Identify and discuss at least four of the potential problems with police discretion.
What will be an ideal response?
Answer may vary. When discussing potential problems with police discretion, there are seven major issues that need to be understood. First, police discretion is important because it can affect citizens’ lives in extraordinary ways. Second, when an officer makes a decision, it could turn out to have a bad outcome and thus be viewed as a bad decision. Third, an officer may make a bad decision because of the way the decision was made or because of the information that was considered when making the decision. Fourth, good decisions made by officers are sometimes incorrectly interpreted by citizens as being improper, biased, or bad. Fifth, many police decisions are made in “low visibility” situations, that is, in situations where many people cannot actually see what decisions were made. Sixth, most officers’ decisions are made on the spot, without benefit of time to collect all information or consider all options and consequences of the decision. Seventh, the discretion exercised by managers and executives also have discretion, their discretion is different from that used by officers.
You might also like to view...
Original research on the Walk-and-Turn test shows that should the subject exhibit two or
more clues or fail to complete the test, the subject's BAC should be considered to be above ___ percent and that this criterion has an accuracy level of ____ percent. a. 0.05, 55 b. 0.06, 50 c. 0.08, 80 d. 0.10, 68
Admissibility is defeated if, after making a declaration under a belief in impending death, the condition of the declarant improves.
Answer the following statement true (T) or false (F)
Those drug dealers who are associated with gangs but are of least value to them are called ______
a. petty dealers b. persistent dealers c. losers d. frequent dealers
Answer the following statements true (T) or false (F)
1. The performance appraisal formally documents unacceptable behavior and provides a record of the feedback to the officer. 2. Supervisors tend to be stricter when ratings are used for promotions as compared to when they are used for counseling and improvement. 3. When performance is used for promotions, police departments should use promotability ratings. 4. The oral interview board is where candidates for promotion are given a situation and must act out how they would deal with the situation.