Every officer in every police force hears many voices telling him or her what to do, and he or she must determine which of these voices to pay attention to and which to set aside as less important.
Every officer has some discretion, more in some countries than in others.
The patterns of policing that can be described for any country is always the sum total of all actions done by all police officers. Hence, it is important to examine how each officer makes decisions. To know what really happens, one has to observe the police in action. The factors which put pressure on any officer can be listed and described and their relationships linked. This is done in Figure 16.1 on the next page.