Before delving into the recommendations, it is important to get a brief background and understanding of the current situation regarding PMI and police officers in Canada. In some situations, police officers are given only mere seconds to react to a perceived threat. Unfortunately, police officers sometimes have no other options, or no other training, than to use lethal force (3). This is also because there is legislation in the Criminal Code of Canada which permits lethal force (sections 25-30), specifically section 25(1) which states that “everyone who is required or authorized by law to do anything in the administration or enforcement of the law (b) as a peace officer or public safety officer” (4). Section 5 of the Police Services Act: Regulations
The use of force is inevitable in police work. In many situations the lives of officers or civilians can be taken by not using force when necessary or using it improperly. Many factors come into play when an officer decides to use force. This includes is the use of force justified, has the officer been properly trained to use force, and will the department be held liable if the force is used improperly?
The use of force is without a doubt an important aspect in policing. The decision to utilize any type of force comes from a multitude of recourses; department policies, training, situational variables and ethical systems. There are three major categories in which an officers use of force is categorized under; justifiable, excessive and deadly; with a thin line between justifiable and excessive. Cases where excessive force has been used, has lead to injuries, deaths, civil damages, officers convicted and sentenced to jail and police chiefs and elected officials being removed from office (Fyfe, 1988). It is an officer`s discretion in determining when the use of force is justifiable.
As of September 1, 2015, in the United States police officers have killed 776 people and 161 of those people were unarmed at the time of their death (MintPress). There have been too many incidents where police officers have injured or killed someone that could have been prevented. Using maximum force with a suspect has become a routine in many confrontations. Officers have not been given the proper training to deal with individuals and how to handle them without using a weapon. If they were given more training on how to deal with situations resulting in using a weapon to stop an individual during certain scenarios police brutality situations would decrease, lives would be saved, and police would get their good reputation back. However, police departments would have to spend more money on re-training. Some people agree with police brutality and think that a civilian deserved their punishment, which is not right because no one deserves to be beaten or killed. Situations involving police brutality have been increasing throughout the years, which is a problem that must to be solved.
There is a life preservation policy that has been ignored more and more lately. Officers are told to do everything possible to refrain from taking life. Unfortunately, however, some decide to take the easy way out. What many people do not know is that other officers are supposed to stop the use of excessive force. In these instances, the officer who is using too much force needs to be turned in to the supervisor to prevent this from being a constant occurrence. Officers are not allowed to choke or strangle, however, videos show some officers doing far worse than that. Things could be handled in a number of different ways such as talking calmly to the civilian, keeping distance, and trying to refrain from being viewed as a threat ("Police Use of Force Project").
There is much controversy regarding police work and the use of deadly force, as there are great deals of individuals who feel that officers need to be limited and that this would have a positive effect on the rate of divisive police killings. Police authority to use both psychological and physical force in situations where criminals need to be apprehended is perfectly normal. Furthermore, officers have the right to use deadly force in conditions when individuals targeted pose a direct threat to people around them.
Many factors can contribute to this problem the police force is having with police officers abuse of power, one of them being the psychological health of police officers where they aren’t fit to serve and protect the people they sworn to protect. After the shooting of an unarmed woman at Capitol Hill, The National Allegiance on Mental Illness (NAMI) and the Crisis Intervention Training (CIT) started what is to be the most Comprehensive Police Officer mental health program in the country, this 40 hours crisis intervention program is available in 45 states as well as the district of Columbia, excluded are the state of Delaware, West Virginia, Alabama, Arkansas and Rhode Island. Needless to say a few departments are working hard to improve the quality and integrity of their officers to eliminate the raising percentage of officers committing abuse to those who they sworn to protect.
must follow the guidelines of the use-of-force continuum including all aspects of civilian apprehension rules. It should mandate that all officers attend mandatory training before placement within multicultural communities; wear a body camera when in the field; report excessive force incidents using the correct documentation; complete police reports immediately; and assure that follow-up investigations will be handled internal/external resulting in criminal penalties for officer’s who ignore these rules.
For decades, the PPD and the NYPD had been in the spotlight on the use of excessive force against suspects. As such, the two police agencies embarked on a mission to change the situation. Today, recruits to the PPD are taken through training practice which features situations where the use of excessive force is/is not applicable. Additionally, the PPD also drafted policy directive 10 and 22 which not only provide
This can provide benefits in the form of encouragement – tacitly or explicitly – towards professionalism on the part of all police personnel, not just those associated with the PPU. Although the term “police professionalism” has fallen into some disfavor due to its association with a concept of the police as a cold and distant force imposed against crime, the reality is that militarization does serve to increase consistency of behavior across police forces as well as the imposition of expectations of professional behavior (Hall & Coyne, 2013). Additionally, PPUs may serve an important morale-boosting purpose for police forces, setting a high standard for competence and ability and creating a goal to which line officers may aspire (Breede, 2008). Finally, when it comes to civilian law enforcement, it is far more desirable to layer a degree of military training, tactics, and equipment onto a preexisting police mindset than to try to retrain a military mindset for civilian law enforcement work (Breede,
In 2014, the Law Enforcement Officers Memorial website Statistics (November 2014), Retrieved from (http://www. odmp.org) has estimated there have been 106 law enforcement officer deaths. Of those listed there were 43 deaths were from gunfire, 10 from vehicular assaults and 2 from physical assault. Does the community have a relationship with law enforcement? This term paper will review incidents of attacks on law enforcement, efforts of community policing and past incidents leading toward possible future threats on officers. The intent of this paper will discuss the question of are law enforcement safe and are they equipped or prepared for the threats of the present and future? Additionally, this term paper will review the possibilities of officer safety being compromised.
Over the last few months, the Northern Ontario Party has been approached by desperate business owners looking for any kind of assistance with their outrageous hydro bills. One such business owner is Roslyn Taylor who operates Taylor’s sawmill on Manitoulin Island. Roslyn, recently posted on Facebook her hydro bill for the month of July. It was nearly $4000.00 and this was a month where her main saw was down and her company’s production was low. So, you would expect the company’s power bill to be reasonable. But here is what the Taylor’s hydro bill looked like
Rick Parents article “The Police Use of Deadly Force in British Columbia: Mental Illness and Crisis Intervention” (2011) uses reports from corner offices and a few official police reports as well, to conduct his study and write his article.
Firefighters and police get exposed to scarring traumatic experiences and dangerous situations such as facing the possibility of failure in saving everyone in a fire, the distress of stumbling across a corpse, or the horrors of killing someone, intended or not. This brings up the misconception surrounding the shoot-to-kill policy. To start, officers are actually trained to shoot-to-stop or to end the immediate threat. In the United States, deadly force is only granted under the impression they are in danger of significant bodily harm or threat. A common question civilians bring up to condemn this policy is, “why didn’t they shoot to disarm instead?” The reason why is because the concept of shooting to wound is problematic. One reason
The use of force is inevitable in police work. In many situations the lives of o cers or civilians can be taken by not using force when necessary or using it improperly. Many factors come into play when an o cer decides to use force. ese include: is the use of force justi ed, has the o cer been properly trained to use force, and will the department be held liable if the force is used improperly?
Law enforcement officers are given an incredible amount of discretion solely due to the nature of their career. They are faced with potentially life threatening situations, which require an exceptional amount of judgment. Due to these situations, officers are expected to think and act quickly, consciously, and appropriately. It seems that the use of force is a very necessary aspect of policing, however, the amount of force used should be handled with great discretion. Officers who use an excessive amount of force are more than likely to cause a community to become a negative environment.