Use of Force

Introduction

It today’s society, especially recently, police use of force has been the target of many media outlets and social networking topics. Because of the recent scrutiny of police officers many people forget why use of force is important and what role it plays in policing our cities and states. So let’s begin by clearly examining what exactly use of force by police is.

Without a doubt being a police officer is a dangerous job. They are the people that are required to face the most dangerous of criminals and subdue them if necessary. Police use of force is defined as "The amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject" (COPS, 2015). Often times police agencies further this with a use of force continuum or rules of engagement.

An example of a use of force continuum that is provided by the National Institute of Justice (2009) starts with officers presence where no force is used, if unsuccessful police would move to verbalization where the officers give verbal command such as stop. If the offender is still not being compliant the officer will move to the next step in the continuum, empty hand control, where officers use bodily force to attempt to gain control and compel compliance. If the suspect is still not under control the officers will use non-lethal force such as blunt impact, Taser, pepper spray, etc. The last step to the use of force continuum is lethal force where officers would use lethal weapons to gain control. However, this method should only be used when an imminent threat is imposed, for example if the suspect reviled a pistol stashed in his waistband and attempted to harm the officers or another individual with it. It is also important to note that the steps in the use of force continuum may happen quickly or need to be skipped all together. Take for example a man is several yards away from an officer and is not responding to the officer’s presence or verbal command and suddenly points a concealed weapon at the officer. The officer may need to skip the empty hand control and the non-lethal steps and continue with lethal force.

Pros & Cons

        People have been obsessed with police use of force by discussing its importance, or lack of, and validity when handling offenders. Some agree with the use of force policy and some do not. So let’s discuss the pros and cons of police use of force.

Pros

        Probably the most important benefit of police use of force, and most obvious, is that it enables the police to do their job and use force to stop an offender when needed. Without it how would police be able to stop criminals that decide to run or fight the police, essentially without letting officers use force it would enable criminals to be criminals.

        Other than the obvious benefit of use of force stated above there are many more pros, such as how use of force gives officers an outline to use certain amounts of force for certain situations. For example officers are trained to only use the force necessary to make an offender comply. Contrary to what some may believe police officers cannot pull out their service pistol and use it whenever they want, there are only certain circumstances where this is applicable (Marcou, 2013). With the use of force many police departments regulate how much force can be used in certain situations, these are typically referred to as continuums or rules of engagement. They typically start with a lower force such as vocal commands and work toward hands on approaches and eventually end with deadly force (National Institute of Justice, 2009)