This book will examine the decisions of the United States Supreme Court and the lower federal appellate courts which pertain to the use of force and deadly force by federal, state and local law enforcement officers. This examination will include a review an analysis of the constitutional standards created by the Supreme Court regarding police us of force and deadly force. Lower federal appellate decisions which have interpreted and applied these standards will also be reviewed. All of these cases are directly relevant to state and local police officers. In each case, state or local officers were the defendants. The new United States Department of Justice (DoJ) police regarding the use of deadly force by law enforcement officers working for the DoJ component agencies will also be discussed and analyzed. A practical analysis of the "objectively reasonable" police officer will also be undertaken. The focus of this objective reasonableness analysis will be upon officer survival in deadly confrontations.

The law - A brief survey of history & procedures -- Federal constitutional standards -- The use of deadly force -- Wound ballistics -- Training vs qualification -- Physiological imperatives -- Tactical factors & misconceptions -- Suicide by cop & the mentally ill subject-- Risk & responsibility -- Aftermath & impact -- Deadly force policy- -- Case histories.

Whether or not to use force is the most serious decision and one of the most significant interactions law enforcement officers can have with citizens. The decisions made by political and administrative officials when they determine matters of policy, or the decisions made by individual officers in split seconds, may be of life or death importance. The determination of the proper use of force by law enforcement at both administrative and individual levels is crucial for both law enforcement and for the public to maintain order, protect society, enforce just laws, and reasonably respect and protect the rights of civilian citizens. Typically a successful use of force accomplishes an actual seizure within the meaning of the Fourth Amendment, and therefore seizures are examined as Fourth Amendment issues in this book. The most basic and generalizable legal standard for the use of force is «reasonableness», and this book examines the reasonableness of the use of force in a number of situations, both real and hypothetical. Reasonable Use of Force by Police is intended for use in police training, police departments, universities, and by anyone interested in understanding the standards of reasonable use of force by police and other law enforcement officers.

There is tremendous controversy across the United States (and beyond) when a police officer uses deadly force against an unarmed citizen, but often the conversation is devoid of contextual details. These details matter greatly as a matter of law and organizational legitimacy. In this short book, authors Jon Shane and Zoë Swenson offer a comprehensive analysis of the first study to use publicly available data to reveal the context in which an officer used deadly force against an unarmed citizen. Although any police shooting, even a justified shooting, is not a desired outcome—often termed "lawful but awful" in policing circles—it is not necessarily a crime. The results of this study lend support to the notion that being unarmed does not mean "not dangerous," in some ways explaining why most police officers are not indicted when such a shooting occurs. The study’s findings show that when police officers used deadly force during an encounter with an unarmed citizen, the officer or a third person was facing imminent threat of death or serious injury in the vast majority of situations. Moreover, when police officers used force, their actions were almost always consistent with the accepted legal and policy principles that govern law enforcement in the overwhelming proportion of encounters (as measured by indictments). Noting the dearth of official data on the context of police shooting fatalities, Shane and Swenson call for the U.S. government to compile comprehensive data so researchers and practitioners can learn from deadly force encounters and improve practices. They further recommend that future research on police shootings should examine the patterns and micro-interactions between the officer, citizen, and environment in relation to the prevailing law. The unique data and analysis in this book will inform discussions of police use of force for researchers, policymakers, and students involved in criminal justice, public policy, and policing.

Provides a critical understanding and evaluation of police tactics and the use of force Police violence has historically played an important role in shaping public attitudes toward the government. Community trust and confidence in policing have been undermined by the perception that officers are using force unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematic ways. The use of force, or harm suffered by a community as a result of such force, can also serve as a flashpoint, a spark that ignites long-simmering community hostility. In Evaluating Police Uses of Force, legal scholar Seth W. Stoughton, former deputy chief of police Jeffrey J. Noble, and distinguished criminologist Geoffrey P. Alpert explore a critical but largely overlooked facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: how does society evaluate use-of-force incidents? By leading readers through answers to this question from four different perspectives—constitutional law, state law, administrative regulation, and community expectations—and by providing critical information about police tactics and force options that are implicated within those frameworks, Evaluating Police Uses of Force helps situate readers within broader conversations about governmental accountability, the role that police play in modern society, and how officers should go about fulfilling their duties.