Excessive Force

Mary Arnold Michelle Keterson Maureen Mavelle Katie Schmitter

Erik Young

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ibSwITK4jjQ

Use of Force

• Definition:

-There is no one, all

encompassing definition

-Based on a continuum

-The officer may use force that is equal to that used by the suspect

-Different for each police department

Deadly Force

-When and officer uses force that leads to severe physical harm or death of a suspect

-Not necessarily excessive

Excessive Force

-When an officer clearly uses too much force in a situation

-Must be decided whether the officer acted with malicious intent to harm or out of a perceived threat of danger to himself and others.

Prevalence

• Difficult if not impossible– No national databases

–Media interference

Dean v. City of Worcester

• Officers had an active warrant for a man with a history of known violence.

• Officers encountered a man resembling the suspect in an known area for where the suspect might be.

• Police immediately threw him on the ground, face first, and cuffed him.

• Gerard Dean was the wrong man.

Sean Bell

• After leaving a night club, Bell and two other individuals drove down the block and struck an unmarked undercover police van.

• Bell put the car in reverse and struck the van again, missing an undercover police officer.

• Five officers shot over 50 rounds into the car. Over 21 rounds hit the car and killed Sean Bell, severely injuring the other two individuals.

• Sean Bell was to be married the following day to the mother of his two young daughters.

Pro’s of Use of Force

• Gives officer’s an outline to use certain amounts of force for certain situations.

• Keeps officers safe and as well as the offender.

• In court it helps to determine if officers are in the wrong.

Con’s of Use of Force

• There is no universal continuum of force for officers to abide by. – Individual agencies teach different ways of dealing

with certain situations.

• It is very broad and does not account for the adrenalin that an officer might experience during a certain confrontation.

Utilitarianism

• The Greater Good

• -Conduct should benefit the happiness of the greatest number of people, even at the expense of the few.

• -Trolley Example

The Police

-Police officers are responsible for public safety

-In some cases that means using force to stop one person from doing damage to others.

Egoism

-Definition-

Egoism maintains that each man should seek his own good and ignore that of others, except when this would be to his disadvantage.

-Example-

-Loaning money

to a friend.

Explaining Egoism and Excessive Force

1. Knowledge of Interests• Everybody knows what is in our own interests.

• We know other people’s interests, imperfectly.

2. Devaluation of the Individual• One life to live.

• One opportunity to gain happiness.

Egoism and Excessive Force

• Protecting the Self– Results from 1 study looking at use of force.• 30 out of 113 cases resulted in excessive force.

• Situations explained a gun or physical confrontation took place

• Not only protecting the self, but protecting others.– Can compare to loaning money to a friend.

Egoism and Excessive Force cont.

• Police Subculture– Training compared to “tips” from veteran officers.• Training

• Veteran Officers

– Excessive force encouraged/learned• New officers earn “shaky” reputation

– Pressured to use excessive force• Isolated from other officers if they don’t.

Determinism

• Everything is predetermined to happen as it actually does happen. Every event has a cause.

Causation

• Nothing happens that is not caused to happen by some other event, condition, or set of events and/or conditions.

• Every event is connected to the preceding events in such a way that if the first events had not occurred, the second would not have occurred.

4 Casual Factors

• Social ecology

• Demographics

• Officer attitude

• Institution ideals

Social Ecology

• High crime areas • Low crime areas

Demographics

• Drunk, poor, Afro-American male

• Sober, working class Caucasian male

Officer Attitude

• It’s us… • Against them

Institution Ideals

• Saving face & saving money

• Crime control models and military control models

Ways to Prevent Excessive Force: Training

• More effective training– On the job training

– Reality training

– Swat team training

– Feasibility

Ways to PreventExcessive Force: Leadership

• Hold Leaders Accountable

References• Adelman, S. E. (2010, June). Court reaffirms Governing Excessive-Use-of-Force •      Lawsuits. Corrections Today, 72(3). Retrieved from

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• Friedrich, R.J. (1980). Police use of force: Individuals, situations and organizations. As cited in: Harris, C.J., 2009.

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