Decision's made by the police.

[TexasRain104]

I am going to use the new immigration law as an example, but there are probably more.
Do you think it is correct for the Officer to make the decision not to enforce a law due to the fact that he disagrees with it?
And if yes, then where do we stop. Should we allow the Officers to decide not to arrest if the suspect deserved to die (reference to murder)? Should we allow Officers to say “You should have locked your door to your house/car, and then you wouldn’t have been burglarized? That makes it your fault not the suspects…”
I know the courts are there to make the decisions, but I have never known of an illegal immigration court to make a decision on whether or not the person could or should be deported.

 

[boomboom]

There is such a thing as "officer discretion" when deciding to lay a charge or not. If public interest is satisfied with not laying a charge, then the officer may use their discretion on what to do about the offence. If public interest deems a charge should be laid, then a charge should be laid. In the Canadian Criminal Code, every section states a police officer "may" charge for an offence......not must. Public interest is the crux of the issue.

It doesn't come down to whether the officer agrees with the law, it's about public interest.

 

[TexasRain104]

Texas says "may" and "shall". Shall is used in reference to... like if a Judge ordered it so.

 

[boomboom]

Same as up North here.

 

[oldsoldier]

If officer discretion is removed from the mix our court system would be completely locked up with BS charges. Come on now, its great for discussion but just not possible. If I wanted I could find a reason to charge just about anyone because there are so many situations that could be easily construed to be a violation of the letter of the law. That is why we need officers with sound judgment and good people skills on the street to enforce the spirit of the law.

It goes without saying that there are some offenses where officer discretion is NOT warranted

 

[boomboom]

That is why we need officers with sound judgment and good people skills on the street to enforce the spirit of the law.

+1