“Some of what you will read in this report may be difficult to accept, because leading police chiefs are saying that our practices need to change dramatically,” PERF’s Executive Director, Chuck Wexler, wrote in the introduction.
Read More →Following a Justice Department report on the use of lethal force by Philadelphia police, Mayor Michael Nutter yesterday signed an executive order creating an independent oversight committee to implement the report's recommendations.
Read More →Having served as an officer at a large municipal police department, and now as a scholar who researches policing, I am intimately familiar with police training. I’ve also had long conversations with trainers and use-of-force instructors at law enforcement agencies across the country, and they’ve all led to one conclusion: American police officers are among the best-trained in the world, but what they’re trained to do is part of the problem.
Read More →The 1989 case of Graham v. Connor is an example of how the actions of one officer can start a process that establishes law. Using the Graham standard, an officer must apply constitutionally appropriate levels of force based on the unique circumstances.
Read More →Miami Beach police officers will no longer treat a moving car as a deadly weapon — meaning officers won’t be allowed to shoot at one unless someone inside displays a weapon or opens fire first.
Read More →Pierre (S.D.) PD police are being sued by the mother of an 8-year-old girl, claiming police used excessive force when they used a TASER on the girl during a 2013 incident at their home.
Read More →A senior NYPD official said one change under discussion was the expanded use of Taser stun guns, which are available to a small number of New York officers but have been controversial there and elsewhere because of the risk they can pose to people with heart problems and other medical issues
Read More →Every New York Police Department officer will be retrained in the use of force following the death of a Staten Island man after an officer subdued him with an apparent chokehold, Commissioner William Bratton said Tuesday.
Read More →But in alerting U.S. District Judge Marsha Pechman to the prior finding, the notice gave Pechman an option to keep the case, transfer it to the other judge, U.S. District Judge James Robart, or consult with him on what course to take.
Read More →The civil-rights suit, filed in U.S. District Court, contends the changes have effectively created “hesitation and paralysis” among officers, stripping them of their constitutional and legal right to make reasonable, split-second judgments in the line of duty.
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