Use of Force

• Legitimate: The minimum amount of force needed to control a situation.

• Conducted Energy Devices: These are devices that produce a shock that temporarily stops muscle function and inflicts pain.

The Force Continuum

• Force Continuum: This is a guide that officers can use to determine the level of reaction and force they need to use.

• Level of Threat and Force Necessary

  • Complaint (Level I): Communication or verbal commands

  • Passive Resistance (Level II): Low-level physical tactics

  • Active Resistance (Level III): Use of come-along holds, chemical sprays, or pressure points.

  • Assaultive with the potential for bodily harm (Level IV): Defensive tactics such as using a baton

  • Assaultive with the potential for serious bodily harm or death (Level V): Deadly Force

• Less-Than-Lethal Force: When an officer uses their baton or hands to defend.

• Lethal Force: These require “absolute and immediate tactics” this means an officer has to use their firearm.

Objective Reasonableness: Graham v. Connor

• Graham v. Connor: The court decided that the actions have to match what a reasonable officer would do during the crime without knowing what the future would hold. It also decided that any cases relating to the excessive use of force by a police officer would be analyzed under the fourth amendment.

• Objective Reasonableness: Based on the totality of the circumstances the decisions made about the amount of force used had to be the same amount of force a reasonable officer in the same position would use.

Excessive Force: The Road to Brutality

• Excessive Force: When officers use more than the required/legitimate force.

• Brutality: When officers express a malicious intent to harm.

• Us versus them attitude: An attitude that separates officers and the community and that can decrease productivity between them both.

Deadly Force

• Deadly Force: Using force that may result in death or serious injury.

The Fleeing-Felon Rule

• Fleeing Felon Rule: If a felon is seen fleeing the scene of their crime then an officer is allowed to shoot them. This rule was invalidated later in 1985.

• Officers can use deadly force when…

  • An individual has committed a felony and is still using deadly force or threatening to.

  • Officer believes that the individual will cause serious injury to the officer arresting them.

  • When preventing a prisoner from escaping prison.

  • Sufficient warnings were given but the riot failed to stop.

High-Speed Pursuits as Deadly Force:

• Pursuits: When an officer tries to stop a suspect but the suspect flees resulting in a chase.

• County of Sacramento v. Lewis: The court decided that high-speed pursuits are legal and do not violate the due process clause of the fourth amendment as long as it does not end in death.

• Scott v. Harris: The court ruled that an officer can hit the car or shoot at the fleeing individual during a high-speed pursuit if they put other innocent bystanders at risk.

Corruption

• Police Corruption: This is the misuse of an officer’s authority.

• Grass Eaters: Officers who accept gifts/favors but do not seek out such activities.

• Meat Eaters: People who demand bribes in exchange for protection from a person whom they are seeking a favor,

Investigate Commissions: From Wickersham to Christopher

• Commission: A group of individuals that investigate misconduct.

• The 3 Commission Themes:

  • Improve recruitment and training

  • Improve relationships between the police and the community

  • Improve the police complaint system

• The first commission to analyze police conduct was Wickersham Commission in the 1930s

Commissions

• Third Degrees: A technique used in the 1900s that allowed officers to inflict pain on suspects to get a confession.

• The Wickersham Commission (1931)

  • Precipitating Incident: Prohibition, increasing crime rate, need to reevaluate juvenile justice and adult justice process.

  • Underlying Problem: Increasing crime rates but more specifically organized crime and agents need to be reevaluated

  • Recommendations: Establish a complaints system and bring awareness to problems between the police and minority communities.

• The Kerner Commission (1965)

  • Precipitating Incident: Riots of the 1960s and minority communities complaining about officers abusing their power.

  • Underlying Problem: Police misconduct, lack of accountability, and no oversight of police procedures.

  • Recommendations: Better recruitment and training standards, accountability to the community, and establishing mechanics for registering complaints.

Models of Civilian Oversight

• Internal affairs bureaus (IABs): This is where citizens can register complaints.

• Exonerated: When the complaint was not proven true.

• Democratic Accountability: Accountability to the community, over a group of individuals with the power to use coercive force.

• Hierarchical Accountability: Accountability to those structurally higher within the department.

• Procedural Justice: People are more likely to accept the outcome as fair if they believe the trial and procedures taken to get there were fair

• Ombudsman: This person reviews all complaints against public servants.

• Substantiated Complaints: These are complaints against officers that turned out to be true.

• Early Warning System (EWS): This allows the department to keep track of all complaints against officers, the outcome of the complaints, and repetitive behavior patterns that are potentially problematic.

• Mediation: A program that encourages settlements outside the traditional enforcement process