When a person begins his journey home from work, he must decide which route he will take. If they take the highway, there is a chance they will get there sooner because they are able to drive at a higher speed. However, if the highway is congested, it will take longer to reach your destination. Therefore, they evaluate the possibility of taking an alternative route that allows them to arrive at their destination sooner. To decide which path they wanted to take, they had to use their discretion. When a person exercises discretion, he or she selects a choice from a variety of options. We use discretion all the time in our daily lives, often without even realizing it. Perhaps we are so oblivious to how we use discretion because most of the time there are little to no consequences. The police, however, exercise a wide margin of discretion which can lead to disastrous consequences if the wrong decision is made. During a typical tour, an officer will use discretion in many circumstances, such as interrogations, arrests, use of physical and/or deadly force, investigating a crime, or filing a crime report. Discretion varies from officer to officer due to each unique circumstance. Therefore, there are several important factors that influence when and how an official may use his or her discretion. For example, the severity of a crime affects the discretion an officer can use. They have less discretion with a suspect in a homicide investigation than they have with a person pulled over for ignoring a traffic sign. Relationships between the police and the victim or criminal also influence officer discretion. The police are more likely to be lenient with their discretion towards a person who I... middle of paper... t. The next steps consist of a physical agility test, psychological evaluation, drug test, polygraph exam, and personal interview or series of interviews. A person who believes what he sees in action movies or crime television shows may have the false impression that police officers are involved in scandalous corruption cases or are involved in daily gunfights and high-speed vehicle chases which lead an officer to chase the suspect across the rooftops of soaring skyscrapers. Indeed, police officers spend some of their time in a crime-fighting role. However, the amount of time they spend fighting crime is only a small percentage compared to the amount of time they dedicate to social service functions and carrying out administrative tasks. According to research and academic studies, the police spend most of their time maintaining order and providing services.