Police Officers and Public Safety Discussion
Police officers as law enforcement officials are authorized to preserve public safety, uphold the law and keep social order. Their main aim is to eliminate public disorders and crimes using legal means and demonstrating good reasoning and decision making abilities.
For offenders, the criminal justice process starts with being detained by a police officer. The latter decides on the further course of actions to apply: whether to arrest, warn, or even ignore an especially minor act. If an officer decides that some kind of restriction order has to take place, he or she is henceforth in a position to report a crime and start gathering evidence. Thus, the initial decision of police officers on the possible course of actions to follow, influences the criminal justice process including work of courts, decisions of judges, and operation of jails. For police officers initiate the beginning of the criminal justice process for the offenders, they are often called “the gatekeepers to the criminal justice system.”
Every separate case is a great responsibility for a cop, as his or her decision will greatly affect a life of an individual. The decision-making process should be based not only on legality, but on morality as well. There is a clear distinction between what officers can do and what they will actually do, deriving from their professional ethics and moral obligations. However, the behavior of an individual is a key factor that influences cop’s decisions. Two similar cases, can end up differently for two offenders if the first one apologizes and another misbehaves. They also can decide to charge an individual with a police fine or find community resolutions. Unlike cases where the crime is obvious, for minor offenders, the right to explain the situation and demonstrate the awareness of their wrongdoings is a deciding factor for a police officer to proceed with the …
