A discussion of the benefits and problems associated with the use of police discretion will be explored in this essay. Which current policing strategies have the most potential to control officer discretion and ensure accountability, and which have the least, and why is this the case? And finally, what impact might these issues have on the various concerns facing law enforcement today? Police behavior is different in all communities. Indeed, the way the police react to fighting crime is influenced by the management style of various police administrators. Furthermore, local politics will have a strong influence on how the police respond to crime. When police respond to a call, they will determine the “costs and benefits” of their response. How they decide to intervene is based on the net gain to the neighborhood, the suspect, and the officer himself (Wilson, 1969). There have been several efforts to understand how the police use discretion in their daily operations. One of the difficulties in understanding police discretion is that when an officer decides not to invoke the law, that decision is often not seen by anyone who would oversee the officer's decision, so that decision is usually not subject to review by no authority. (Wilson, 1969). Police records are usually too incomplete to allow evaluation of non-enforcement decisions (Goldstein, 1960). Full application of the law is not possible for various reasons, a limitation of officers' time and a limitation of investigative means. In some cases, police may choose not to enforce the law to allow a confidential informant to gather information about another suspect. This is an exchange relationship where both parties have the opportunity to thus gain… half the paper… in those areas. The author of this essay agrees with Brown, 1988, when he states that there is a close relationship between the enforcement of minor violations and crime control. Wilson has the most comprehensive way of controlling police discretion by placing it on a grid to help officers make decisions that can be monitored. The grid involved considering the officers' response as a law enforcement response; with these types of interactions police intervention can be strongly influenced by performance measures. (Wilson, 1968) The citizen calls for the maintenance of order, with these calls the officers maintain a high degree of discretion. The police called for maintaining order; the administration also has limited control over the officer. Finally, law enforcement calls invoked by citizens, supervisors can have a big impact on how officers use their discretion.