Essay On Police Use Of Force

Within policing, some would argue that the use of force is a necessary component for police officers as it is used as a form of self-defence to protect the officer from any danger against a potential threat. The ‘use of force’ can be justified as using “the amount of force necessary to mitigate an incident, make an arrest, or protect themselves or others from harm”. However, through the years it has become a controversial topic within policing’s and has resulted in many cases and allegations against the police of using unjustified excessive force.

Although in some cases, the use of force is required it is unsure of in what particular type of situation it is required in, as well as to the amount of force an officer is allowed to use as this
Upon reading, I had found from a ‘2016 Use of Force Report and Recommendations’ published by the Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC), had begun to provide examples of force used by a police officer – pushing, pulling and striking. These examples that are given, enable the officers to follow the strict guideline of the use of force which by doing so will allow them not to have occurring problems to arise if they are using excessive and unjustified force in unnecessary conditions. Provided from the ‘Independent’ newspaper had revealed the clear difference in police accountability within America and England, which should that within America “it was not compulsory for forces around the country to submit their data” compared to the UK where the ‘Independent Police Complaints Commission’ are obliged to record and investigate all of the crimes that are
From research, I found a website called ‘Campaign Zero’ which voiced strong opinions on the police violence within America which explores how the police force in the US are able to reduce excessive force through a variety of solutions as well as training. Its first solution to this, is by reporting the use of force by police and suggest implementing the use of verbal warnings before using force as well as allowing the officers to use force when there is a threat to the officer or surrounding people. This solution should be put forth as currently within the system of America, the ‘National Institute of Justice’ has stated that “there is no national database of officer-involved shooting or incidents in which police use excessive force”. By doing this, it would strengthen the police accountability for the use of force as then they would be able to record the number of justified as well as unjustified forces in which they can keep on reducing. From further research, I found a website called ‘Mapping violence’ which has been able to gain information through extensive research – criminal records, social media and other sources to see the number of events that have involved a police officer. From the recent statistics of 2017, revealed that 1,147 deaths occurred which 92% of the cases had included a weapon, use