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Criminal Justice Student’s Name Institutional Affiliation Date Police Discretion Dilemma Police discretion is the decision-making authority given to the police officers that permissions them to pursue a police procedure or make and independent decision regarding a particular situation (LaFrance, 2011).The primary responsibility of law enforcement agencies is to protect the citizens. However, in the daily routine of law enforcement activities, the police officers encounter tough situations that endanger their lives and find it difficult to undertake a wise decision. Some situations occur abruptly, and there is usually not enough time to assess them and make a precise action. In such cases, the police officers might not execute the right action and prompt the use of excessive or unnecessary force to deal with the situation. This may pose ethical dilemmas surrounding their profession and raise controversies about the degree of force that police officers should apply while on duty. This paper analyzes the dilemma surrounding police discretion theory and provides possible solutions to the dilemma. According to Nowacki, discretion refers to decisions made by legal authorities rather than those made for illegal purposes. Also, discretion provides the right for decision making to lawfully authorized individuals within and institution to make decisions that are acceptable to others in the profession (Nowacki, 2015). This definition attempts to elaborate the existing dilemma regarding police discretion because it rules out decisions that are outside the legal understanding to be termed as discretion. In this sense, a police officer’s subjectivity to a particular
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