureacracy influences how an officer will use disretion. An example of this would be an officer letting a known polititcian off for any kind of offense in hopes that it will help them out in the long run. This is the wrong way that officers use discretion. Discretion is something that is supposed to help the general public out and to help keep things peaceful by letting officers let people by with little things so that they won’t do the big