Cite as: 524 U. S. 357 (1998)
Souter, J., dissenting
As against this picture of the police, the Court paints the parole officer as a figure more nearly immune to such competitive zeal. As the Court describes him, the parole officer is interested less in catching a parole violator than in making sure that the parolee continues to go straight, since " 'realistically the failure of the parolee is in a sense a failure for his supervising officer.' " Ante, at 368 (quoting Morrissey v. Brewer, 408 U. S. 471, 485-486 (1972)). This view of the parole officer suffers, however, from its selectiveness. Parole officers wear several hats; while they are indeed the parolees' counselors and social workers, they also "often serve as both prosecutors and law enforcement officials in their relationship with probationers and parolees." N. Cohen & J. Gobert, Law of Probation and Parole § 11.04, p. 533 (1983); see also Minnesota v. Murphy, 465 U. S. 420, 432 (1984) (probation officer "is a peace officer, and as such is allied, to a greater or lesser extent, with his fellow peace officers" (internal quotation marks omitted)); T. Wile, Pennsylvania Law of Probation and Parole § 5.12, p. 88 (1993) (parole officers "act in various capacities, supervisor, social worker, advocate, police officer, investigator and advisor, to the offenders under their supervision"). Indeed, a parole officer's obligation to petition for revocation when a parolee goes bad, see Cohen & Gobert, supra, § 11.04, at 533, is presumably the basis for the legal rule in Pennsylvania that "state parole agents are considered police officers with respect to the offenders under their jurisdiction," Wile, supra, § 5.12, at 89.
Once, in fact, the officer has turned from counselor to adversary, there is every reason to expect at least as much competitive zeal from him as from a regular police officer. See Gagnon v. Scarpelli, 411 U. S. 778, 785 (1973) ("[A]n exclusive focus on the benevolent attitudes of those who administer the probation/parole system when it is working successfully obscures the modification in attitude which is likely to take place once the officer has decided to recommend revocation"). If he fails to respond to his parolee's further crimi-
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