The problem of officers failing to activate recording equipment before or during a force encounter can be a thorny one with multiple potentially negative consequences. But a plaintiff in a federal lawsuit has tried to push the issue to a new and radical extreme. The incident in question began in the snowy, predawn hours of...Read More
Contrary to the prevailing depiction of police in virtually every news cycle, a new study confirms once again that use of force by officers is actually a rare occurrence. A research team headed by Dr. William Bozeman of the Dept. of Emergency Medicine at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina reviewed police and...Read More
The persistent urge by police critics to tighten restrictions on the use of force surfaced again this month after a controversial shooting in Sacramento, California. A state legislator told a press conference that she will introduce a bill to change the legal standard for law enforcement in California from using “objectively reasonable force” to “necessary...Read More
You may recall the world’s first study of the effect of body-worn cameras on officers’ use of force and on citizens’ complaints against police. Conducted with the Rialto (CA) PD and published in 2014, this benchmark research showed that during a year that some officers were equipped with body cams, use-of-force incidents dropped about 50%...Read More
Preview reports on Force Science research findings regarding the public’s perceptions of police use of force, the retention rates of physical skills training, and the nature of unintentional discharges were showcased recently at major professional conferences in California and Minnesota. Thumbnail summaries: Civilian beliefs about use of force by police are often shockingly far from...Read More
After a half-naked man in the throes of excited delirium died following a struggle with sheriff’s deputies, his widow alleged in a federal civil rights legal action that: the officers should not have used any force against him until they first attempted de-escalation techniques; their “excessive” force-first actions violated legal protections for the disabled and...Read More
In a snapshot preview of a book he’ll publish this summer, prominent researcher Dr. Darrell Ross recently offered law enforcement trainers a provocative update on one of the rarest events in policing, yet one of the most vexing: arrest-related death. In a presentation running nearly four hours at the annual training conference of the International...Read More
Facing a medical emergency and a use-of-force dilemma, did this sheriff’s deputy do the right thing? The deputy, working road patrol for the Oakland County (MI) SO, responded one June afternoon to a call at a residence near Detroit where four paramedics were struggling to help a man overcome a life-threatening diabetic crisis. According to...Read More
A study of a year’s worth of force reports in one major US police department reveals some interesting patterns of officer injuries in non-shooting confrontations. The review was led by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, an epidemiologist with the University of Texas School of Public Health who specializes in violence prevention and injury. Her team included Dr....Read More
Over the years, medical examiners and plaintiff’s attorneys have advanced a variety of speculations to explain the arrest-related deaths of suspects for which no medical cause is readily apparent. This parade of horribles has included hog-tying, positional (prone) asphyxia, neck restraint, pepper-spraying, and cardiac disruption (electrocution) caused by conducted electrical weapons. And one by one,...Read More
