NATS 1745 Chapter Notes -Racial Profiling, Community Policing, Visible Minority

• School: York University
• Department: Natural Science
• Course: NATS 1745
• Professor: Robin Metcalfe

Document Summary

Discretion: the ability of a police officer to choose among several possible courses of action in carrying out a mandated task. Discretion is an essential component of policing because no one set of laws or regulations can prescribe what an officer must do in each & every circumstance. It is impossible for officers to enforce all laws all the time they practice selective or situational enforcement. As the seriousness of the incident increases the amount of discretion an officer can exercise decreases. For police personnel the authority to use discretion is set out in statues such as the. In cases of domestic violence some jurisdictions have mandatory charge or zero tolerance policies that curtail police discretion. These policies require police officers to arrest the suspect when it appears that an assault has occurred even if the alleged victim does not want an arrest to be made.