Evaluating Police Uses of Force

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Seth W. Stoughton ◽  
Jeffrey J. Noble ◽  
Geoffrey P. Alpert
Keyword(s):  
Public Attitudes ◽  
Good Reason ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Individual Liberty ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Long Time ◽  
Democratic Norms

The use of force by police has proven to be a challenging and divisive issue in the United States, and for good reason. Philosophically, the government’s use of violence against community members is in tension with basic democratic norms of individual liberty, personal security, and bodily autonomy. In practice, officers use force on hundreds of thousands of individuals every year. Police violence plays an important role in shaping public attitudes toward government generally and toward policing specifically. Community trust and confidence in policing has been undermined by the perception that officers are using force, including deadly force, unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematically disparate ways. The use of force can also serve as a flashpoint, a spark that ignites long-simmering community hostility. There are, in short, compelling reasons to think critically about police uses of force. This book explores an essential, but largely overlooked, facet of the difficult and controversial issues of police violence and accountability: the question of how society evaluates police uses of force. The authors—a prominent legal scholar and former officer, a long-time police commander, and a distinguished criminologist—draw on their experience and decades of research to offer five different answers to that question, discussing in depth the rules established by constitutional law, state laws, agency policies, international law, and community expectations, and providing critical information about police tactics and force options to allow for the accurate application of those analytical frameworks.

scholarly journals Big data and the New Transparency: Measuring and representing police killings

2017 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 205395171769633
Author(s):  
Ben Brucato
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Big Data ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Police Use Of Force

Controversies about recent killings by police officers in the United States have prompted widespread questioning about the scale and changes in police use of force. A perceived lack of transparency about the frequency of police killings amplifies concerns that many such killings are unjustified. This commentary considers efforts by journalists and activists to comprise databases that document and measure police violence, particularly in terms of how these endeavors exemplify the New Transparency.

Introduction

2020 ◽  
pp. 1-8
Author(s):  
Seth W. Stoughton ◽  
Jeffrey J. Noble ◽  
Geoffrey P. Alpert
Keyword(s):  
Social Issue ◽  
Constitutional Law ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Police Accountability ◽  
Community Expectations ◽  
Community Trust ◽  
Rules Set ◽  
Analytical Frameworks

The use of force is inherent in and inseparable from modern policing, but police violence has proven to be a challenging and divisive social issue. Officers could not fulfil their public duties without the authority to use force, but community trust and confidence in the police is undermined by the perception that they are doing so unnecessarily, too frequently, or in problematically disparate ways. This book poses and responds to a question that is central to police accountability, but has largely evaded academic scrutiny: how does society evaluate the propriety of an officer’s use of force? It offers four different answers to that question, exploring in depth the rules set by constitutional law, state laws, agency policies, and community expectations. It goes on to provide critical information about police tactics and force options to allow for the accurate application of those analytical frameworks.

Police Violence

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenna Milani ◽  
Ben Bradford ◽  
Jonathan Jackson
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Control ◽  
Social Order ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Police Use Of Force ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Self Harm

The ability of the police to assert social control and reproduce social order depends, crucially, on the capacity to use force to achieve these ends—whether when restraining someone attempting to self-harm or shooting dead an armed terrorist. But what do we know about police use of force in the United States and England and Wales? Why does unjustified police use of force occur? And why do citizens have different views on the acceptability and unacceptability of various forms of police violence?

The Men Who Lived Underground: The Chicago Police Torture Cases and the Problem of Measuring Police Violence, 1970-2016

2017 ◽  
Vol 44 (2) ◽  
pp. 262-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew S. Baer
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Historical Data ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Primary Method ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Criminal Investigations ◽  
Chicago Police ◽  
Official Data

Historical data on the use of force by police officers in the United States are unreliable or nonexistent. Available data, moreover, focus primarily on the behavior of patrolmen on the streets while neglecting violence by detectives during criminal investigations. Through an examination of a police torture scandal in Chicago from the early 1970s through the late 1990s, this article explains why violence during custodial interrogation often goes undocumented. In Chicago, the primary method of discovering, correcting, or preventing custodial abuse—pretrial motions to suppress statements—proved inadequate. By including the work of detectives, this article argues that a true measurement of police violence, impossible in practice, would likely be much higher than official data suggest.

