Police Discretion and Crime Essay

Introduction

Police discretion refers to the power given to police officers to make decisions during their work, on whether to pursue the police procedures or to just give a warning to suspects and let them go. For example, when one gets pulled over for over speeding, the police officer can use their discretion to choose whether to give you a ticket or to give you a warning and let you proceed. In most cases, many people use the police discretion to get mercy from the police and to avoid hefty penalties. It is common that people give stories that are moving and convincing to be pardoned when they are on the wrong. In most cases, the police officer works alone and they have to make certain decisions on their own and in that very moment. They have to choose whether to draw their weapon or not, whether to shoot, conduct a search, make an arrest or offer assistance, among others. As explained in the rest of this article, police discretion has an impact on the crime rate in a given community, because they make many choices that determine the arrests made and other legal actions taken against the lawbreakers.

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Impacts of police discretion on the rate of violence in Chicago

Domestic violence

In Chicago, there are many cases of domestic violence and some of them are fatal and cause significant impacts on the victims. The use of police discretion is necessary when dealing with this crime in Chicago and other parts of the world because the officers have to analyze the cause, the one who started it and how the fight was escalated. In some of these cases, there are no serious bruises and the emotions of the couples are high, which make it hard to identify the person who started it. Police discretion helps to make choices on the best way to pursue the crime. Some violence cases are risky and threaten the life of the couples and the police may have to proceed with their approach even after the request for assistance is canceled. The police officers can collect evidence and analyze the level of risks before making decisions. The increased cases of domestic violence in Chicago can be reduced if more police discretion is used. The relationship is that if the discretion is used well, police can advise the couples instead of arresting them.

Traffic violations

For many years, the number of tickets that police officers give to motorists was used as a measure of the work that they do. It was perceived that the more tickets that the officers gave, the more hardworking they were. However, this changed in most of the states and they were allowed to use their discretion to decide the traffic violations that deserve a ticket. For example, in Illinois, the governor established a law in 2014 that prevented agencies from comparing officers as per the number of arrest and tickets were written. The aim was to improve the public trust and improve the relationship between the public and the police (Smith, 2014). The use of police discretion can be effective in making people to change their traffic defiance, reduce panic when motorists encounter a police car and make the public more responsible in their driving. However, there is a concern that the police discretion may be abused and people may use it to escape the law (Beckett, 2016). The outcomes of the discretion will be positive if the police and the public are responsible and willing to avoid unnecessary arrests.

Crime related to mental illness

Some of the main crimes in Chicago and other parts are related to mental illnesses and the police need to decide the best action to take. For example, some mentally-ill people have been involved in mass shootings where many people die. When a police officer encounters such an incident, their discretion should be used to determine if the criminal should be shot, arrested or left alone. In Chicago, the rising number of shootings is also relative to the rising number of mental health cases. The police officers can offer discrete advice to victims of crime to get mental health services and prevent future crime. The increased cases of lone actor terrorism and mental illnesses show a close relationship between the two (Corner and Gill, 2015). The correlation between police discretion and the rate of crime related to gun violence and mental illness is that Chicago police can offer assistance to these terrorists and a second chance to change by advising them and not shooting them in the first instance of crime.

Racial profiling

The issues of racial profiling are common in Chicago, whereby many people feel that they are treated differently because of the color of their skin. For example, there has been a major concern that most of the tickets given to the cyclists for the usual offenses are given to the African Americans as compared to those in the areas inhabited by the Whites. The police are said to condone the cycling crimes for the Whites but always give tickets to the Blacks, mostly for driving on the sidewalk. The police discretion is related to the rate of these crimes in that their decisions to give tickets to the cyclist or not to give are dependent on the views they have about the crime. However, the discretion may not be effective in eliminating these crimes and the police may be forced to use force and make arrests.

The other direct correlation between police discretion and the crime rate in Chicago is that some police officers may ignore crime and use discretion as an excuse. The lazy police officers can use this excuse to profile people on the basis of their race and ignore crimes done by people of their race. In such scenarios, crime can escalate in areas where the police favor the residents based on their color. Police officers are also trained to take orders from their seniors. However, when they are encountered by issues that require discretion, they struggle to make the right decision and this may encourage more crime. For example, when two people argue or fight in public, the police may not make an arrest due to the confusion of who is on the wrong. When the discretion is abused, it leads to a soft law enforcement and this encourages different types of crime. It may also appear as a way of granting the officers the freedom to act in the ways they find most appropriate. In Chicago, the law protecting the police officers also protects the rights of the citizens. The impacts of police discretion can be measured by the use of crime rates and the activities of the police in relation to those types of crime. Therefore, the factors discussed above should be considered and they include racial profiling, laziness, abuse of the discretion, types of crime and training done on the officers among others.

References

Beckett, K. (2016). The uses and abuses of police discretion: Toward harm reduction policing. Harv. L. & Pol'y Rev., 10, 77.

Corner, E., & Gill, P. (2015). A false dichotomy? Mental illness and lone-actor terrorism. Law and human behavior, 39(1), 23.

Smith, M. (2014). The new law bans police use of ticket quotas. Chicago Tribune, retrieved on September 13, 2018, from http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/breaking/chi-quinn-signs-into-law-bill-banning-police-ticket-quota-20140615-story.html