A majority of police decisions are discretionary in nature (i.e. to arrest, not to arrest or simply ticket). In examining discretionary decision making, we can gain a lot of good information from local news. The key to this is being an informed consumer as many times news stories are constantly developing as information is released and sometimes the reader does not get the full story in one article. The first paper is an examination of an issue from the news (recent news reporting) whereby the police acted in a manner outside of the norm. The actions may be positive actions like a heroic act or actions outside the standard where the conduct was aberrant. Using a critical thinking process, the student will examine what the cause of the police action is and explain what went wrong or right in a systematic approach. The paper will examine the issue and seek to recognize what factors affect the police.
