Discretion is used at all levels of the criminal justice system. The police, lawyers, courts, individuals, and corrections all have instances such as deciding minor differences in matters such as a routine pull over for the police, whether to take a case or not for lawyers, whether to break the law or not for citizens, and for judges how long of a sentence should be handed down. Discretion being defined as the ability or power to decide responsibly or the freedom to act or judge on ones own, in this instance still according to the law and regardless of ones own prejudices. Police are the largest and most visible segment of the criminal justice system. Many decisions a policeman or women make is at his or her own discretion. Police have a wide range of discretion in their multiple daily duties. Discretion can be seen when an officer decides whether to pull a car over, question some people walking, write a ticket or make an arrest. Just like human beings have prejudices, police prejudices are expressed through discretion, sometimes even subconsciously. For example if a police officer is assaulted by a specific minority member due to a lack of their own awareness of the situation, that police officer will remember this minority group not because they were breed to be bad, but rather because they have had a negative past experience with them leaving a bad taste in the officers mouth. All people have their own opinions of police whether good or bad and that is at their own discretion from past experiences or the lack of understanding. Discretion is not necessarily a bad thing whether talking about everyday people or police but it can become an issue when police fail to do their job and don't presume innocence before guilt, meaning that by automatically assuming guilt before innocence a police officer is using negative discretion and in fact could end up leading to a tort case against the state.
