Police Use Of Force Essay

Every day police officers are granted a vast amount of authority including the right to use force to apprehend citizens who are not abiding by the law, police are also given the right to be able to defend them self when their life is in danger, just like any other human being. Police may have to use force in some given situations to stay safe. The citizens of the community in which the police officer works in must be able to trust that the officer will use the power they are granted in honorable and moral fashion. In recent times, the people of the news media and users of social media have displayed images and opinions of the police portraying them to be corrupt and they say tings like the police have not been trained and taught all of the
In almost any given situation the police have just split seconds to make the right decision on how to handle and properly de-escalate any given situation; some of the decisions that need to be made are easy for some officers and some decisions are going to be incredibly hard for an officer to make in such a short time frame that they may have. More experienced officers that have handled the same situation multiple times may be faster at making the same decision as a rookie officer in the same situation. No matter what the decision is the officer will always have the voice in the back of his or her head saying "will these actions be justified" but the officers do not have the time to sit back and think about their plan of action they must make their decision practically instantly and use the best judgment they have for the situation they are given. This research paper will explore what policies have changed over time with regards of the officer using force, and how much force they legally can use. It is important to explore this aspect of