Читать книгу Force Decisions. A Citizen's Guide to Understanding How Police Determine Appropriate Use of Force онлайн

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At the heart of these kinds of decisions is “officer discretion.” Every situation is different, as is every officer and every threat. Officers must cultivate the judgment and be empowered to make the decisions when they are presented with a situation.

This is inherently risky and one of those factors that can make citizens very uncomfortable. It makes officers uncomfortable, too. Officers are rarely required to make an arrest or issue a citation in misdemeanor cases. It varies by policy, but in most places, if an officer happens to see a six-year-old shoplift a candy bar, the officer can tell the kid to give it back and apologize.

That discretion—to give the kid guidance or start a juvenile record and get a bunch of agencies involved—is a huge power. It is both feared and necessary. Too often, it also feels like a trap, a trap with no right answers.

On the feared side, turning a blind eye is also a form of discretion. An officer can avoid confrontation just by not doing the job. Discretion to let a minor lawbreaker go could be based less on whether the message was sent (the verbal warning for a traffic infraction) than on who it was—friend, family, another officer. Discretion is also the crack that people of power try to pry at: “Do you know who my father is? Can’t we just make this go away?”