Officer Discretion and Failure to Discharge Duties under G.S. 14-230

Law enforcement officers can’t cite every jaywalker, stop every speeder, and arrest every underage drinker, nor would most people want them to do so. Wisely exercising discretion is an important part of an officer’s work. At the same time, North Carolina has a statute that makes it a crime for an officer willfully to fail to discharge his or her duties. That statute has occasionally been used to prosecute officers who chose not to enforce criminal laws. This post considers the extent to which the statute constrains an officer’s discretion. Courts have recognized the discretion inherent in law enforcement. Because law enforcement officers have limited time and other resources, they must decide what to prioritize and what to put on the back burner. The Supreme Court of the United States has described the discretionary nature of policing as “deep rooted,” Town of Castle Rock, Colo. v. Gonzales, 545 U.S. 748 (2005), and “common sense,” Chicago v. Morales, 527 U.S. 41 (1999). Most recently, in Texas v. United States, 599 U.S. __, 143 S.Ct. 1964 (2023), it rejected several states’ attempts to challenge immigration arrest and prosecution priority guidelines promulgated by the Biden Administration, noting that “the Executive Branch (i) invariably lacks the resources to arrest and prosecute every violator of every law and (ii) must constantly react and adjust to the ever-shifting public-safety and public-welfare needs of the American people.” (I wrote about that decision here.) A commentator puts it more bluntly: with few exceptions, “police have unfettered discretion not to [...]