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

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Once upon a time I was driving a marked patrol car^* and passed a car with a young couple in it. The wife was in the passenger seat with a toddler on her lap. Big no-no in my state with a very hefty fine. I passed, made eye contact with the driver, got a ways ahead and pulled over. The couple stopped their car and put the baby in the child seat. They drove on past, and I waved.

In a world with no officer discretion (and a jurisdiction where Corrections Officers had arrest powers), I might have been required to pull them over and write a ticket. There was nothing about their car to indicate that they had money to burn on fines or court fees. The kid was safe. What more did I want?

There are some areas and some laws where discretion has been outlawed—‘will arrest’ rules. For instance, if someone calls in a domestic violence complaint in many jurisdictions, someone has to go to jail, at least for the night or until bail is posted. Officers have made mistakes in judgment that had tragic results, most famously when Konerak Sinthasomphone briefly escaped from Jeffrey Dahmer. Officers responding to a naked, dazed, and raped fourteen-year old boy decided it was a ‘lover’s spat,’ and returned the boy to the serial killer cannibal, who did what serial killer cannibals do.