Discretion of New Police Recruits
New police officers have to learn that there is a lot of discretion that police officers have when they are performing their duties. Because officers spend a great deal of time on their own (or with partners) they can make different decisions on how they choose to enforce laws, and serve the public. This can become a bit of an ethical question at times in many officers’ minds.
Scenario:
Linda Swan has only been on the job for a couple of weeks. She works for a regional police service that covers a very large area. So far she has loved the work, and found the advice from her coach officer Sean McDonald extremely beneficial. He has been on the job for about 10 years, seems to bring in very good arrests and seems to have a goal of going after the more serious offenders in society.
One day while things are pretty quiet, Sean and Linda decide to do some enforcement. Sean advised her that he would take the lead today. She would work with other officers in the future for different perspectives on enforcement, but he wanted her to understand his manner of enforcement. They set up to enforce a stop sign that was consistently violated by motorists.
Linda noticed the following while she assisted and observed Sean. There were ten vehicle stops that morning. He checked the driving record and criminal record of all parties that were stopped. Anyone with a clean record was given a caution and advised to please drive carefully. There was a flag put into the computer so if anyone else pulled over the vehicle they would realize that the people had received a warning in the recent past about the infraction.
Two people received tickets that morning. One driver received a ticket for failing to stop for the stop sign, as they barely slowed at all and had a history of poor driving in the past. The other driver received five tickets. One was for failing to stop for the stop sign, and four others were minor offences that the driver was in fact guilty of such as failing to provide proof of insurance, a non functioning break light, failing to sign the back of their vehicle ownership, etc. The driver of this vehicle had a lengthy criminal record with convictions that included assault police and domestic assaults.
Sean advised Linda, that he preferred to focus on what he considered the “problem people” in society and to caution and be lenient with people he considered decent citizens that made a minor mistake. Linda, being a new recruit, wasn’t certain how to take this advice.
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I think Sean is right. people who commit minor mistakes, should get a warning instead being punished at first instant.
Linda should take Sean’s advice positively.
I agree with Hardy.
More than half of the people who get pulled over on our highways have never been pulled over before or have been involved with the police whatsoever. This is their first interaction with an officer. Not only are they nervous/scared, but a simple warning is enough for them not to make the same mistake again.
I agree with Officer McDonald and his approach.
By establishing a history of poor driving habits there is a stronger chance of conviction should those guilty attempt to fight their multiple offences. It essentially shows the JP that the individual charged has made few if any attempts to rectify their driving habits. In addition, by providing warnings to those with clean records, it will allow them a second chance. Should they not change their habits it will again-much like the multiple offence group- will show a failure to change their driving habits which will allow an officer to walk into court and show a history.
Papa1
While I agree with Sean in principle I think nailing the offender with a record so hard is not helping much in the sense it will only increase the person’s dislike for the police. Give him one for the stop sign and the insurance but the rest is over the top and building disrespect even more against the police.
I remember speaking to an officer once and he told me that if between 5 - 10% of the population doesn’t hate the police, they aren’t doing their jobs. There are some bad people out there, and if police decide to hammer those individuals, and use discretion with upstanding citizens, I’m ok with that. It states the driver was in fact guilty of the infractions. The officer wasn’t making anything up. If someone is an ass in society, breaks the law, assaults police, beats his wife, he better make sure everything is in order if he chooses to drive.
And the officers I know and am related to would say that guy is not a good cop. If 95% of the people hate you then you rely on the goodwill of 5% to voluntarily help you solve crimes. The best intel is given voluntary. I was at a police conference where the head of the London Police was speaking on the train bombings. After an investigation into how they missed the cell they found that if the public saw them as more approachable the cell would have come to light, as many neighbors etc had certain concerns that when pooled together would have sent up red flags. Instead the public said they never volunteered such info as the police were unapproachable and untrustworthy.
If Police Services agreed with this one officer you mentioned they would not spend money on community policing nor use slogans like “Community Commitment” and others geared towards being in touch with the public. The whole reason it’s called a Police Service not and not a Police Force (As it was 20 years ago on most cities) stems from the fact the officers job is to serve the community to not strike fear and hatred into them.
Sorry, I misread your post JGJ as far as the percentage go so disregard my first 2 sentences and last paragraph. Guess there is no edit function on these things
And here I was about to retort. No problem Trevor, these things happen. It’s probably the officers that ticket everybody that create the 95% hate from the community. Although I think these guys are probably pretty rare.
Without community support, you are right, investigations and prevention would be very difficult, or imposed on the population like a tyrant.
Linda’s learned a little more how Sean works; his style! Agree or not, that is how Sean works! One day, if Linda becomes a Coach Officer she too will have her style! If that style includes being easier on working people with NO priors, she can thank Sean!
Developing one’s style comes with the job, a constant learning exercise. I think it’d be interesting to see how others (Coach Officers) handle things while training!
Ideally, the job gets done!
I agree with Officer McDonald. While its important to enforce all traffic violations, issuing every driver a ticket regardless of their history doesn’t accomplish a whole lot. A veteran officer is aware of court proceedings and what sticks and what doesn’t. So not only is the officer saving everybody the hardaches of going to court but building himself a good reputation in court as an officer who can use discretion wisely.
I agree with officer McDonald. Discretion and discernment is a key skill that must be utilized when policing.