Criminal justice system: who lets them in?

[Ken K]

Many years ago at my academy they stressed that we as officers had nothing much to do with the system. We simply wrote the charge, and then it was out of our hands.

I disagreed. If I write you a warning you are not in the "system." If I write the citation you are, whether you plead or contest.

I felt officers decided this input into the courts at the street level.

Anyone know if they are talking this way today?