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Police Discretion

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Discretion relates to police decision making within the law. ... What guidelines should a police officer keep in mind when using discretion? 11/1/09 ... – PowerPoint PPT presentation

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Title: Police Discretion


1
Police Discretion
  • Jerome Skolnik

2
Visibility of Police Discretion
  • What is police discretion?
  • Discretion relates to police decision making
    within the law.
  • Should we be overly concerned about discretion
    outside the law?
  • How do we know when the police are using
    discretion or just doing what they want?

3
Types of Discretion
  • Delegated
  • Unauthorized

4
Two Types of Delegated Discretion
  • Policy determines how a law is to be enforced.
  • Police can digress from the law, but not from the
    policy
  • Police can determine for themselves how to handle
    specific situations

5
Criteria for Discretion
  • When should discretion be used?
  • What conditions must be present before discretion
    is authorized?
  • What guidelines should a police officer keep in
    mind when using discretion?

6
Inevitable Discretion
  • Policy fails
  • The law is not applicable in the given situation
  • Every situation cannot be explicitly covered by
    the law or policy
  • Lack of discretion would also promote
    inflexibility it the system

7
Mechanical Justice
  • Why do attempts to have rigid rules fail?

8
Real Life
  • Skolniks example of real life parking tickets
    demonstrates the inevitably of discretion
  • Can you think of a real life example?

9
What Does This Means?
  • Because discretion is inevitable, does this mean
    that discretion should be encouraged?
  • Give an Example
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