See Order Instructions - Research Paper Example

Police Discretion and the Various Control Mechanisms Available Police discretion Introduction Everyday police officers face different challenges and experiences that expect them to make decisions on how to handle the situation individually without involving additional advice or immediate supervision, and this is the heart of police discretion. In law enforcement, Hassell and Archbold (2010) argue that the police officer has the mandate to make judgments or reasonable decisions within certain legal bounds. Police officers face a wide range of options especially when confronted by dangerous situations. Some of their decisions have been misconstrued as misconduct and a good example is the use of excessive force. External and internal mechanisms affecting police discretion involve the lack of agreement on the exact criminal behaviors that law officers should use in discretion. As a result, there is no evident legal discretion of the criminal actions requiring discretion. However, there are control mechanisms including Internal and external control mechanisms, control by citizens, legislative controls, and control by courts. Analysis A study by Palmiotto and Unnithan (2011) posits that more attention remains on the need to prepare police officers for the appropriate use of discretion. These preparations begin at the training school in the academy continuing later to their field practice. According to the trainings, the use of discretion is critical mainly after an event or on regular basis. However, the experts argue that despite discretion use not being bad, unregulated or uncontrolled discretion could cause a real problem. As a result, these experts feel that the discretion use cannot be abolished but police departments should attempt controlling or regulating it. Most scholars feel that these discretions should be narrowed or that they should have limits reflecting objectives, priorities and other operation philosophies. Internal Control Mechanisms The need for obedience to formal set policies guidelines is one of the major internal control mechanisms ensuring the just law administration (Palmiotto & Unnithan, 2011). Most of the written police law date back to 1970s especially in relation to the use of deadly force. These policies drastically reduced the number of shootings of civilians by police and vice versa. In addition, since those days, the police departments have consequently come up with ways of formally handling the emotionally strained police officers, and police pursuits among others. Establishing of employee early warning systems remain an integral part of controlling discretion and especially in relation to improper application of discretion. According to Palmiotto and Unnithan (2011), the automated warning systems are capable of detecting an officer’s statistics during significant events and a good example involves high numbers of use-of-force incidents, sick days, low numbers of arrests, involvements in certain events, or citizen contacts. The systems warn the supervisors who accordingly investigate on any irregularities. Another internal control mechanism involves reviews of officers’ actions whether by their colleagues, supervisors, or the public. Due to their nature of work and the risks involved during their decision-making, the police require testing and approving their intellect. Recruitment helps in selecting the best officers and this internal mechanism ensures or controls police conduct. Jordan (2013) argues that the variety of effective strategies used in recruiting the job applicants ensures qualified candidates. The police department uses the Internal Affairs unit to investigate any alleged misconduct like violation of policies, rules, and procedures. Some departments tend to apply the intelligence test on their suspected officers to identify the officers with a problem, and sometimes they act on unverified allegations of misconduct. In addition, Jordan (2013) argues on the need to change the informal norms of the department as a successful measure. He argues that having a Police Commissioner with low integrity remains unacceptable hence the need for a change. Jordan (2013) provides examples of Police Commissioners like Rizzo in Philadelphia, and Gates in Los Angeles whose stun message to the officers involves the use of abusive language and its unacceptability. He argues that the Chief should be responsible for the scandals giving the example of Murphy’s case on NYPD. As a result, the central role of the Chief highly determines the internal mechanisms that affect control of police misconduct, an issue that causes serious debate in different governments. External Control Mechanisms Civilian review Boards is one of the external control mechanism, and it is an independent tribunal of outstanding citizens carefully selected from the community to review citizen grievances about the police. The proponents of these boards recommend there should be no police representation in this board. Political culture is another external control mechanisms and every community differs from the other and so is their policing. The demographics are equally different and this affects the police procedures. A good example includes a region whose police may be very aggressive on traffic infringement. These police officers may be enforcing the full laws to the letter in relation to traffic violations despite the level of the crime. In other regions, the police may have the discretion to choose on the type of traffic crimes that warrant ticketing and which ones should be provided with verbal warnings (Waltz and Katz, 2005). Control by the Citizens There are many duties that are assigned to police officers, but the main ones are maintaining law and order, and also making sure that the environment we are living in is safe. Different officers are allocated different duties and they are always a call away. They deal with all types of law breakages, and each day they are on different assignments (Hassell &Archbold, 2010). There are the traffic police, whose work is issuing tickets to road rules offenders, and crime officers who will be called where burglary has happened. Police officers work around people because people are the lawbreakers. That is why they hang around the malls, on the street, and in the parks, where there is a crowd. They will carry with them the protective tools, which include pepper sprays, guns, and clubs. They need these defensive tools because they are dealing with criminals. Their work involves night, and day schedules. According to Hassell and Archbold (2010), the public should be enlightened on crime and its repercussions. They can assist the police officers in detecting the crimes if they are educated. The criminals live among the society, and with proper information, the community is able to pick them up and report to the police department. There should be forums discussing on the crimes that happen in the region. The police officers should also be encouraged to work together with the community. This will help them gather more information from the people around them. Every criminal should be brought to justice and his or her financiers too. The people behind the scene go un-apprehended and I feel more effort in getting them is vital. While it is the police duty to protect citizens, they also enforce laws while maintaining