Criminal Justice Professional Discretionary Reasoning

In April 2024, a Fairfax County Police Department officer was put into a hazardous situation regarding a street takeover in Springfield, Virginia. Street takeovers, in which crowds gather in an illegal public assembly to participate in dangerous driving, have been an issue that has arisen in various areas with some regularity. At about 3 a.m., the officer attempted to break up the crowd assembled behind a warehouse in the 8500 block of Electronic Drive (Torres, 2024). The crowd did not disperse; instead, they just cloistered the officer’s cruiser, even climbing on top of it and trying to open the car’s door. It was an evident heightening situation requiring dozens more officers to arrive at the scene to help disperse the dense crowd. According to Chief Kevin Davis, the whole thing could have turned out to be a line-of-duty death if the backup was not given on time.
In this case, this officer’s actions were based on several convolutions of ethics, morals, and police policies. Chapters 6 and 7 of “Ethical Dilemmas and Decisions in Criminal Justice” account for the role of professional discretion in carrying out police functions, especially in high-risk incidents (Pollock, 2013). In that situation, the officer needed to enforce the law and ensure personal and public safety while also applying ethical principles such as justice, fairness, and integrity (Hoggett et al., 2020). The officer was wise enough not to get into a direct exchange but, instead, called for backup—a matter of professional prudence by an officer that prevents more severe escalation and resulting harm.
Morally, the officer was able to protect the community members and enforce the law. This situation also highlights the moral duty of a police officer to control their reaction and exercise the use of force with prudence. The fact that the officer did not raise the force to further levels brings forth the duty in ethics to preserve life and prevent avoidable harm. Police policies for handling such incidents are laid out through a procedure on de-escalation techniques and using the force continuum. The deployment of the civil disturbance unit by the Fairfax County Police Department in response to this incident represents one organization’s commitment to handling such situations more effectively going forward. The goal of this unit is to prevent the situation from happening where only one officer responds at a time to this sort of high-risk scene, as was the case recently. This incident highlights the role of ethical decision-making and adherence to police protocols in ensuring the safety of neighbors and officers alike. It is a reminder of the challenges street/patrol officers face and their professional discretion in navigating them successfully.

References
Hoggett, J., McCartan, K., & O’Sullivan, J. (2020). Risk, discretion, accountability and control: Police perceptions of sex offender risk management policy in England and Wales. Criminology & Criminal Justice, 20(4), 433-450.
Pollock, J. M. (2013). Ethical dilemmas and decisions in criminal justice. Wadsworth Publishing Company.
Torres, M. (2024, April 3). Dashcam video shows crowd in Springfield swarm police car. wusa9.com. https://www.wusa9.com/article/news/local/virginia/new-video-shows-street-takeover-swarming-police-cruiser-fairfax-county/65-66d782f7-1df9-4f24-a35b-3cd6b10bb82d