The Community Expectations Standard

2020 ◽  
pp. 125-152
Author(s):  
Seth W. Stoughton ◽  
Jeffrey J. Noble ◽  
Geoffrey P. Alpert
Keyword(s):  
Procedural Justice ◽  
Real World ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Public Trust ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
The Public ◽  
Public Perspectives ◽  
Acute And Chronic Effects ◽  
Over Time

The use of force by police, when perceived negatively by community members, can undermine public trust over time, even serving as a flashpoint that ignites long-simmering hostility. The acute and chronic effects of community distrust make it essential to appreciate how community members evaluate use-of-force incidents. Distinguishing between substantive and procedural justice, this chapter identifies the aspects of police violence that community members most care about. It also explores the range of public perspectives on police uses of force, using real-world examples to illustrate the way public statements condemning and supporting officers’ use-of-force decisions often fall into identifiable categories. Understanding these categories allows for a greater appreciation of what community members look for and what they criticize when officers use force. That understanding can also inform efforts to better educate the public about police uses of force.

Conclusion

2020 ◽  
pp. 225-236
Author(s):  
Seth W. Stoughton ◽  
Jeffrey J. Noble ◽  
Geoffrey P. Alpert
Keyword(s):  
Traditional Approach ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Police Violence ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
State Laws ◽  
Active Approach ◽  
Ultimate Outcome ◽  
Evaluative Standard ◽  
The Moment ◽  
Analytical Frameworks

Once the analytical frameworks that can be used to evaluate police uses of force are firmly understood, it is appropriate to question the propriety of those frameworks as they currently exist. In light of the wide variation that can exist between state laws and agency policies, policy makers, police leaders, and academics should take an active approach to assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each evaluative standard. The authors conclude by identifying three common flaws and suggesting corresponding corrections. First, the tendency to evaluate a use of force by looking only at the moment in which force was used artificially limits scope of review, omitting from consideration the varied and important ways in which events that precede the use of force can affect the ultimate outcome. Second, the traditional approach of focusing on a subject’s resistance overlooks the fact that such actions are merely a proxy for what actually matters in use-of-force situations: the nature and extent of a threat to a defined governmental interest. Third, while this book is concerned with evaluating individual uses of force, it acknowledges the need for more informed analysis of police violence in the aggregate, which require data that are not currently available.

Challenges of the parliamentary system in Iraq after 2003

2019 ◽  
Vol 3 (10) ◽  
pp. 101
Author(s):  
Emad Wakaa Ajil
Keyword(s):  
Political System ◽  
Separation Of Powers ◽  
Political Process ◽  
The United States ◽  
Arab Countries ◽  
The Political ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Political Transformations ◽  
The Us ◽  
Long Time

Iraq is one of the most Arab countries where the system of government has undergone major political transformations and violent events since the emergence of the modern Iraqi state in 1921 and up to the present. It began with the monarchy and the transformation of the regime into the republican system in 1958. In the republican system, Continued until 2003, and after the US occupation of Iraq in 2003, the regime changed from presidential to parliamentary system, and the parliamentary experience is a modern experience for Iraq, as he lived for a long time without parliamentary experience, what existed before 2003, can not be a parliamentary experience , The experience righteousness The study of the parliamentary system in particular and the political process in general has not been easy, because it is a complex and complex process that concerns the political system and its internal and external environment, both of which are influential in the political system and thus on the political process as a whole, After the US occupation of Iraq, the United States intervened to establish a permanent constitution for the country. Despite all the circumstances accompanying the drafting of the constitution, it is the first constitution to be drafted by an elected Constituent Assembly. The Iraqi Constitution adopted the parliamentary system of government and approved the principle of flexible separation of powers in order to achieve cooperation and balance between the authorities.

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