Police 's Use Of Force Bridging Over A Decade

Police use of deadly force in the United States has been growing at a rapid pace due to several incidents that have taken place over the last few years. The biggest question today remains why has this been such a relevant topic across the U.S. lately? The use of deadly force is specifically important because it directly affects the publics’ attitudes and behaviors towards the police and government. Some will blame police policies, some will blame abuse of power, and some even claim the use of deadly force is necessary to in order to properly defend themselves. The use of deadly force continues to increase due to lack of what the true definition of “use of force” and what actually means. This lack of definition creates

The use of force by law enforcement officers is only neccesåry in situations such as self-defense or in defense of another individual (Hickman, 2016). The use of force has been defined in many different ways by several different people, which could make it difficult to put into a solid definition (Hickman, 2016). According to a majority of police chiefs law enforcement officers should use only the amount of force necessary to handle an incident, make an arrest, or protect themselves or others from harm (Hickman, 2016). Recently, police agencies have also began to use body cameras in order to minimize police brutality and more clearly define the cause, process, and outcome of a situation. Aside from the already low amount of cases of police

Police brutatlity infleucnes its victims, as well as can undermine the group 's trust in it 's police force. Cops are given a extended range of scope in playing out their obligations. Since they are required to ensure society general safety and face conceivably brutal people, they can legitmatley utilize physical, and even fatal constrain in specific situations (Pierce, 1986, p. 52). Notwithstanding, and officer who utilizes extreme force when it is not called for, or important to play out his or her employment, may go too far into police

Police brutality has been and continues to be a major concern in society. Most of these incidents go un-reported or un-noticed. Through research, we seek to identify the causes of police brutality, and what we can possibly do to end it, or in the hopes that it brings awareness. While doing research on police brutality, I have observed countless online journal articles. These articles are written by professional analysts that specialize in investigating specific incidents involving police misconduct. The term police brutality is commonly used very loosely to fit all forms of police misconduct. The excessive force element of police

According to theguardian.com, 634 people have been killed so far in 2015 by police officers or while in custody (theguardian.com, 2015). Years of good policing practices and community trust can be jeopardized by a single act of, or perception of, the excessive use of force (EUF) by police (www.justice.gov, 2015 ). Police deal with difficult people and situations on a daily basis, one of the biggest complaints from citizens is that excessive and sometimes unnecessary force is used by police officers during arrests. In the wake of past claims of police brutality such as Rodney King and more recently publicized victims like Freddy Gray, Eric Garner, and Michael Brown, I will use the functionalist perspective to determine if giving police the liberty to exercise the force they deem necessary per arrest situation is effective or if stricter guidelines for the use of force and training is needed to deal with citizens. I believe most citizens exert some type of resistive behavior when they feel they are being unlawfully arrested. I will investigate separate claims of excessive force use by police against citizens in America. I will also look at other countries’ police brutality complaints to determine if the issue lies mainly in America or if it is a global issue. I will use the inductive research method as well as qualitative research such as present and historical data, past journals, court cases, news publications, and statistical data to conclude my findings.

Police departments have use-of-force policies that specify when force may be used and the proper level of force to be used under given circumstances. Most departments use a continuum-of-force approach that allows proportional force to the suspect’s resistance. The level of force by an officer increases in direct response to escalating resistance of the suspect. Policies such as this one have been put into place following many humiliating acts of excessive force. The policies are in place in an attempt to prevent future acts of excessive force (Pollock, 2010).

The use of non-lethal force is a subject that elicits much debate throughout the United States. There are arguments over what force is, how much should be used to apprehend a suspect (if any) and what types of force should be allowed to be used upon suspects. The ability of police departments to exert control over population of people allows policing to be successful (Dunham & Alpert, 2005). It also aids in helping to legitimize police work (Bittner, 1970). There have also been arguments on whether social conditions contribute to force being used on certain types of suspects and not others.

