In the 1960’s, training left police discretion under the purview of the occupational culture and ‘common sense’ approaches, subsequently attention has been paid to structuring discretionary decision-making through training (de Lint 1). Training took two approaches; the first one required a more educated police candidate, and obliged decision-making towards liberal values. The second approach used technical training devices with the aim of blending values into practical training.

The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department adopted a policy whereby it can classify police reports as secret, according to the Nevada Press Association (NPA). The NPA said that the department has broad discretion to list police officers’ reports as “secret investigative files.” It says the police are basing the policy on the state Supreme Court’s so called “balancing test” decision (Stein 1). In a recent suit filed against the police department, the court ruled in favor of the plaintiff by saying that the value of public access in the case outweighed the reasons for not disclosing investigative reports.

There are different variables that seem to affect police discretion. Organizational variables are the characteristics of the police department, neighborhood variables such as racial composition of a neighborhood, socioeconomic status of an area, and the neighborhood crime rate and situational variables such as characteristics of the citizen and police, type of call for service or crime and visibility of the encounter. Our belief is the attitude of the suspect or victim determines the discretion and officer is going to use. If the individual shows respect and humility then the officer will tend to not issue a citation compared to an individual that is disrespectful and give the officer attitude. Also from experience it seems that less experienced or rookie officers exercise more discretion and act tougher on the job. It seems like they are trying to make a name for themselves too fast. This sometimes may lead them to make mistakes on the job.

Discretion is used at the individual level such as patrolling strategies, decisions to arrest, stop and frisk, write a report, and also the administrative or departmental level such as manpower levels, allocation of personnel and resources, policies, and training. Police use of discretion poses many problems: unequal treatment of citizens, racial profiling, and the use of discretion in different situations. Police departments are being encouraged to establish policies to regulate officer’s actions by the government because improper use of discretion has started to become more frequently reported. Policies limit their discretion and give the police guidelines to act upon. The policy is to reduce officer discretion as well as to help officers prepare for situations they may confront. These policies would help police make decisions in their duties and limit the likelihood of lawsuits. Wilson argues that police make judgments about situations and individuals, and they practice distributive justice (Dunham &Alpert 120). Many scholars argue that the choices policeman make are due

Some topics in this essay:
Dunham Alpert, , Natives Livingston, Anglos Latinos, Massey Denton, Escobedo Illinois, Supreme Court’s, Negro Bass, Jim Crow, WWII Chinese, police discretion, police department, police officer, jim crow, de lint, criminal justice system, limit discretion, pulled black, policies limit, massey denton, law enforcement, de lint 1, policies limit discretion, black male wearing, pulled black male,