12-year-old tased by police officer

[DrPhil]

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

True. Their training does give them a guide for follow for different situations. But, they actually don't know how the situation will "go down" until they arrive at the scene and assess what is happening. That is what I mean by they have to do what "works in the moment".

The bolded is obvious. Law enforcement training and procedures are a foundation and not all foundations operate with 100% certainty. Law enforcement officers are not trained in how to deal with every potential circumstance. For instance, there are jurisdictions that still do not provide training for dealing with people who are suicidal and people who have mental health conditions and learning disabilities.

The point is that law enforcement officers cannot overlook training, procedure, and do whatever their mind tells them to do solely based on what might work in the moment.

Originally Posted by sigmadiva

Don't we all like it when we get stopped by a cop for a traffic violation, and he or she lets us off with a warning instead of getting a ticket?

By what you are saying, based on the training of the cop, he /she has every right to give us a ticket. Its the law, its his / her job. But, after talking to us, and realizing that we meant no "harm", he / she lets us go. The cop made a judgment in that moment.

You are all over the place but here goes....

Police officers in many jurisdictions are given discretion to determine whether to pull someone over for a traffic violation and whether to administer a ticket or simply a warning. Their training and procedures in many jurisdictions tell the officers about this discretion and also when such discretion can be overriden by legal factors (i.e., warrants, reckless driving, drug possession, etc.) and extralegal factors (i.e., physical or mental disparities that can make driving harmful).

In contrast, many Highway Patrol officers state "we give tickets, not warnings" which means in some jurisdictions they were trained (and their policies and procedures dictate) to give traffic tickets 100% of the time that they pull someone over, particularly because many Highway Patrol officers only pull people over for reckless driving (i.e., 10+ above speed limit, being on the phone when driving, etc.). Therefore the discretion would come in whether to pull the person over in the first place rather than whether the person will get a ticket.