Policing 11 & 12

discretion

An official action by a criminal justice official based on that individual’s judgment about the
best course of action

Patrol Officers’ Decisions

– e.g. to mediate a bar fight or to make an arrest?
– e.g. to conduct a high-speed pursuit or not
– e.g. to use deadly force or not
– e.g. to stop and frisk an individual or not

Detectives’ Decisions

– To stop investigating a crime because of a lack of leads, or continue?

Police Managers’ Decisions

– To crack down on prostitution in the city or another type of criminal population.
– To adopt community policing or broken window policing

Positive Uses of Discretion

• Efficient use of scarce police resource
• Individualized justice
• Others

Administrative Rulemaking

• Written departmental policy requiring officers’ complete written reports on how they handled situations.

CALEA

-Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies
– Requires officers to file written reports when “discharging a firearm,” causing “injury or death of another person,” etc.

Standard Operating Procedure (SOP)

– Central tool of modern police management
– Many departments place their SOP manuals online to increase transparency and promote openness

Systematic Rulemaking

• e.g. State-based council
• Written policies for every “critical incident”
• Allows the officers to anticipate problems before they become crises

Citizen Oversight and Policymaking

• Policy reviews by auditors (inspectors)
– Citizen complaints are analyzed
– Make recommendations in public report

legal

laws and court decisions

Situational Factors

– Seriousness of crime
– Strength of evidence
– Preference of the victim
– Relationship btw victim/suspect
– Demeanor of suspect
– Characteristics of victim
– Race, gender, ethnicity
– Characteristics of neighborhood
– Characteristics of the officer

administrative

– Department Policy
– Supervisions

Organizational Culture Factors

– Peer officer culture

Social and Political Factors

– Local Political Culture

Police-Community Relations

– Refers primarily to the relations between the police and racial/ethnic minority communities (also gender/sexual preference)
• One of the larger challenges in the U.S.

Procedural Justice

• People distinguish between the outcomes and
the process

• The Elements:
1. Citizen participation
2. Neutrality
3. Dignity
4. Trustworthy motives

Selective Contact

Officers do not have regular contact with a cross section of the
community

Selective Perception

– Officers tend to stereotype due to past encounters and
experiences

Factors Influencing Public Perceptions of the Police

1. The level of neighborhood police protection
2. Police officer “field practices”

The level of neighborhood police protection

-Delay in Responding to Calls
• Too much or too little law enforcement

Police officer “field practices”

Use of Deadly Force
– Controversial police shootings
erode police legitimacy
• Use of Physical Force

Dimensions of Trust and Confidence in the Police

Sarah Stoutland:
1. Priorities
2. Competence
3. Dependability
4. Respect

Improving PCR

1. Maintaining a representative police force
• Race ratio
2. Improving the handling of citizen complaints
• Civilian review boards

3. Creating special police-community relations unit
– e.g., ride-along programs, neighborhood storefront
offices, workshop for recent immigrants