The exercise of discretion in traffic- law enforcement.

This paper briefly reviews two previously examined aspects of police discretion; A) discretion as selective enforcement; and B) discretion as an officer's ability to choose between two or more mutually exclusive dispositional alternatives, an alternative to these approaches is then presented, wherein discretion is seen in the legal process as existing at any point where the outcome of a given action by a member of the public is uncertain, and dependent upon the judgement of legal agent. In this approach discretion is defined as the public's perception of variability in police practice.