NCJ Number
208827
Date Published
2005
Length
32 pages
Annotation
This chapter focuses on research that reveals the characteristics of the daily work of patrol police and the structures reproduced by their work, structures that have systems of rules that control, guide, and justify their actions.
Abstract
No one wants to live in a community where they feel constantly vulnerable to being a victim of the behavior of another that leads to financial loss, property damage, physical injury, or death. Preventing, deterring, and responding to crime by police is believed by most citizens to be the most effective means of increasing public safety. Studies, however, indicate that police patrol officers spend very little time "fighting crime" and most of their time responding to citizen calls for service that do not directly pertain to serious violations of the law. Police then have the discretion to decide which rules apply to each situation and whether or not to apply them. Discretionary police actions are usually governed by the particular interests defined by their occupational culture. This typically involves getting the job done in ways that will appear acceptable to the police organization. This chapter profiles the organizational forums of police work that govern how police are likely to use their discretion, which includes community pressure on police agencies to act in particular ways to address various problems as they are perceived by influential citizens and citizens who call for police response. The author advises that an analysis of the police use of discretion must inquire into the sense of order derived from each of the organizational forums within which the officer operates and then determine how this sense of order frames what the officer does on the job. 20 notes and 174 references