First topic is (Arrest Discretion) & the second is (The war on Drugs) - Essay Example

Arrest Discretion Chapter six focuses on police officers’ method of using arrest discretion when determining if a person should be placed under arrest. Many factors are considered when the officer decides who should go to jail. The police often use arrest discretion based on the situation. Arrest discretion is often used in cases where the officer believes that other alternatives are better than placing the individual under arrest. An incident where arrest discretion was used occurred during a situation of suspected, physical child abuse.

A juvenile was beaten by his guardian and locked out of the house. The guardian was his fifty-two year old grandmother who was his legal guardian because his mother was unfit to take care of her children. The juvenile has not lived with his guardian for a year. He was a drug dealer and was drunk when he attempted to enter his grandmother’s home. His grandmother commenced to hit him because he displayed disorderly conduct, calling her a “bitch.” A police officer was called to her home. Since her grandson was under eighteen, the grandmother could have been legally arrested because she was guilty of assault, physical child abuse, and neglect, but based on the circumstances, the juvenile was told not to come back to the home.

In this case, arrest discretion was used to determine if arresting the grandmother was proper. Police officers use arrest discretion in many situations. When an officer does not want to make an arrest, he or she does not make an attempt to threaten the person. When an officer is at the end of his or her shift, the officer knows that he or she will not see the person again. However, when the officer wants to make an arrest, the officer picks a person out of the group who is usually rude and places them under arrest.

Regardless of departmental regulations, officers frequently use arrest discretion techniques when deciding who should be placed under arrest. The War on DrugsPolice officers play a detrimental part in the fight against illegal drugs. Drugs existed long before people were arrested for drugs. Jails are filled with people who have been caught with drugs. However, police officers should practice police management in an effort to fight the war on drugs, which would reduce the number of arrests and the costs for imprisonment.

Drugs are compared to the affects of alcohol in the 1830’s, which caused immoral activities and a need for laws banning its distribution. However, the problem is not the drug itself. It is the violent consequence from its distribution and sell. The drug users are simply trying to get a “high”; whereas, the competition of making a drug sell has forced many drug deals to end violently. In the Epilogue section, the author of the classic 1970 article discussed that police officers are “distributors of coercive force.

” Street justice was a method of operating procedures, such as using a blackjack or gun to shoot a fleeing suspect, but handcuffs replaced street justice. Arresting a suspect is legal, and police officers do not want to harm their career. Police force is necessary as backup. Therefore, a drug policy should be enforced, focusing on preserving life, reducing incarceration, and not funding the war on drugs. The tobacco policy has been beneficial for reducing the number of drug users. In a research conducted in Amsterdam, a police officer gave a heroin addict his drugs back after he was released from jail because he explained that as soon as the heroin addict ran out of drugs he would steal to get money for his next purchase.

The Netherlands have a drug policy that regulates drug selling, but the United States is different from the Netherlands with dissimilar cultures, histories, and legal traditions. Because the war on drugs has become so dangerous for police officers, many do not prefer to work the midnights in the Eastern. It is an immoral job for officers who want to provide for their families. The streets are contaminated with drugs, and it is a job that many officers prefer not to work.