Law enforcement officers are the first gatekeepers to the criminal justice system. They make discretionary decisions on a daily basis that determines who continues through the criminal justice system and who is bypassed. Three major factors influence police discretion like the type of community and department they serves, as well as an officer’s experience, personal rules and the circumstances surrounding the incident. Acting as gatekeepers a police officer has sole discretion to stop and question, investigate and arrest people. An officer’s morals, ethics and training play a large role in their discretionary decision-making.
Prosecutors are the true gatekeepers of the criminal justice system because they decide who will be prosecuted
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These two very important jobs are expected and maybe even taken for granted by the communities where police officers work. The police serve the community by responding to calls for assistance that can be as simple as helping neighbors work out a simple disagreement to locating a lost child. Police also serve their communities by maintaining order at events like a Friday night varsity football game to a big stadium concert. Their presence makes people feel safer by controlling the crowd and deterring fights. The police are our first responders on duty 24 / 7 dependable. Police also protect people in the community by enforcing the law that can be as simple as writing a traffic ticket to arresting criminals. Many police departments are changing from incident driven or reactive policing to community orientated policing or, “SARA which stands for scanning, analysis, rectify, assessment” (Wikipedia contributors, 2015). This type of policing helps police predict and prevent crime before it even happens. Law enforcement officers scan and collect information to analysis crime in their communities then they create a plan to rectify problems and then re-assess so they will know if they had success. It is important to note for success the police need to work closely with community leaders to ensure, “proper levels of police discretion and that the police are focusing on problems the community want resolved”