Civic Issues: Advocacy for Different Training of Use-of-Force Continuum

Posted on by Annalise Ely

Thus far I have talked about policing and the relationships between law enforcement and its community. I also have talked about who actually holds the power within the policing system and whether or not these systems have been living up to the expectation that society holds them to. Last week I talked about the different trends in policing and how they have evolved over time. This week I will be wrapping up the topic of policing by talking about the advocacy for different police training for the use of force continuum.

The use of force continuum is different levels of force that are used in a certain order to resolve a situation. Police departments can have different use of force contiuums that are taught to officers in their training.

“An example of a use-of-force continuum follows:

  • Officer Presence — No force is used. Considered the best way to resolve a situation.
    • The mere presence of a law enforcement officer works to deter crime or diffuse a situation.
    • Officers’ attitudes are professional and nonthreatening.
  • Verbalization — Force is not-physical.
    • Officers issue calm, nonthreatening commands, such as “Let me see your identification and registration.”
    • Officers may increase their volume and shorten commands in an attempt to gain compliance. Short commands might include “Stop,” or “Don’t move.”
  • Empty-Hand Control — Officers use bodily force to gain control of a situation.
    • Soft technique. Officers use grabs, holds and joint locks to restrain an individual.
    • Hard technique. Officers use punches and kicks to restrain an individual.
  • Less-Lethal Methods — Officers use less-lethal technologies to gain control of a situation.
    • Blunt impact. Officers may use a baton or projectile to immobilize a combative person.
    • Chemical. Officers may use chemical sprays or projectiles embedded with chemicals to restrain an individual (e.g., pepper spray).
    • Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs). Officers may use CEDs to immobilize an individual. CEDs discharge a high-voltage, low-amperage jolt of electricity at a distance.
  • Lethal Force — Officers use lethal weapons to gain control of a situation. Should only be used if a suspect poses a serious threat to the officer or another individual.
    • Officers use deadly weapons such as firearms to stop an individual’s actions.”

National Institute of Justice, “The Use-of-Force Continuum,” August 3, 2009, nij.ojp.gov:
https://nij.ojp.gov/topics/articles/use-force-continuum

As we can see in many different scenarios that police officers do not often follow this use of force continuum. They will present themselves (officer presence), use verbalization, and then often skip the empty hand control and move to less lethal methods like chemicals or tasers. Sometimes they skip less lethal methods and move straight to lethal force. This is a huge issue. If there is a use of force continuum it needs to be followed. Where is the problem coming from then? Is it the people training these officers are not properly training them? Is the training itself outdated? We need to get to the root of the problem before more innocent lives are being killed when they can easily be prevented.
In an article from Vox, Dara Lind says that “departments do give officers general instructions about using no more force than is necessary to resolve a situation, and trying to deescalate situations before they turn into crises.” Are they doing more suggesting than actual implementing? “Some departments’ policies let officers use force in a wide range of cases and give officers a lot of flexibility to determine what type of force to use: these are called relatively permissive policies.”  I see a huge problem with this… Now I understand that there is no handbook for what type of scenario you may come up upon so it is somewhat up to the officer to determine what force to use but when they are being trained they need to be more disciplined. It should be drilled into the heads of these officers that the use of deadly force or even less lethal methods should be the last resort of force used.So what needs to be done that these officers will learn their lesson? Is it severe punishment for any officer that is found guilty of using excessive force against someone? I think there needs to be a serious change in the training of the use of force continuum. It is too generic and gives too much room for officers to make their own decision in determining when and how much force is used on someone.