Police Use of Force (UOF) Policies Under Fire

By Robert Farago

Republished with permission from the Force Science Institute:

In a possible preview of coming attractions for other agencies, the police department in a major US city recently proposed radical changes to its use-of-force policies. That move torched a firestorm of protest from the rank-and-file. At this writing, a vigorous tug-of-war is underway to get the proposed alterations modified before they are finalized. But the changes as originally described offer a clear insight into issues that are likely to be raised elsewhere as the movement to change police practices gathers steam . . .

In tone and detail, many of the intended changes mirror the recommendations for overhauling American policing put forth earlier this year by the Police Executive Research Forum (PERF), which we’ve covered in several recent issues of Force Science News.

The intent, said the city’s police chief and the president of its Police Commission in announcing the revisions, is to “fundamentally re-engineer the way police officers use force” and thereby “save lives.”

But a former deputy city attorney for that municipality, who in the past has defended the agency and its personnel against excessive force claims arising from officer-involved shootings, has asserted in response that some aspects of the …Read the Rest

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