Police discretion is the decision-making authority accorded to the police, which permits them whether to pursue the procedure of the police or just to just to let someone go but with a warning. It is usually used when the police have several options to make one choice that appears necessary depending on the present situation (Groeneveld, 2005) . Nevertheless, the officers are not required always to use discretion. The departmental policies and law at times mitigate or abolish discretion altogether.
Internally, the police discretion can be controlled by the internal or external mechanisms. The internal mechanism concerns the department of police itself whereas the external mechanism concerns the laws and the society in which the officers serve (Groeneveld, 2005) . The police department can assist in controlling discretion of the police by implementing policies and offering better direction over their police officers. To make this possible, the police administrators can give orders and supervision, write the departmental guidelines, as well as offer educational standards and training.
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Externally, discretion can be limited by legislation and the citizens. The laws can be made to curtail and guide the mandate of the actions of the police. Such laws should be implemented by the courts. Moreover, the ordinary people in the community can play a significant role in controlling police discretion (Groeneveld, 2005) . The civilian review boards (CRBs) can be used to offer feedback to the police regarding the behavior and the service of the police. As such, the citizens are in essence and competent external authority in regulating the discretion of the police. They can give more specific guidance to the police and more so, they are in a better position to report the abuse of power or the wrongdoing of the police.
It is in my opinion that discretion is paramount in the enforcement of the law as long as it is controlled and regulated. As such, it should not be eliminated. It can just be limited so that the officers do not have too much ability to abuse the discretionary powers accorded to them.
Reference
Groeneveld, R. (2005). Arrest discretion of police officers . New York: LFB Scholarly Pub.
