Law or guidance
<p>I was having a conversation with our Chief of Police regarding their obligation to respond to a request for assistance.</p>

<p>If a statute has no corresponding penalty is it considered merely guidance?</p>

<p>theres no general obligation, but if they discriminate between requests, the basis of their discrimination can make that a violation of law. e.g., theres no obligation to investigate every call, but there is an obligation not to refuse to investigate a call on the basis of race.</p>

<p>Police do not have an obligation to attend any particular call or investigate any particular alleged crime. They are entitled to exercise discretion and allocate resources as they see fit. There is plenty of case law on this.</p>

<p>If there are systematic failures then that means they are not doing a good job and they can be censured by their employer- they cannot be sued.</p>

statutes