Factors That Influence Levels of Force
There are several existing factors that can influence and thereby affect the levels of force that police use during a suspect encounter. These factors can vary from: internal, external, environmental and even organizational roles of use-of-force police practices; this coincides with studies mentioned by Pollock (2014) that explain the decided level of use of force depend on individual, situational and organizational factors (p.159 & 168). Researched influences are: race, citizen demeanor at time of encounter, neighborhood area, crime rate level and economic advantage of the particular patrol area the officer is assigned to at the time. Two police departments studied were found to have used higher and lower …show more content…
Equally Pollock (2014) has stated that an individual officers ethics are as powerful as training and understanding departmental policies that imply discretion used daily while on duty (p.161). Uniquely, Wolf et al. (2009) deems situations involving the response of force as a continuation of responses, not something that can be the same for every circumstance. They feel that if a police department uses a force continuum that is implemented into a departmental wide policy, that it will provide useful guidance for officers in making the right decisions in regards to the level of force necessary to be used (pg. 742). Equally important they also believe the officer has the main responsibility to de-escalate force once initial resistance has declined itself or stopped altogether; using a cumulative force factor. The cumulative force factor could then be implements into future policy decisions when used as a measuring process that supervisors and administrators could utilize when reviewing incidents of force (p.753). Dwyer (2010) also came to the same conclusion stating that departments whose officers adhere to set training standards that apply up to date force policies should have lower numbers of excessive use of force incidents (p.1). Lee et al. (2010) argued that police training is an …show more content…
Proper use and knowledge of the force continuum and force factor along with increased training that emphasizes using the least amount of force necessary for standard situations will ensure that individual officers are not exceeding departmental excessive force policies within daily standard operations. Safeguards in place that act as an early warning and flag system for officers who show too harsh of force measures will ensure that a department remains pro active enough to adjust with the ever evolving circumstantial responses that individual officers have to resort to on a daily basis when dealing with suspect
There are several existing factors that can influence and thereby affect the levels of force that police use during a suspect encounter. These factors can vary from: internal, external, environmental and even organizational roles of use-of-force police practices; this coincides with studies mentioned by Pollock (2014) that explain the decided level of use of force depend on individual, situational and organizational factors (p.159 & 168). Researched influences are: race, citizen demeanor at time of encounter, neighborhood area, crime rate level and economic advantage of the particular patrol area the officer is assigned to at the time. Two police departments studied were found to have used higher and lower …show more content…
Equally Pollock (2014) has stated that an individual officers ethics are as powerful as training and understanding departmental policies that imply discretion used daily while on duty (p.161). Uniquely, Wolf et al. (2009) deems situations involving the response of force as a continuation of responses, not something that can be the same for every circumstance. They feel that if a police department uses a force continuum that is implemented into a departmental wide policy, that it will provide useful guidance for officers in making the right decisions in regards to the level of force necessary to be used (pg. 742). Equally important they also believe the officer has the main responsibility to de-escalate force once initial resistance has declined itself or stopped altogether; using a cumulative force factor. The cumulative force factor could then be implements into future policy decisions when used as a measuring process that supervisors and administrators could utilize when reviewing incidents of force (p.753). Dwyer (2010) also came to the same conclusion stating that departments whose officers adhere to set training standards that apply up to date force policies should have lower numbers of excessive use of force incidents (p.1). Lee et al. (2010) argued that police training is an …show more content…
Proper use and knowledge of the force continuum and force factor along with increased training that emphasizes using the least amount of force necessary for standard situations will ensure that individual officers are not exceeding departmental excessive force policies within daily standard operations. Safeguards in place that act as an early warning and flag system for officers who show too harsh of force measures will ensure that a department remains pro active enough to adjust with the ever evolving circumstantial responses that individual officers have to resort to on a daily basis when dealing with suspect