Managing Use of Force

Managing a Use of Force Incident

Part 1 of 3

Basics

By Dr. Matthew J. Stiehm

Introduction:

 Law enforcement officers are trusted with great authority and responsibility. That trust can be found in the roots of social contract theory with Thomas Hobbes, and John Locke. The essence of the theory is individuals in society give up something for the betterment of society. 

Law enforcement officers can both positively and negatively impact people’s lives’. But understanding the law is only part of helping our law enforcement officers who use force. As it is understood the application of force is used in situations that are both fluid and dynamic situations. 

As noted in a 2001 Department of Justice Publication (2001, pg. 3), law enforcement officers must exercise care, and control of individuals who are violent, assaultive, and resisting to make an arrest, protect lives of the innocent, or those of other law enforcement officers. Law enforcement officers should only use force that is “reasonable” to end the incident while protecting, and safe guarding the rights, and interests of society. 

Reasonableness of force as noted by retired LAPD Captain Greg Meyer-

 The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judge from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene rather than with 20/20 vision of hindsight.  Not every push or shove, even it if may later seem unnecessary in the peace of a judge’s chambers, violates the Fourth Amendment. The calculus of reasonableness must embody on allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make a split second judgment’s-in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation. 

Chiefs of police must understand that no federal court, has ever dictated that specific, holds, techniques, or maneuvers are implicitly illegal or that they must not be used by law enforcement officers within their “lawful” duties. The application of force by an officer might be controlled by the type of resistance that they face, or weapons and tactics employed by the suspects. The courts have held that officers must have “ample reason to believe that a suspect is in possession of a weapon without seeing it, based on furtive movements, on personal knowledge you might have about him” or information from another source. The officer will be judged on what they reasonably perceived at the time force was used (Plitt, 2008, pg.3-4).

 Force Incidents  

Use of force can occur within moments of starting a shift, at the end of a shift, or anytime in between. Police chiefs and supervisors have been trained to deal with use of force incidents from an administrative perspective in the aftermath of an application of force. The process usually consists of conducting on scene investigations, including witness statements, victim statements, photographing of the scene, and writing a detailed report. Ideally this all done while not to violating the Peace Officer Bill of Rights, Unions, other collective bargaining agreements, the United State Supreme Court case Garrity v. New Jersey and or procedural rights.  

Management of a force incident really starts a long time before the application of force occurs. A use of force incident can cause problems for the department, and the officers involved respective reputations, your ability to function as a police chief (realistically and politically), your officer’s ability to function effective and safe professional. The management of an incident starts with recruitment, hiring, training, management, and community involvement. 

Recruitment and Hiring  

Management of the use of force starts with “right” candidate. This means conducting a effective recruitment of police officers, not short changing the process to get officers that are anything less the then best. This also means conducting thorough and comprehensive background investigations into your candidates to see if there are any “red” flags. 

Training

Officer recruit candidates generally go through some basic academy. But the missing training component is the actual application of force in an uncontrolled environment. It is very likely that force is not completely understood and appreciated until the first time that a recruit officer uses force in the field.    The recruit training, is a great base, but there needs to be continuous training. Use of force needs to be regularly trained, but what does that really mean.

Any inconsistencies that occur generally appear after officers are hired as every department has different training standards, tactics, and interpretations of state and federal law. Couple this with newest technique or tools, coming out in the use of force world How many force instructors go to the “latest and greatest” training sessions and as a result of that training, things are updated to encompass the newest technique.  

It is of vital importance for officers to be trained so they can understand the law, and how to define when and why they used force. The courts have allowed a variety of techniques, and tactics to be used as long their use is objectively reasonable, however the totality of circumstances must be considered at the time force was used. 

Finally, the component that is often lacking is the adequate documentation of the use of force. Departments should create or adopt specific report forms, that will provide for the collection and enumeration of more narrative information about incidents, and less over-simplified check marks. Supervisors and officers should write a detailed use of force incident report. Officers should be trained to use their department’s policy (which should reflect the guidelines enumerated in Graham v. Connor) as a guide when framing their reports.  There is of course Kingsley, Pinehurst and Sheehan, as well as what is coming out tomorrow. 

Management and Community Involvement 

Management should work with the community to help citizens understand why police officers use force, what the general guidelines are for using force. Media today portrays law enforcement in a negative fashion. The public gets a distorted impression of law enforcement from shows like NCIS, Justified, CSI, and NYPD Blue. While entertaining, these shows do not portray law enforcement accurately. Managers and supervisors need to be out in the community, providing reviews, training sessions, education, and other public out-reach, stressing the positive aspects of their department. With effective community involvement, when the inevitable happens, the reputation of the department is less likely to suffer. 

Management also needs to understand that officers are sometimes victims (depending on the use of force/situation), and they need proper coaching, training, and consideration, in order to recover and return to their assignments. Just because an officer did something that another officer might not have, does not mean that they violated law or policy. The reasonableness standard set forth in Graham protects officers. When conducting an agency review of a use of force incident, department investigators should keep this in mind, and develop their report using the Graham decision as an outline. Officers need to be allowed to completely describe what they did, and why.  Agencies should keep up on trends, tactics, and changes in the law, so that their officers are adequately trained. 

Conclusion  

It is imperative that police executives understand the nuances to use of force so they can protect their department and their officers. Managing use of force incident starts years before any use of force, with foundational work by the department. The chief executive must direct training officers to keep up on current trends. There are a variety of ways to keep current on trends that do not cost a lot of money, but the money that is spent can save thousands of dollars, and can lead to the development of a safer and more effective department.  

References

Champion, D. (1997). The Roxbury dictionary of criminal justice key terms and major course cases. Los Angeles, CA: Roxbury.  

Bryan v. McPherson- https://cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov/datastore/opinions/2009/12/28/08-55622.pdf 

Department of Justice Report- https://www.aele.org/integrity.pdf 

Plitt, E, (n.d.) Test your “Excessive Force” IQ https://www.aele.org/ss-newsline_plitt.pdf