Legitimacy Risks and the Separation of Police Powers

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter argues that police must exercise their discretion to avoid high legitimacy-risk policing. Police discretion is unavoidable, so a theory of just policing requires involves an account of just police discretion. But in practice, people tend to meet the expectations of their role. Part of what makes policing a moral morass is the lack of clarity over the policing role. The questions unanswered by the criminal code also leave the police role underspecified. This chapter argues for the importance of using rules and defined roles to organize our social lives. Then it makes the case for a separation of executive, police powers. This is in service of developing a framework for understanding the risks to just and legitimate policing. Understanding the various risks and how they interact motivates conceptual and institutional boundaries for police power.