Police Discretion

Page 1

A routine feature of street level

policing

Every level of police work

especially at the micro level involves choice on the part of the police officer’

(Finnane,

1990)

police have

an extensive range of decisions to make: whether to investigate, to search, to

arrest, to caution, to charge or to prosecute’

Galligan (1994)

Discretion and Organisational Type

Production organisations have

observable outputs and outcomes

Procedural organisations have

observable outputs but not outcomes

Coping organisations have

largely unobservable outputs and outcomes

Craft organisations have

largely unobservable outputs but observable outcomes (J.Q.

Wilson, 1990)

Defining Discretion

A Police officer has

discretion whenever

effective limits to his or her power

leave

them free to make a choice amongst possible courses of action

(KC

Davies,1971).

the

exercise of discretion lies at the heart of the policing function. It is

undeniable that there is only one law for all: and it is right that this should

be so.

But

it is equally well recognised that successful policing depends on the exercise

of discretion on how the law is enforced. …Discretion is the art of suiting

action to particular circumstances (Scarman,

1981)

Interpretative Judgment vs Discretion

Big difference between discretion

– deciding

what

action to take or not take – and interpretive

judgment

Interpretive judgment is the

art or craft of interpreting events & incidents:

owhat actually happened

owho is at fault

omaking sense

of what appears before you

Discretion follows

interpretive judgment

3 Levels of Discretion

The Political

The Organisational

The Individual

Four Justifications for Discretion

resources

legitimacy

efficiency

Operational Latitude

'Differential' Policing

Under-Policing

Over-Policing

those more likely to give a rating of ‘not

much’ or

‘no trust and confidence’ included…

those

of Māori

descent (9%)

Pacific

(11%)

o

Asian/Indian

(16%) –Compared

with 6% of

other respondents

those

aged

between 16 and 34 years (10%)-Compared

with 5% of

all other respondents

Alternative Resolutions & the Police

Alternatives

to traditional

arrest,

charge

& prosecution

process

Pre-arrest

stage

-

Police can give

verbal warnings

(‘street

warnings’)

Pre-charge

stage

–

Police can arrest & take to station

but

issue

warning- Since

2010 –

roughly 2,000 PCWs issued per month Over a

third ARs

applied to offenders aged b:w 17-20