Criminal Justice

Use of Force in the Law Enforcement Community

By

Introduction to Criminal Justice
CRJS 2233

East Central University
October 30, 2006

Use of force is one of the most pivotal decisions that a police officer can make in his career.   The decision to arrest and use of force are two decisions that are made by the officer at the scene and acted upon by his/her judgment, and his/her judgment alone.   The use of force and the judgments made by a police officer to use them have fallen under much scrutiny in the public and political eye over the last decade or so.   This has largely come from widespread media publication of instances of "excessive force" such as the Rodney King incident during the Los Angeles Riots back in the early nineties.   Since this time the law enforcement community has made large grounds to offer police officers more protection and more options to take down threatening opposition without the use of lethal force.
Lethal force has been a necessary part of the law enforcement community as far back as the Texas Rangers.   It is a necessity for the officer to have the right to protect his life.   Lethal force should only be used when officers have no other options, but as of late political eyes wanting to determine what meets the requirements for "no more options."   Surveys and studies by the Criminal Justice Review and the American Journal of Sociology are beginning to show certain ethnic trends to the use of lethal force of police officers against minorities.   In larger metropolitan areas statistics are beginning to illustrate that large African-American populations or rapidly growing African-American populations show a direct correlation with the instances of the use of lethal force by police officers. However, African-Americans are more likely to reside in low-income housing or ghettos, where violent crimes such as robbery, murder, and rape occur.   These violent crimes are the same time of crimes that put an officer in a situation to make... [continues]

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