Deadly Force Case Study

Tamir Rice was a twelve-year-old boy playing in the snow at his local park, making the mistake of waving an air pellet gun at strangers- a mistake that would cost him his life. A bystander made a call to 911, and when the police arrived on the scene, within seconds of exiting the vehicle, Rice was shot. According to an article by the Pittsburgh Tribune, although police have been caught in the act, captured on camera committing a crime, they are not prosecuted 96 percent of the time.

Police officer misconduct has been a publicly controversial topic for many years. Many people are familiar with the infamous “Ramparts” division of the LAPD where they committed acts of beatings and extortion and the “Riders” of the Oakland Police Department in their brutality against suspects (Criminal Law, n.d.).These examples are just a few of the problems that have occurred and occurring within our criminal justice system. The examples previously described also provide a connection of one familiar form of police misconduct and that is brutality. Police brutality is just one of the many forms of police misconduct and the types that follow under misconduct include theft/fraud, bribery, sexual misconduct, use of excessive force, domestic

Police work is unpredictable and is very dangerous. In some situations, officers may have to utilize use-of-force tactics in order to gain control of a certain situation. This essay will focus on the discussion of polices discretion to use force limited to a suspect who is being “uncooperative” and what mitigating factors may escalate or de-escalate force response by an officer.

Stop and frisk has been a highly conversed topic within the general public within recent years. Many people think that these are just a way to profile possible offenders and treat them as guilty before they do anything wrong. Our book describes how that is not true because a stop and frisk must meet certain requirements in order to be valid. A major case that was held in regards to stop and frisk was Terry v. Ohio and this case determined that a police officer must meet two requirements in order for the stop to be valid. The first one is that either a crime has been committed or will be committed and the suspect is possibly armed and dangerous. The second requirement is that the officer identify himself or herself and make reasonable inquiries.

608 F. 3D 614 (9th Cir. No. 08-55662, files 6/18/10, withdrawn and amended, 11/30/10) in a 42 U.S.C section 1983 action based on defendants-officer 's use of a taser on plaintiff at a traffic stop, denial of summary judgment based on qualified immunity is affirmed where, viewing the circumstances in the light most favorable to plaintiff, defendant 's use of the taser was unconstitutionally excessive force and a violation of plaintiff 's clearly established rights.  Police must have reasonable grounds to use a taser.  Officer Brian McPherson used excessive force when on July 24, 2005, he deployed his X26 taser in dart mode to apprehend Carl Bryan for a seatbelt infraction, where Bryan was obviously and noticeably unarmed (he was wearing

As a result, the “BlackLivesMatters” movement has been brought to attention because of all black people that have died due to the actions of police by the mainstream. However, police brutality isn't just a problem for one individual ethnicity. Providing that, police departments are dissolving claims of brutality out of hand, the statistics are from self-reporting, or the issue begins from not following department policy (Small-Jordan, 2015). As a consequence, police brutality in America has reached such a turning point that society has reached an “us against them” attitude with criminals targeting officers and law enforcement. Also, the constant media coverage has impacted society and resulted in the need for reform or laws to minimize police brutality.

Deadly force is more of a last resort, or is used when all else fails. Deadly force should be used only in the occasion that an officer’s life or the life of another individual is in danger. Courts have ruled that deadly force may be used under two main criteria, to prevent the escape of a suspect, and that the officer has probable cause of possible serious threat of death/injury to another individual. If a felon is fleeing deadly force is only justified if there is reason to believe serous injury or death to the public or an officer may occur. In cases where a suspect has some sort of deadly weapon officers may use deadly for if the suspect is attempting to cause harm and the use of force is justifiable. If police can justify deadly force

The direct legal issue at stake is whether or not a search for weapons without probable cause or a warrant is an unreasonable search and seizure under the 4th Amendment of the Constitution. While the CLSSA is concerned with the direct legal issue, we also are raising anxious about the much broader issues surrounding the disparate effects that could shape how certain groups of people interact with our law enforcement on a daily basis as a result of this case. The arguments below are designed to outline these broad and societal issues within the Terry case.

The fleeing felon rule is when the police are chasing a felony suspect and he or she is fleeing from the scene. The officers are allowed to use force to stop the fleeing suspect, that includes the use of deadly force. However, deadly force can only be used if the officer has probable cause to believe that suspect would be a threat to the community. Force can be used by the victim, bystanders, and officers, but, deadly force can only be used by the officers.

The Federal Law Enforcement Training Center (FLETC) is an approach police officers are following when using Use of Force. The FLETC approach was first created in 1970, it was called “Consolidated Law Enforcement Training Center” (“Federal Law Training Center”, 2015). After five years though, it became the Federal Law Enforcement Training Center. The purpose of FLETC is to provide training to law enforcement officers from state, federal, local, and tribal agencies across the country (ARSC Federal, 2015). Training ranges from “firearms to physical defensive training” (ARCS Federal, 2015).

In the eyes of the law, the statues “standards allow an officer to use deadly physical force when the officer reasonably believes it is necessary to (1) defend himself or herself or a third person from the use or imminent use of deadly physical force or (2) arrest or prevent the escape of someone the officer reasonably believes has committed or attempted to commit a felony involving

What is excessive force? According to Wex Legal Dictionary and Encyclopedia, excessive force is when the force exceeds the required amount of force to de-escalate a situation or to safeguard the individual or others from any hurt, harm, or danger from an individual (Excessive Force, n.d.). Excessive force is becoming an increasing issue as society grows and crimes evolve. Some of the problems stem from the illegal exercise of police power due to the lack of funds for adequate training, staffing, promotional opportunities, retention, and resources.

St. Paul Police Department: The policy also defines deadly force by the definition given by the Minnesota Statute 609.066. This definition suggests deadly force is when the officer knows the force will either result in death or great harm to the person. This statute also adds the factor of discharging a firearm in the direction of where a person might be, including a vehicle, as deadly force. Use of force on the other hand, is defined as the use of command presence, verbalization, and other means (including physical force and more) as a way to restrain a suspect. Furthermore, they also define the following terms: electronic control devices, great bodily harm, impact weapon, less than lethal force, non-lethal force, reasonable grounds/belief, reasonably necessary force, restraint, strangle holds, T.A.R.P., unreasonable force, weapon of choice,

Thorough studies examine that the distribution of less-lethal weapons have reduced issues such as assaults on specifically police officers, other studies examine that this is increasing the death and injuries of civilians rather than focusing primarily on the safety of officers employed for the police force. It is a growing problem in the United States with increasing health issues related to the cause of police use of force in incidents that occur regularly. It is important to consider whether these less-lethal weapons are associated with the like hood of injuries. The use of force can define a wide range of different variables of force; it is vital to assess the independent contribution of less-lethal weapons on the prevalence and incidence of injury to the suspects and officers involved. Less- lethal weapons have increased the odds of injury to suspects that may be life threatening, it is most likely essential for these officers to stick to less-lethal weapons which can be classified as OC sprays or CEDs. After carefully examining modules from states such as Orlando and Austin shows that injury had decreased after the distribution of less-lethal weapons. Other studies also state that these rates of injury were much lower rather than relying on physical injury and chemical

The result is that the use of lethal force has only one tactical purpose, to attempt to immediately stop the person from being a threat and, in all likelihood, kill them in the process. A firearm is the only weapon available to police that can achieve that purpose in a wide range of situations, including where it is tactically important to avoid close contact (McKetin et al.,