One of the first things you learn as a law enforcement officer is that situations are not black and white, they more often fall into varying shades of gray. In the course of the day you may stop 2 different people for the exact same infraction, but you only give one a ticket and the other gets a verbal warning. Why? Discretion. Say you make a traffic stop for someone who rolled through a stop sign and the person is in tears on their way home from work because they just got the call their dad passed away, Do you write them a ticket? Or do you use your discretion and offer your condolences and make sure they get home safely?
There is the letter of the law and the spirit of the law and a good cop knows the difference - they know how and when to use discretion.
Watch this episode of The Andy Griffith Show and see Deputy Barney Fife follow the letter of the law and then Sheriff Andy follow the spirit of the law as he dismisses cases saying "seeing as...". That's discretion.
http://www.dailymotion.com/video/xxxfdm_andy-griffith-s01e20-andy-saves-barneys-morale_shortfilms
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