Police Discretion

Law enforcement has many tools they use to when determining how to approach a call. Whether the call is a traffic stop, a domestic call, or looking for a suspect to a crime. They all use their experience and judgement or better known as police discretion. Officers use their years of experience and knowledge to decide how to approach a situation. They have to come up with strategies to deal with each situation. Such as domestic violence calls, suspects with mental illness, and racial profiling calls. Every case is different and needs to be handled accordingly. They have to be cautious and observe for people and situations change constantly and quickly. Especially in something like domestic calls. When there is two people fighting they have to

The values of police department have to be shared with the officers. Values such as preservation of human life, prevention of crime, serving the community, and professionalism. Human life is the most important. They need to make saving and responding to situations that threaten a person life quickly. The prevention of crime is as important as the preservation of human life. Officers need to keep up on trying to stop crime before it happens. It is obvious that the prevention of crime is better then investigating a crime after it has happened. Unfortunately it does not happen like that. Cops often get to the scene of a crime after it has happened. One reason is citizens are often scared to report crimes to the police. That is why another value of police departments is community relations. With the upraise of society being scared of police openness helps them feel at ease. When departments are open and explain to the people what they are doing it builds trust. Also if the individual officers spends time helping and taking with the people, it builds up their trust. Society want police to be accountable for its actions. They do not like when things are hidden from them. Serving the community in the long run helps with the prevention of crime. Residents would feel more comfortable reporting crimes and suspicious actives. Provide information about crimes that are about to happen. Departments need officers to show a high level of professionalism. They must follow a code of ethics. it is the departments job to make sure the law enforcement officers follow it. Officers need to keep in mind that they represent the department and law enforcement as a