Essay Police discretion

Submitted By Sherwyn-Johnson
Words: 404
Pages: 2

Police Discretion
Police discretion is an action by a law enforcement officer based on that individual's judgment about the best course of action. Their ethics is to adhere to moral duty and obligation to their work. Discretion can be used to approach the law differently. One way this can be used is deciding whether or not to pull over a vehicle, and issuing a written warning instead of a ticket for a minor traffic violation. Police discretion can serve as an important trait. It allows the officer to take an individual’s situation into consideration and make a decision that still upholds the law, but does not have a huge negative impact on an individual or their family. However low enforcement have to be careful in the manner they use discretion. It can be misinterpreted by other people as racism, favoritism or profiling. Police discretion and ethics contribute to the law enforcement officer make the right decisions, and doing his job more efficiently.
Three factors that can influence discretion are personal perception, personal experiences and community interest. Personal perception can be both a positive and negative factor in discretion. Personal perception could cause someone to treat another person with disrespect or show favoritism. Personal experiences can play a big part in discretion as one personal may have empathy for another because of being through a similar experience. Society expectations can also have an impact in discretion which varies depending on location.
A few months ago I read an article which displayed the perfect example of police discretion. An