Why Do Police Use Excessive Force?

There is no question that police brutality, when it occurs, is one of the most egregious violations of public trust that a public servant can commit. Police officers, those individuals taxed with protecting the public from danger, should never be in a situation where they pose a threat to the public. Furthermore, there is no question that police brutality occurs. Moreover, generally when there are allegations of police brutality, there has been some type of underlying violent incident. In addition, while issues of brutality may seem clear-cut to a disinterested observer, it is critical to keep in mind that law enforcement officers are not presented with textbook examples of the appropriate or inappropriate use of force, but real-life scenarios involving quick decisions. There are many arrest and non-arrest scenarios where officers need to use force to protect self or others; and the degree of force required may be greater than what a disinterested observer would assume. Another recurrent issue in debates about police brutality is that racial bias appears to be a motive behind police brutality. When one considers that minorities are disproportionately likely to be arrested and convicted of crimes, one would expect to find a disproportionate number of minorities among those alleging police brutality. Therefore, while acknowledging that police brutality, when it occurs, is a serious problem, the reality is that most

Encyclopedia of Violence, Peace, & Conflict defines police brutality as the use of excessive or unnecessary force by police against the public. Excessive force is explained to be any behavior or force beyond what is reasonably necessary in order to control a situation. It is a common misnomer that people believe some police use excessive force more often than not. What’s more concerning is most of the time people believe that this excessive force is usually focused upon the African American men, women, and children. This misnomer is typically found to be found in city settings where the population consists of mostly African Americans. The population make up causes the common belief to seem more true than it may otherwise appear.

Police work is dangerous. Sometimes police put in situations that excessive force is needed, but, because some officers use these extreme measures in situations when it is not required to use excessive force. The use of excessive force it should be looked into by the system in the misuse of power among officers. Most police officers throughout the ranks of the U.S. police departments are just seeking more authority/recognition among the population or the district his/he is working. The U.S. law enforcement that misuse their authority would get away with it in the past it would only be he or she said. Since the invention of cameras more of the excessive force used by police officers use gets caught in a circle around due to the social network. Law enforcement agents need to wear cameras with their uniforms and a penalty for any tampering with cameras view or shutting down the cameras with a 20 year sentence.

The research problem in Black and Hispanic Men Perceived to Be Large Are at Increased Risk for Police Frisk, Search, and Force, is one in which the bigger or larger the defendants are at risk for experiencing police force mistreatment of racial profiling, with the black and Hispanic men being more likely to experience excessive force than Caucasian men across the same dimensions (Milner, George, & Allison, 2016, p. 1). The particular design of this study was a is a quasi-experimental design, the data-gathering strategy of this study was simple and straightforward; 3 million cases from the New York Police Department (NYPD) Stop, Question, and Frisk (SQF) Database, from the following years, 2006–2013 (Milner et al., 2016, p. 1).

Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. (Gregory Umbach) There is a very thin line as to what is acceptable and excessive use of force for police officers. Many police departments try their best to outline what is appropriate use of force to weed out these unacceptable practices. However, some evidence and scenarios point to race being a possible factor in police brutality. There exist two sides to this argument on the bias of race in police brutality. One side believes that race does play a role in the polices overuse of force, while the other side disagrees and states that other circumstances lead to the propensity of most police abused victims to be of the minority ethnic group. In this literature review, sources that directly relate race with police brutality and their excessive use of force shall be analyzed along with sources that state the opposite and find the police brutality coincidental to the race of the victim or officer. It is in my opinion that race clearly does lead to the increase in police brutality, as the police put themselves in confrontations more often with the minority groups, through the use of racial profiling in terms of stop and frisks.

The media coverage of excessive force has caused outrage among citizens across the nation. The cases in Ferguson and New York have stirred up major debates about excessive police force and the meaning of justice for all within our judicial system. Protests and riots have ensued in cities across the nation and the cases are affecting us all, whether it is protesters blocking major highways during rush hour, or citizens burning down local businesses out of anger and frustration. The issue of excessive force needs to be addressed and the main question people want answered is, what causes police to use excessive force? Research has been conducted on variables such as the race of police

This paper will differentiate between reasonable force and excessive force. I will describe when excessive force turns into police brutality and how the police culture can influence police brutality. I will discuss some of the many negative repercussions that excessive force / police brutality have on the law enforcement officers, agency, city, community and profession.

