Jose Munoz

CJ – 1010

Discretion

In my honest opinion I believe that discretion shouldn’t be eliminated as it could lead

states to be more of a police state, and police should exercise it more often than they already do.

I believe it would help the practice of law and public safety, just because someone doesn’t look

like they’re not breaking the law or looking suspicious don’t mean they aren’t planning to do any

harm to someone of damage property. That’s where discretion would play a huge role in public

safety, if police used discretion more often in situations like that innocent people wouldn’t get

hurt of potentially prevent a crime.

As for if discretion assist’s the criminal justice system function more effectively, it

should help it function more effectively but in reality, it doesn’t which it should. As using

discretion would have police make more of a rational decision whether to arrest someone on

petty crimes or not, that way we would have less buildup of incarcerated inmates that are in there

for very minor offenses. Furthermore, with discretion it raises ethical issues about if what the

officer is morally correct or not but as the fact that it can as come with racial issues. That some

people would say is getting worse when officers use their own discretion.