Police Discretion
Essay Preview: Police Discretion
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Police discretion by definition is the power to make decisions of policy and practice. Police have the choice to enforce certain laws and how they will be enforced. “Some law is always or almost always enforced, some is never or almost never enforced, and some is sometimes enforced and sometimes not” (Davis, p.1). Similarly with discretion is that the law may not cover every situation a police officer encounters, so they must use their discretion wisely. Until 1956, people thought of police discretion as “taboo”. According to
Linda A. Teplin says that “police involvement with mentally ill persons is grounded in two common law principles: (1) The power and responsibility of the police to protect the safety and welfare of the public, and (2) parens patriae, which dictates protection for disabled citizens such as mentally ill persons.” The police must take into consideration the situation of the person that they are trying to help (even if they are there to arrest that person). If an officer encounters a mentally ill person who is acting out irrationally and who is creating a disturbance, the officer has three options that they can do: (1) transport the person to a mental health facility, (2) arrest the person and take them to jail, or (3) to resolve the issue at hand informally; however this decision is up to the discretion of the officer on the call.
Problems arise when police use their discretionary powers when they take into custody drunk drivers. According to
Davis says, “Most arrests for disorderly conduct involve an abuse of power by the arresting officer Arrest of disorderly conduct usually is not synonymous with invoking