Police discretion is a judgmental skill

Understanding the factors leading a Safety Culture of Zero Harm has been a recurring topic of discussion and research for many decades. Pivotal to understanding a Safety Culture is to understand what the people in the work environment think about safety and how they do safety. For so long focus has always been on the doing part, which is the behaviour related to safety. The missing element is to scrutinise the ‘thinking' which are core to the belief systems of people. Safe behaviour or at-risk behaviour can only be changed when these core beliefs This study aims to investigate the factors that influence the giving of discretion by police officers in the field in providing services to the public or when carrying out their functions and duties and responsibilities. Discretion is a phenomenon like Noumena. As a phenomenon, the empirical context of Discretion can be detected by the human senses. As a noumena, Discretion is in the context of the inner intentions and emotional conflicts of the discretion maker. Discretion is found in almost all aspects of human life, even doing an action or not doing an action can be categorized as Discretion. This Literature Study uses descriptive qualitative methods with results ; (1). Discretion tends to damage the normal structure of solving a problem, (2). Discretion is a method (mission) to make a balance between existing situations and conditions (reality) with expected situations and conditions (vision). (3). Discretionary actions relate to the interests of many parties, (4). Discretion must be carried out by the right person, in the right place, and at the right time.