Читать книгу Police in America - Steven G. Brandl - Страница 135

Police enforcement of the law is one reason why the police are controversial. In enforcing the law, the police use discretion. In other words, within limits, police officers can use their own judgment in deciding the right course of action. They can decide what laws to enforce, when to enforce them, and against whom they should be enforced. These decisions can affect citizens in dramatic and negative ways. Sometimes the law enforcement decisions of officers can look more like discrimination than objective discretion. Police body-worn cameras are commonly used to make officers’ decisions more visible and therefore possibly less controversial. However, with the use of body-cameras comes other controversies, such as instances when officers do not activate the cameras or when body-camera video is not released in a timely manner.⁴ Indeed, it appears that in spite of attempts to reduce it, controversy is always present in law enforcement.

Photo 4.1 Laws are words on paper until police officers decide to enforce them.

©iStockphoto.com/kali9

Another controversial aspect of law enforcement is that sometimes when the police enforce the law, they have to take sides. They have to identify who is right and who is wrong and who is good and who is bad. In this sense, they are making moral judgments. As sociologist Egon Bittner put it, “Police work can … accomplish something for somebody only by proceeding against someone else.”⁵ There is no way around this issue. As a result, someone is always going to be unhappy with the actions taken by the police. This also makes the police controversial.