Comparison Of Police Brutality

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You may ask yourself how an officer of the law makes decisions and if there’s guidelines he must follow? Police discretion is a vague, or an unclear term that has an appropriately vague definition. It is the decision making power given to police officers that allows them to decide if they want to follow police procedure or let someone off with just a warning. How officers treat each incident is very different in each situation. All of them based on the own officer’s discretion. Discretion can be found in a police officer’s decision to use legal sanction.
Police officers are faced each day with a vast array of situations which they must deal with. Officers are usually in the position of having to make decisions and how to handle a specific …show more content…
Especially with today’s technology, people are able to catch the incidents while they are taking place, recording and even uploading to social media to be spread throughout the world quickly. A New York Times’ newspaper article published on October 27, 2015 spoke out on profiling and police brutality. It is titled “Police Lies About Police Brutality” the article touches on how the evidence is right in front of your eyes and with the use of social media, the truth is being told. It tries to show the truth behind police misconduct against minorities, yet the law tends to find their way around the actual facts. With police profiling and brutality being the result of many deaths and problems, it is no wonder why many would challenge the discretion of the police. Discretion has been seen as inviting partiality in dealing with citizens as well as informing an opportunity for corruption. People have argued that during discretion, the police don’t have the slightest idea of what could be the consequences of their actions. Police discretion is a potential tool for abuse that might be influenced by personal factors arriving at an irrational decision. An officer’s personal attributes or cultural background may influence their view on certain crimes, causing mixed or bad …show more content…
An officer has the ability to use his discretion when determining an acceptable level of force against a suspect. An officer is able to use lethal force if he believes his life is in danger. Discretion is a form of judgement. Police discretion calls for knowledge, skills and insights that are needed by the police officers in situations that are unpredictable. Police discretion is an important law enforcement trait, it allows the officer to take the best course of action in individual situations, as no two situations are the same. If every situation were to be handled identically, it could result in bad policing, bad police reputations, being sued, or innocent people getting injured. Police ethics, like discretion also plays an important role in the duties of police
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