Police Essay 1 (1)
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Police Training Creating Less Resilience Kayla Simons
Seminar in Criminal Justice 501
Professor Karissa R. Pelletier
5 November 2023
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The use of police force is one of the most controversial and discussed topics for many years. The core responsibility of an officer is to protect the community and people, preserve law and regulations and keep peace. While there are many incidents where force is needed, there are also many times when it is not. This uncertainty of the use of force comes after Tennessee v Garner, which states that a police officer can use deadly force to prevent the escape of a fleeing suspect only if they believe that the suspect poses a threat of death or serious injury to others. According to The United States Department of Justice, “Officers may use only the force that is objectively reasonable to effectively gain control of an incident, while protecting the safety of the officer and others, in keeping with the standards set forth in Graham v Connor” (justice.gov).
Some forms of force might include physical brutality, verbal abuse, using harmful weapons and many other forms. There is a lot of discretion when it comes to the use of force as it depends on the officer. It is up to the officer on duty whether or not to draw their weapon, make an arrest or give a ticket. Unfortunately, no matter what rules or laws are created to reduce the use of force, there will always be someone who uses too much force. There are things you can do to lower the amount, but it will never be erased. William Terrill, professor in the School of Criminology wrote about 7 different tactics that can reduce the amount of force. Ultimately it comes down to police training and protocols. If new officers are able to learn and train on how to de-escalate certain situations, they would learn how to save more lives. Training is one of the most important
aspects of becoming a police officer.
Terrill proposed seven different tactics to reduce the amount of force used, the most important being organizations emphasizing the least amount of force within training protocols. Training protocols usually include state laws, criminal investigation, patrol procedures, firearms training, traffic control, defensive driving, self defense, first aid and computer skills, along with
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basic training (apex). There is no training in how to use force. There is no learning what is right and wrong and the time to use force. The LEB FBI website mentions that “upon graduation, departments pair new officers with training officers who also expect them to sit down and shut up and sit down. After several weeks of doing what others tell them to do, these new officers finally are certified to rided by themselves-armed with a weapon but not necessarily with any critical thinking ability.” (LEB.FBI) The biggest reason why police brutality happens is because officers are stuck into situations where they are not fully trained or familiar with. If a new officer
is forced to “shut up and sit down”, they are only observing a situation rather than being active. If they become active from the beginning, they could learn how to handle tough situations once they are able to patrol on their own. “Shut up and sit down” could also give the impression that they can do what they want. For example, if one officer gets a call of domestic violence, such as the Aura Rosser case where they shot and killed a woman holding a knife after an altercation with her boyfriend, that it would be okay to shoot anyone that might hold a threat to you. Although police are told to use the necessary amount of force in order to protect themselves and others, killing is not the only option. The police training programs include real life scenarios and have requirements for learning codes and laws yet officers often forget those requirements after leaving training. The article by LEB FBI says Historically, detectives and investigators are the police personnel people think of as critical thinkers. However, each day, officers make street level decisions that affect lives, civil rights, community safety, media perception and departmental liability…their agencies, then, cannot afford not to equip them with training in critical thinking. (LEB FBI)
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According to the Police Brutality Center, 1,000 people are killed by police officers every year (Meadow). Along with Michael Brown, who was mentioned in the article by Terrill, there have been many other shootings. For example, Andre Hill, a forty seven year old man was unarmed and non threatening. The officer was responding to a 311 non-emergency call when he saw Hill leave his garage with what he believed was a weapon in his left hand. It was discovered after he was shot that it was a cell phone. Officer Coy shot him four times. (
Chughtai, A.)
Looking at the article Reducing the use of force: de-escalation training for police officers
written by Eric Dayley, talks about how the use of police force happens on a regular basis and how officers are primed to use force over de-escalation opportunities. This article also takes a look at different countries and the police procedures that they use. One section mentions that the Police Executive Research Forum published 30 guiding principles that officers in the United States could interpret into their work. One of the principles says “I will only use force as part of my role and responsibilities, and only to the extent that it is necessary, proportionate and reasonable in all the circumstances.” (Dayley). He next shows a critical-decision making model that stems off 5 different techniques. The middle of the chart mentions ethics, values, proportionality, and sanctity of human life. Off that middle circle is to collect information, assess
situations, threats and risks, consider police powers and agency policy, identify options and determine the best course of action and lastly, act, review and reassess. Implementing a strategy like critical decision making would allow for new and upcoming police officers to think about what to do in a situation before they do it. Promoting critical thinking will allow for officers to make unbiased decisions. It is important for police officers to learn the core principles in the beginning stages of the police academy.