Officers are trained to use certain measures to prevent an incident from escalating to brutal or deadly force and due to the environment of most minority communities, officers frequently have to resort to use-of-force. In a study by the Center for Policing Equity, which took three years to conduct, reviewed 19,000 cases of use-of-force by officers representing 11 cities between 2010 and 2015. They found that officers only employ use-of-force in 2 percent of all the police-citizen interactions, however African Americans were subjected to use-of-force 3 times the number of Caucasians, showing a disproportionality high difference (Williams, 2016). When interviewing police officer James, I asked, “When you have to pull your gun on a subject, what race is the individual, most

Numerous efforts have been made by members of the law enforcement community to ameliorate these situations. Surveys in recent years with minority groups suggest that confidence in law enforcement is relatively low. Allegations of the use of excessive force by the United States police department continue to generate headlines. Large portions of minority groups believe police officers are likely to use excessive force on suspects.

One criminal justice agency problem that I am familiar with is the idea of using excessive force. Within the last year or two, social media has been filled with stories ranging from Eric Garner to Michael Brown and Freddie Gray. All the cases have the following accusation in common: excessive force against a law abiding citizen. No matter which news channel the average individual turns into, they will see and hear an unfortunate circumstance unfolding. Unfortunately, when a situation like this unfolds, anger lifts and people begin to protests which end up in riots in the long run. The reason why excessive force exists is the simple fact that every police officer is authorized to use force when it’s applicable, especially if the situation

Police-related excessive force violations resulting in death continues to haunt black and low-income communities nationwide. So what exactly is excessive use of force? And what is the definition of excessive force? The National Institute of Justice stated that there is no single, universally agreed-upon definition of the use of force. ABC News reported that there’s no concrete definition of excessive force and that excessive force is a slippery metaphor” experts say it’s any force beyond what’s necessary to arrest a suspect and keep police and bystanders safe. USA Today reported that nearly two times a week in the United States, a white police officer killed a black person during a seven year period ending in 2012 according to the FBI’s

Police brutality stems from the biased injustice the American police force provides their communities with. According to Gregory Fritz Umbach, “Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose (Umbach 386).” This unreasonable force can be related to the biased views of many police officers in the form of racial profiling and can lead to the harm, and in some case, the unnecessary murder of citizens. Although there are many cases in which racial prejudice has no impact on the police encounter, there are some cases that racial prejudice and police interactions are very closely interrelated.

After reading the article, I believe each incident discussed, in the article, did require law enforcement. However, not all the incidents warranted excessive force, to shoot an unarmed or a mentally ill suspect not exhibiting a threat to the police or public. Contrary to popular belief, not all police officers’ break the rules or violate his/her oath of office. The public and society loves to be the judge and jury in cases involving police shooting and excessive force. Even when police officers follow the rules and the use of excessive force is justified, the public still places the blame on the police. We as a society have closed eyes and ears when justification is upheld in the court of law. I believe some communities enjoy convicting law

The public impression of police use of force, as brutality, in modern day policing continues to be a sensitive issue for law enforcement agencies across the nation. Police agencies across the United States deal with accusations of misuse of force on

The amount of force from a police officer is justified depending on the situation. An officer is permitted to use physical force if he reasonably believes it is necessary to make an arrest, prevent a person’s escape from custody, or defend himself from the use of physical force by another. In addition, they can use deadly physical force under certain circumstances. If the officer reasonably believes force is necessary to defend himself from the threat of death or severe injury to a third party or an officer, they are allowed to use deadly physical force. Furthermore, it can be used if the officer reasonably believes the suspect committed a felony, tried to escape from custody, and is an immediate danger to society. Though, the police can be