Police Officers Discretion Essay

Discretion is define to be an individuals capabilities and freedom to make responsible preferences and judgments. populate working in all fields require fashioning conclusivenesss in every day life however, some need to be to a greater extent proficient at it. Police ships officers usually fine themselves in disorganized and critical posts, where their decision can change the entire scenario. The most withdraw decision within the legal boundaries must be made, varying from situation to situation.Discretion is broadly char serveerized as five different subjects apprehension by judgment (sense of bending rules in legally portion ways to receive the situation), discretion as choice (to show courage and give ad hominem contribution to form decisions as the authority in that situation), discretion by discernment (to be diplomatic, tolerant, considerate and cautious and not very noble while making decisions), discretion as liberty (to not be restricted by the integrity and stretch boundaries of freedom as persistent as it is acceptable) and lastly discretion as license (basically the permission to act there and then in whichever way thought to be appropriate without the permission of the superiors).There atomic number 18 some natural law officers who abuse their ripe of discretion they believe that they argon unaccountable and since they are the authority at the point of chaos, they can do as they go out. Having the right of discretion does not mean that an officer can make whatever decisions that they will they are restricted by professional, society, legal and ethical norms (Sullivan, 1972). The officers these days score rightful(prenominal) the right capacity of discretion. The only study areas that they use discretion in are domestic violence, drunk driving, mental illness, hate crime, use of phalanx and even vice crime.These are the areas where the personal opinion and judgment of the police officers matters while arresting or gravid pu nishments. In the rest of the primary(prenominal) and critical areas such as rape, murder, dacoits and robberies they have to abide by the law whether they personally approve of it or not. Only mild and fields of general crime are left up to the intellect of these officers. Since, there are only some areas where officers are given the right to exercise discretion, it is easy to conclude that the officers are neither given in any case much or too less of power. Giving them the right to decide is rational be spring they have been selected as officers and have been given good enough training, which gives them the sense of making correct decisions.These officers make up the entire police force, thus, their opinion should in addition matter however, to only some extent. The problems that these police officers face while enforcing laws and giving verdicts is that there are hardly any fields involved in the police forces that are uncontroversial usually, everybody has a different sta nce on things. Also, there is a problem is public confidence the public is too unpredictable to please (Walker, 1993). They desire accountability but nothing seems to pay them also, they wish for strict enforcement in only those areas that they are not link to, that is, they want leverage for themselves but not others.This controversial and unpredictable strength makes it difficult for the police offers to come up with the right solution that will make everybody happy. I have witnessed one such event myself where differing opinions break away to confusion. A mentally disabled boy of around seventeen became a source of disturbance to other boys playing cricket. One of them was violent and scud the mentally disabled boy out of frustration, who hit the boy moxie causing him to bleed. Surprisingly, a police car was passing from there at that instant and stopped to check the situation. Everybody demanded that the mentally disabled boy should be punished for his act as he often bec omes a cause of nuisance in the neighborhood.The police officer was by nature gracious and was of the opinion that the mentally ill boy should be let go of as he is underprivileged and does not possess the ability of making sensible decisions. Here, in this chaotic situation, even when the public was against the officers decision, he used his power of discretion and made an appropriate decision according to his judgment instantly. This shows that the right of discretion is extremely important for an officer to deal with everyday situations. Although, if you look closely, it was not a situation where major or critical decisions need to be made thus, the police officer without any doubts and fear abided by his opinion this shows limitation of power of discretion to only some areas.