s the police. If the media decides to publicize an instance of police brutality or harassment the, community may perceive the police as being the "enemy" and the loss of trust in the police department becomes inevitable. When this type of situation occurs, people tend to not call the police out of fear. At the same time, patrol officers become more cautious out of fear of being accused of another wrong action. Proactive patrolling disintegrates which subsequently decreases the number of arrests. All arrests and crime reports are completed at the discretion of the officer receiving or making the complaint. Police discretion plays a major role in crime statistics since there are several occasions when an officer will not make an arrest nor take a complaint. If the officer feels that there is not enough evidence to substantiate making an arrest, he/she might permit the accused party go with just a simple warning. On the flip side, an officer might decide to make several arrests for the same charge during one incident. An example; during a traffic stop, with four citizens in the vehicle, an officer finds a bag of marijuana in the center console of the vehicle. If one citizen claims the possession of the marijuana then the officer can arrest just that citizen. If nobody claims the marijuana then the officer can arrest everyone within the vehicle or just the driver. An officer is usually the complainant on an arrest report. Usually these types of incidents are when an officer makes an arrest for a crime that has occurred in his presence or he somehow has direct knowledge of the incident. While an officer is patrolling a particular area he/she may come across a drug dealer and a purchaser exchanging money and drugs. The officer may not arrest the purchaser because it is more important to get the dealer off the street. Therefore, since the officer bypasses the purchaser to get the dealer, this results in a loss of arrest data. On very rare occa...
