Police Discretion

Police Discretion







Police Discretion and Control Mechanisms Available
Edith Garcia-Figueroa
American Military University








 






 
Introduction
            Police, during their official duty, act between the thin blue line between an illegal act and lawfulness. They are faced with multiple instances where they have to make an independent decision regarding the unlawful acts that they are to correct. In their discretion, police are bound by a boundary line that they should not cross or else their actions become unlawful (Bronitt & Stenning, 2011).  Since, in many cases, the police are always alone when performing their duties, they need a great discretion resource to handle and manage their duties within prescribed lawful boundary. There are several occasions that necessitate the use of discretion in the course of their duty. These include whether to draw and use their weapons or not, whether to make an arrest and whether to shoot the gun in a specific scenario or not.
    With this great need of use of discretion in their work, police require high level of regulation to ensure the constitutionality of their day-to-day operation. Without such regulations, they can be tempted to misuse their power of discretion resulting in multiple unlawful engagement with the suspects and the general public (Bronitt & Stenning, 2011). It is upon the enormous significance of discretion as part of the daily police responsibility and the need to control such discretion that this paper is based. It comprehensively defines and elaborate on the essence of police discretion and the need to regulate it through various means and processes.
Police Discretion
    The police work in its typical nature is always discretionary in that in all the processes involved; it entails choices and judgment. Every level of the police work, starting from the micro-level to the top-most responsibilities involves great utilization of discretion as a critical tool. The police are...

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