Tag: use of force

10 Tips for Reviewing Use-of-Force Reports

While the burden of accurately reporting use-of-force situations is on an individual deputy or officer, the person reviewing those reports shares in the responsibility of making sure the reporting is done properly, with clear details included.

May 10, 2023

Using the OODA Loop as a Hindsight Analytical Tool

Officers will tell you “what” happened, as they should, simply based on the fact that you asked. But in my experience the more important question is, “Why did this happen?”

February 20, 2023

Guest Editorial: Police Are Not Brutal Racists

First, let’s start with something that is indisputable, and no one has said it better than Charleston (SC) Police Chief Luther Reynolds. “There is no department in this country that doesn’t have the room to get better,” he declared.

February 3, 2023

Factors to Consider Before Using Force to Effect an Arrest

Legally, any use of force by law enforcement must be objectively reasonable, but we should also consider whether it is necessary.

January 11, 2023

Factors To Consider Before Using Force To Effect An Arrest

3 More Not-So-Obvious Areas of Focus for Police Trainers in 2023

It's a worthwhile exercise to speak with officers, shift supervisors, academy instructors, and any other "stakeholder" in the organization to unearth and understand areas in which even the smallest most incremental improvement can be made through increased training.

January 9, 2023

Reconciling the Duality of Defunding the Police and Demanding Higher Standards

The public, the press, and the political elites make all sorts of noise about wanting the very best of the best from the police. This legitimate desire—demand, even—is at least in part delegitimized when it comes from the same people who have vilified and eviscerated the police for the past half-decade.

January 6, 2023

San Francisco Officials Change Mind, Prohibit Use of Deadly Force by Police Robot

Pressure from activists caused board members such as Gordon Mar (D) to publicly switch their positions ahead of Tuesday’s vote. Mar said Tuesday that he had grown “increasingly uncomfortable” with the precedent the policy would set for other cities.

December 7, 2022

Point of Law: Pepper Spray and Unreasonable Force

Officers using pepper spray have to be able to justify that use of force under Graham v. Connor.

December 1, 2022

Pointoflawrgb 2col

Re-thinking how Police Train and Talk about the 21-Foot Rule

A key element to the entire discussion of the so-called 21-Foot Rule is the perceived intent of the subject and threat that the individual potentially poses.

September 26, 2022

Focus of Attention: Integrating Heady Concepts into Regular Police Training

Terms such as auditory exclusion, inattentional blindness, tunnel vision, tachypsychia are often used during testimony in police use-of-force cases, but can potentially be misused, misconstrued, misunderstood, or all of the above.

March 14, 2022

2021 in Review: Rising Crime, COVID Rules, and Court Cases

With just hours remaining until we ring in 2022, it's time for our annual retrospective on the year that was 2021—and what a year it was.

December 31, 2021

FBI May Shut Down UOF Database Over Lack of Agency Participation

The program was required to obtain data representing 60 percent of law enforcement officers, to meet a standard of quality set by the Office of Management and Budget, or else stop the effort by the end of 2022.

December 9, 2021

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