order. However, this is quite a challenging job that exposes these police officers to dangerous and unpredictable positions. Sometimes these police may find themselves using excess force, abuse authority, bad language, increase judgments, and the public shows low tolerance of this police misconduct. In order to minimize these misconducts, it is important to list some of the recommendations despite disagreements on the standard actions constituting misconduct. Seron et al. (2004) argues that training for the police officers would ensure administrative guidelines relating to their interaction with the civilians. Training would equally assist them understand the standard actions constituting misconduct because some of them may be innocently lacking the etiquettes. Police officers have inherited some cultures in the department that force them to make unethical decisions. Other than training, the supervisors can carry out surprise patrols on their officers to help them remain alert. Considering their stressful duties, which according to research influences the misconduct, motivation would help reduce mostly corruption among the officers. Legislative Controls There is dire need for police departments to update legislation relating to the statutes that curtail the guides of mandating police actions. Study shows that it remains one of the best ways in which outside sources can maintain control over police discretion. A good example is the laws on excessive use of force, which the legislators have enacted laws to guide the police on what they can or not do which consequently limits their discretion powers. A study by Walker and Katz (2002) posits that development of policies and procedures in relation to deadly use of force had a significant impact in New York Police Department. The department introduced defense of life and reduced the use of firearms by 30%. According to Jordan (2013), administrative rules play a vital role in controlling police corruption. This is because of their different objectives, which include informing officers and the community of their expected behavior. These administrative rules equally establish the basis of consistency in police operations, while providing grounds for counseling and disciplining the errant officers. The rules also set the standards for officer supervision according to Jordan (2013), and directions for officer training. Control by the Courts The courts have employed facial vagueness doctrine limiting police discretion in the performance of tasks related to maintaining order. This aggressive employment doctrine is an inadequate mechanism for limiting police discretion and it could impair positive change in the direction of problem oriented and community policing. As a result, it would be considerate to propose political and administrative measures in order to manage police discretion especially during this policing era (Walker & Katz, 2002). Currently, there is an emerging of new and more preventive policing focusing on ameliorating problems related to neighborhood disorder. The police may sometimes require new legal authority in communities electing to address quality life, and this raises the question whether police can be given the authority to address minor street misconduct inside the current constitutional limitation. Some courts have further extended the pensiveness exclusion beyond its stated concern with unspecified laws encouraging discriminatory and arbitrary enforcement to deal with broader issues of police discretion in relation to maintaining order. As a result, administrative and political mechanisms should be an alternative to the courts’ intervention. Recommendation The police work under stressful conditions and every day they encounter different situations. Their work demand abrupt decision making without having to consult their supervisors based on the urgency. As a result, there is need to ensure that they work under sane health and pure integrity (Walker & Katz, 2002). The recruitment should ensure that only mentally capable police officers should be allowed to handle the gun and make serious decisions. In addition, the administration should be very strict while monitoring these police officers’ conduct. Police officer’s duty is quite risky because they are exposed to a lot of danger. Most of them have died in the line of duty by being shot at by the criminals. They also are exposed to health hazards because of the areas they have to cover. Majority of them have died on the road as they chase the offenders. These fallen officers’ families are entitled to significant pension, which sometimes is not enough for the families. The police officers suffer a lot of stress and sometimes they even kill themselves due to depression. As earlier mentioned, we have different duties for these officers, and crime fighters are the most recognized officers (Hassell & Archbold, 2010)). On the other hand, motivating these police officers can assist them in making good decisions during their duties. Unfortunately, the police officers get unfair awards for this risky career. Motivation could be through monetary, and promotions among other incentives. Counseling of these officers would reduce their stress, which sometimes cause the misuse of language and indecisions. Police officers work under pressure, and offering them holiday packages for them as families may reduce their tension. Hassell and Archbold (2010) argues that the law should place heavy penalties for any delinquent officers since a lenient system will only encourage the act. According to Seron et al. (2004), the public should be willing to trust the police officers, while accepting authoritative decisions. Stress seems to be a leading factor, hence counseling, and motivation could play a role in minimizing misconduct. Placing high penalties on police misconduct in relation to discretion may equally assist in curbing the practice. Conclusion Police discretion remains a contentious issue considering that many police officers have sometimes made wrong decisions that have cost civilians avoidable deaths. The police have a mandate to exercise discretion but it is clear that lack of proper boundaries have caused more harm than good. However, there are possible control mechanisms both internal and external that can reduce these police misconducts. Advanced training for both the police and the community can equally help in controlling discretion. The courts have also left loopholes or vagueness in their doctrines relating to police discretion, while the police departments should equally upgrade their legislation in relation to the statutes guiding police discretion. References Hassell, K. D., & Archbold, C. A. (2010). Widening the scope on complaints of police misconduct Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 33(3), 473-489 Jordan, K. (2013). Professionalism in Criminal Justice Organizations: CCJ6489. Boston, MA: Pearson Palmiotto, M., & Unnithan, N. P. (2011). Policing & society: A global approach. Clifton Park, NY: Delmar Cengage Learning. Seron, C., Pereira, J., & Kovath, J. (2004). Judging police misconduct:“Street?Level” versus professional policing. Law & Society Review, 38(4), 665-710. Walker, Samuel and Katz, Charles M. 2002. The history of American police. Chapter 2 (pps. 22- 56) in The Police in America: An Introduction, Fourth Edition. Boston: McGraw Hill. Read More