Repeat Player Police Officers and Prosecutorial Charge Reduction Decisions: A Note

• NCJ Number: 123531
• Journal: American Journal of Police Volume: 9 Issue: 1 Dated: (1990) Pages: 163-168
• Author(s): J J Sloan; J L Miller
• Date Published: 1990
• Length: 6 pages
• Grant Number(s): 86-IJ-CX-0020
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Publication Type: Survey

Annotation

In Detroit, repeat player police officers seem to have little impact on drug case dispositions.

Abstract

"Repeat players" include prosecutors, defense attorneys, judges, and other personnel who interact on a regular basis in the same courtroom and who are dependent upon one another to assist in dispensing with criminal cases. Relatively ignored has been the police officer who regularly appears in felony case proceedings. Data from this study come from a larger study of prosecutorial decision making in Detroit; a sample of 795 adjudicated felony cases from 1983 serves as the data base. Results indicate that police officers may be repeat players but still not members of the courtroom work-group; prosecutors remain autonomous and do not heavily rely upon input from the officer; and the small number of cases in which repeat player officers appear is not significant in the larger scheme of case processing. 2 tables, 7 notes, 4 references.