Editorial:An arrest made by a Midville police officer is provisional until the officer has taken the suspect to the police station and the watch commander has officially approved the arrest. Such approval is denied if the commander judges that the evidence on which the provisional arrest is based is insufficient. A government efficiency expert has found that almost all provisional arrests meet standards for adequacy of evidence that watch commanders enforce. The expert therefore recommends that the watch commander's approval should no longer be required since the officers' time spent obtaining approval is largely wasted. This recommendation should be rejected as dangerous, however, since there is no assurance that the watch commanders' standards will continue to be observed once approval is no longer required.
In the editorial, the two portions in boldface play which of the following roles?