REGULATING AUTONOMY - POLICE DISCRETION AS A PROBLEM FOR TRAINING

Two recent examples of police training are analyzed as illustrations o f a new approach to the governance or regulation of police through the ir discretion. While previous to the 1960's, training left police disc retion under the purview of the occupational culture and 'common sense ' approaches, subsequently attention has been paid to structuring disc retionary decision-making through training. This training has taken tw o general policy approaches. The first has been to try to require a mo re educated police candidate, and thereby to compel decision-making to wards liberal values. The second has been to use technical training de vices in the aim of blending these values into practical training. The argument is that, by and large, it is a technical training under the auspices of new managerial regulatory agendas which is winning out. Th is technical training tends to celebrate the police officer as a choos er; and is in this way consistent with neo-liberal policy direction. S ome implications of the police officer as a chooser are discussed, and more research into the nature of decision-making under the auspices o f the chooser is called for.