CJ 510 Ethical Leadership journal.
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Apr 3, 2024
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CJ 510 Ethical Leadership 5-1 Journal: Discretion
Sara Brandt Southern New Hampshire University Dr. Hector R. Garcia
October 18, 2023
Discretion in criminal justice is the ability to judge between right and wrong. In this case that means that one is liable for one’s own conduct. When you happen to become a police officer
you are given a privileged to use discretion in many different scenarios and this can change another person’s life. That is the most important and the most hidden aspect when it comes to being a police officer. Let’s use the George Floyd situation and how discretion could’ve changed
a lot of things that happened with this. When this all started George Floyd was arrested on May 25, in Minneapolis because he had been passing counterfeit money around. When they first arrested and handcuffed him he was 100% compliant with the situation at
hand but then the officers went to place him in the cop car and that is when things began to change. Before they could get him into the car he fell to the ground and there was a new officer who had arrived. This officer arrived and placed his knee to George Floyd’s neck and that lasted for a total of 7 minutes and 46 second which during this time he told the officers he couldn’t breathe and all the officers kept telling Floyd is that he needed to stop talking. The end result in all this was Floyd died from the pressure and lack of oxygen because of the officer’s knee on his neck. (BBC. 2020) This is a prime example and situation where officers handled the situation with bad discretion and this ended up killing a man’s life. I found a case where there was a police officer who was from Columbus, Ohio and he was on a special assignment which was at a local convenience store. There was a man who came in the store and was acting obnoxious to the clerk and the other people in the store. In this situation the clerk told him to leave multiple times and he didn’t so the officer tried to calmly talk him into leaving the store. The man then hit the officer and it was all recorded so there was documentation when the officer had to fight with the man to get him handcuffed and out of the store. This is a case of the officer using the best judgment and proper use of discretion.
I’m doing the NYPD New and they have many good examples of good discretion starting with the “broken windows” policing and that is more based on addressing minor crimes and by this it helps prevent serious crimes. They created this because they had the idea if you tackle the smaller crimes first then they won’t have as many serious crimes because they won’t be escalated to that. Minor crimes included things like vandalism, loitering and minor crimes. Discretion in this cause was good because they seen the issue and addressed it with evidence and
data. By addressing minor crimes and disorders, the NYPD was able to improve the quality of life for its residents and businesses. (BBC. 2020). By protecting its residents and businesses it got more cooperation and support from the community itself. Better cooperation from the community showed that they could focus on other things and have less worries that people in the community and local businesses would go against them.
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References - Ceili Doyle, Carlin, T., & Bruner, B. (2021, July 27). Columbus police chief: Officer in viral fight video did exactly the right thing. The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved February 6, 2022, from Http://www.dispatch.com/story/news/local/2021/07/25/Columbus-
police-chief-officer-viral-fight-video-did-right-thing/80827690002/
Ladd, D (2015, June 8). Inside William Bratton’s NYPD: broken windows policing is here to stay. The Guardian http://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2015/jun/08/inside-william-
bratton-nypd-broken-windows
Pollock, J.M. (2018). Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice(10
th
) Cengage Limited
https://mbsdirect.vitalsource.com/reader/books/9780357512951/pageid/96