This isn't always the case with police use of force. On January 1, 2009 Oscar Grant was shot in the back while on the and killed by a police officer. The day of the instant Grant and a few of his friends got into a fight on the train and police were called, he and his friend were detained by law enforcement. As Grant was laying on the floor he was reportedly being uncooperative in an attempt to control Grant, Police officer Johannes Mehserle pulled out his gun believing it was his taser and shot Grant in the back, which resulted in his death.

Whenever a law enforcement officer places an individual under arrest or is involved in a deadly force scenario the officer has used some degree of force. The incidents where an office has to make a split second decision and use physical force to control a situation is known as “Use of Force.” The use of force varies as situations present themselves to the officer and they must decide what level of force is necessary to control the situation. Often the use of force is subject to much debate and not a year goes by without some media coverage of some law enforcement officer accused of using excessive force. In dozens of studies of police use of force there is no single,

The use of excessive force by police officers is a topic that continues to make headlines and a study that needs to be done. Although much research has gone into this topic there still is no consensus on why the use of excessive force occurs. Some studies suggest lack of training and/or problems with organization policy/procedures. Law enforcement officers are authorized to use force when necessary, but when the level of force is excessive, however, the actions of the police come under scrutiny. The resulting effects can include; public outrage, scandal, negative reputation for not only the officer but the law enforcement community, and criminal considerations. Although there’s is no concrete definition of excessive force, police

Police use of force can be described as being the "amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject.”(nij.gov, p.1) The stages

Police officers have a large amount of discretion, as discretion permeates all aspects of police work. However, with a great amount of discretion can lead to unjust and unnecessary use of force. Drawing on a few examples of police and deadly use of force, we look at ways where police are held accountable for their actions on poor judgements they’ve made with use of force. Additionally, limitations on police discretion are noted to combat unjustly use of force. We arguably discuss a different framework for police officers to adopt various techniques and practices on using deadly use of force. This partially includes adopting the use of tasers and body cameras within the agencies. In the end, however, we note that discretion is vital for police

The use of force and discretion used by officers has a large influence within real-world situations. Police discretion, by definition, is the power to make decisions of policy and practice. Public servants, such as police officers, hold the discretion on how to enforce law, when it needs to be enforced, and the use of force needed to enforce it. Police use of force, defined as acts that threaten or inflict physical harm on suspects (Terrill, 2003) has been an important topic of research since it was first argued to be a defining characteristic of policing. “Firearms, batons, and other forms of force (e.g. impact munitions) are likely to cause serious bodily injury or deaths have long been the traditional weapons of choice by police officers to accomplish their objectives (Fredrick, Kaminski, Cooney, & Sevigny 2014).” However, these are the exact situations that have caused groups such as police practitioners, policy makers, various human rights activist, you name it, to raise concerns regarding the serious injuries and fatalities resulting from the use of force.

The authors are: Dr. Anthony J. Pinizzotto, former senior scientist/clinical forensic psychologist for the Behavioral Science Unit of the FBI. Edward F. Davis, retired Detective Lieutenant from the Metropolitan Police Dept. and former criminal investigations instructor with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. Shannon B. Bohrer, retired Maryland State Police Sergeant and firearms instructor for the FBI. Benjamin J. Infanti, graduate of Marymount University specializing in forensic psychology. They used surveys and data to support their idea that the idea of widespread (over) use of force is overstated despite the documented incidents where excessive force has been used. The authors gave 250+ active, sworn officers from all over the United States

In a potentially threatening situation, an officer should quickly think about the situation and come up with a response and apply force, only if necessary. Situational awareness is essential for law enforcement officers, and officers are trained to judge when a crisis requires the use of force to regain control of the given situation. In most cases, time is essential to determine when an officer will choose to use force. A Bureau of Justice Statistics analysis of national data on citizen complaints about the use of force found that in large departments (those with 100 or more sworn officers), the complaint rate for police use of force was 6.6 complaints per 100 sworn officers. Of these complaints, 8 percent had sufficient evidence to take disciplinary action against the officer. NIJ is currently funding a study of the validity and reliability of the BJS data (NIJ