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Police Use of Force

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Police Use of Force
Police Use of Force

Introduction
Police officers are authorized to use force under certain circumstances, for instance; controlling a disruptive, aggressive and disturbing demonstration, undergoing arrest of an accused person or controlling a combative individual. These officers are trained properly regarding use of force while fulfilling their duties. However, the use of force by police is a subject of hot discussion amongst public, as many times law enforcement agencies, televisions, newspapers, and civil as well as criminal courts have taken serious actions against excessive use of force by police-officers under a given situation (U.S department of Justice, 1999). The aim of this paper is to study national as well as international polices regarding the use of physical, verbal or any other kind of force like, chemicals, electronic control devices or lethal weapons by police-men. Moreover, the attitude of public, media, courts and juries towards the excessive use of force will be studied.
Force is defined as, a non-negotiable use of police authority to influence the behavior of citizens (Ederheimer & Fridell, 2005). On the other hand, National Institute of Justice defines use of force as under; ‘Amount of effort, used by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject’. Police ensures the enforcement of law by the legal use of force, verbal as well as physical force can be used in this regard depending upon severity of situation, and the purpose is to decrease the unwanted results of a particular event. However, in this situation it is recommended by NIJ that police officers should ensure that any individual who gets injured in this event must receive medical aid; moreover, anyone close to the injured subject (family member or friend) should be informed about this situation. Force is defined as, a non-negotiable use of police authority to influence the behavior of citizens (Ederheimer & Fridell, 2005). On the other hand, National Institute of


References: 1. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1999. Use of force by Police, National Institute of Justice. 2. Fridell Lorie A, Ederheimer Joshua A, 2005, Chief concerns, Police Executive Research Forum. 3. Hickman, M.J., 2006. Citizen complaints about police use of force, American Society of Criminology. 4. National Institute of Justice, 2009. The use of Force continuums, Office of Justice program. 5. International association of Chief of Police Justice, 2005, Police use of force 6. Orthmann-hess Christine, Hess M Karen, 2009. Criminal investigation, Cengage leaning.
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