Police use of Force

Police use of Force

            The primary role of the police is to maintain law and order. The maintenance of law and order involves ensuring security for individuals in the area of operation. The operation of police is governed by rules and regulations that identify the limits to which the police are allowed to operate. However, some instances that occur while the police are in the line of duty call for the use of excessive force than should be the case. Events that lead the use of force include mass demonstrations that threaten the destruction of property, situations when the police life is in danger or other circumstances that might be specified as extremes. The use of force might involve the use of bullets, use of teargas, or use of police whips while handling offenders or suspects. The use of force by law enforcing officers is stipulated for in several law clauses and becomes necessary in cases of self-defense or when defending other parties from situations that might have gotten out of hand. The definition for justified use of force is however not universally provided.

The use of force is guided by the agencies controlling the various police bodies. Rules on the events that require the use of force are only made at the scene of occurrence, but a range of policies control the amount of force to be used in any incidence. The fact that incidences do not occur similarly means that a universal law cannot be put in place to regulate the use of force (Alonso, 2018). A police officer always has the authority to decide on whether or not to use force to deal with a particular situation. A threatening situation, for example, cannot wait for police to request permission from the agency before using force to deal with the situation. Police are always trained, and the agencies trust that the police can make the wisest decision when faced with a set of options to choose (Brown, 2016). The officers are continuously trained on the right judgment for the right situation. The determinant on the right time to use force is always affected by the time between the occurrence of an event and the soldier being able to choose another option. Police should not put either their life or the lives of others in danger by being conservative towards the use of force. In a situation where the decision to use force leads to injuries, the police should ensure that the injured individuals get proper medical attention and that any danger is dealt with effectively to justify the use of force.

The amount of force used by police should only be the level necessary for dealing with the incident at hand. The cops could use verbal threats, physical combats, less-lethal force, or in severe circumstances be forced to use lethal force. The amount of force used is expected to change with the change in the situation (Buehler, 2017). Therefore, the guidelines for the use of force vary according to several factors that include the number of police officers tasked with dealing with a particular situation. Under normal circumstances, the number of police officers should be at least proportional to the severity of the situation at hand so that they are not forced to use force in a situation where more police officers would control comfortably. The use of force should, however, take into considerations the rights of the individuals involved in the event of interest although justification can be given for necessary infringing of individual’s rights (Kappeler, & Schaefer, 2018). For example, the right of movement in some areas could be temporarily withdrawn to avoid interference with the progression of the police operation. Generally, the goal of the police in the event of conflict should be to settle matters as fast as possible while protecting the general community from any impacts that could arise from the situation. Although the use of force can be seen and identified, the use of excessive force is difficult to justify.

The events that involve excessive use of force by the police can hardly be estimated. First, the police tend to give contradicting definitions for the use of force. The events that could appear to have led to the use of excessive force to the general public could be viewed directly by the police agencies. The justifications for the use of force also vary between jurisdictions and police in one area could decide to justify some events that are fit for the use of force in contradiction to the justifications by police in other regions (Worden, 2015). Also, the data for the excessive use of force is kept private by the police overseeing agencies. The lack of access to the data by the general public means that proper analysis cannot be done to assess the prevalence of the use of force by the police.

In sum, the police use force in some situations for self-defense and in defense for other parties around. The use of force does not have a universal rule of justification since every situation gives a challenge different from other situations. The use of force should only be justified by the extent to which a situation was likely to get out of control if force was not to be used. The estimation of the prevalence of the use of force by the police is made difficult by the inability of data for analysis.