NCJ Number
118607
Date Published
1989
Length
18 pages
Annotation
This paper examines some of the major characteristics of police decisionmaking in relation to features common to legal decisions generally.
Abstract
The paper presents an analytic framework, derived from natural decisionmaking, in which police decisions are viewed in terms of their consequences, their generality, their visibility, and their complexity. Under this framework, the key to understanding police decisions is the use the police make of information. A framework is developed in which various types of information, their use, and their relationship to police policy and action can be understood. There are three types of police decisionmaking: "street" decisionmaking, which is based on primary data; "paper" decisionmaking, which is done by investigators, internal affairs units, and others who deal with secondary or once-processed data in the form of cases; and "administrative" decisions. There are five variables that describe the context within which police decisions are made: the discrete nature of decisions, the nature of the espoused reality, features of the policing job, the audience to which decisions are directed, and the relevance of law as a resource. Most research has focused on "street" decisionmaking. Future research should focus on the full range of police decisionmaking, the persons who make them, and the information upon which they are based. 53 references.