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The article Procedural justice training reduced police use of force and complaints against officers written by George Wood, Tom Tyler and Andrew Papachristos talks about a new
technique implemented in the Chicago Police Department. The city of Chicago trained eight thousand officers to work on procedural justice strategies that emphasize respect, neutrality and transparency. Procedural justice meant that officers were trained in how to communicate their actions to the community. It allows the people of the community to feel as if they are treated fairly and respectfully. The policy highlighted the aspects of interpersonal policing that helped reduce the amount of conflict between police and citizens. Not only did this training work with interpersonal relations, but it helped reduce complaints against police, reduce violations of legal and procedural rules, and reduced frequency of which officers ended up using force. They found that those officers who adopted the training early continued to use the training later on compared to those who adopted the training later on in their career. Although there are many promising ideas proposed by Terrill, I believe that enforcing training protocols that teach the least amount of force is the most effective. Taking a look at the research presented, you can see that those who were trained in either procedural justice or critical
decision making were more likely to use less force on the job. Although force is necessary at some points in time, it does not always mean deadly force. After Tennessee v Garner, police departments implemented the deadly force policy that was more restrictive than the laws already created (Terrill). Unfortunately, those laws do not help lower the amount of force used. In order for police to use less force, they need to be trained in how to do that. If they are not getting the training from the beginning, they most likely will not be able to implement it into their The idea of how to reduce police brutality has been an ongoing issue for many years. The
core issue of use of force comes from training. If officers are taught other ways to ensure safety
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for themselves and the community, then there wouldn’t be so much hatred. The biggest factor that plays a role in force is discrimination. Officers tend to use more force in areas of lower income where more crime arises. The downside to that is that people cannot be trained in how to not discriminate. Some forms of force that are most commonly used include physical brutality, verbal abuse, using harmful weapons and many other forms. Officers are trained to use the necessary amount of force in order to subdue a suspect. Oftentimes that ends up being too much force which results in serious injury and most commonly homicide. They use their own discretion when it comes to certain crimes. If officers are trained in how to use the least amount of force possible, they will most likely have better outcomes. Less officers will be sentenced or on probation and less citizens will be killed. There are many steps that can be taken to reduce force and it starts with learning how to use less force, organizations just need to learn how to implement it.
Work Cited
1-16.000 - department of justice policy on use of Force
. The United States Department of Justice.
(2022, July 25). https://www.justice.gov/jm/1-16000-department-justice-policy-use-force FBI. (2020, May 7). Perspective: Need for critical thinking in police training
. FBI. https://leb.fbi.gov/articles/perspective/perspective-need-for-critical-thinking-in-police-
training Dayley, E. H. (2016). Reducing the use of force: De-escalation training for police officers
(Doctoral dissertation, Monterey, California: Naval Postgraduate School).
Police training 101 guide
. Police Training 101 Guide. (n.d.). https://www.apexofficer.com/police-training#:~:text=They%20learn%20state%20laws
%2C%20criminal,their%20comprehension%20of%20classroom%20instruction.
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Chughtai, A. (2021, July 7). Know their names: Black people killed by the police in the US
. Al Jazeera Interactives. https://interactive.aljazeera.com/aje/2020/know-their-names/index.html Meadow, R. (2023, October 24). Police brutality statistics: What the Data says about police violence in America
. Police Brutality Center. https://policebrutalitycenter.org/police-
brutality/statistics/ Wood, G., Tyler, T., & Papachristos, A. V. (2021). Revised Findings for “Procedural Justice Training Reduces Police Use of Force and Complaints against Officers.”
https://doi.org/10.31235/osf.io/xf32m