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Trace Pearson
Professor Bown
English 2010
17 February 2015
Should Police Change Lethal Force Tactics?

Source: Flickr

The radio crackles, Dispatch calls for any officers in the area to race to
an address. Adrenaline is surging, hands sweat, eyes focus. They do not get
to pick where or when a call takes place, they do get training to prepare for
how they handle it. All across the country this happens twenty four hours a

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day, every day of the year. An officer does not know what they are running
towards, they do not know who if anyone will be there to support them.
They could potentially face someone with mental health issues or someone
under the influence of drugs. The only constant that they have is the training
they got at the beginning of their career in Peace Officer Standards and
Training. Meanwhile the public of this nation do not see every interaction that
law enforcement agencies have with the people. They do however, see those
instances when the police have either responded poorly or have been
perceived to have responded poorly. It is these cases that cause the public to
mistrust law enforcement officers, question the authority that law
enforcement has, and the authority they have to use lethal force.
Media outlets have a large influence on publics opinion of law
enforcement. They have the power to expose the wrong doings and poor
decisions. They can also abuse that power to exaggerate issues that are not
there for the sake of boosting ratings.
With the recent police shootings race has been a center issue. In a
2009 Centers for Disease Control Morbidity and Mortality Report they show
homicide and legal intervention statistics by race. Blacks by far have the
highest with 1642, the next highest is white with 955(see fig. 1).
Unfortunately this statistic includes homicides as well as lethal force from
police officers, but clearly African Americans are the biggest victims of lethal
violence. It is hard defend the idea that this is not about race. There are

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underlying socio-economic factors that are hard to track that could be

related to this number.

Race/Ethnicity
White, non-Hispanic

955

(31.0)

3.4

533

(54.3)

1.8

1,488

Black, non-Hispanic

1642

(53.4)

27.4

333

(33.9)

5.0

1,975

Asian/Pacific Islander

48

(1.6)

1.2

19

(1.9)

67

American Indian/Alaska Native

78

(2.5)

15.3

19

(1.9)

97

Hispanic**

333

(10.8)

7.6

73

(7.4)

1.8

406

Other

18

(0.6)

(0.4)

22

Unknown

(0.0)

(0.0)

Total

3,076

(100.0)

7.7

981

(100.0)

2.4

4,057

Source: http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss6106a1.htm
In a 2008 Police Public Contact survey of the 1.4% that had force use
or threatened 74% felt that force was excessive (bureau). One solution to
this problem could be the technology of body cameras. A body camera study
was done in Rialto, CA the results show a cut of incidents in half (Farrar 8).
The point of the study was to show that you are more likely to behave when
you know other people are watching. This advance can only help the issue of
excessive force, even if the officer still uses force the camera would record
the incident gathering evidence that would not have been seen.
Procedures
The public needs to understand the current laws dictating when the
usage of lethal force is acceptable. It is an accepted rule that somebody with

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a weapon is considered dangerous if they are 21 feet away. This is due to the
time it takes an adult to sprint 21 feet compared to the average time an
officer can react and draw their weapon. Police do not have to respond in a
symmetrical method to an aggressor. Lethal force can be used to stop
serious bodily harm. A supreme court decision in the 1980s allows police to
react the way they do today. Chief Justice William Rehnquist said of the case
"The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a
reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. The calculus
of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced
to make split-second judgmentsin circumstances that are tense, uncertain and rapidly
evolvingabout the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation. The test of
reasonableness is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application"(Graham v
Connor). As long as the officer perceives the need for lethal force it is perfectly legal.
There are people that disagree with this decision, feeling that this gives police too
much authority. Critics of law governing the use of force say they give poorly-trained or
rogue police officers the benefit of the doubt in cases where they have harmed or killed
suspects who actually posed little threat (Leonnig). The supreme court decision only
exacerbates the concern that there is un unbalanced power in favor of the police. The issue
of body cameras could solve this concern, the footage captured would show what actually
happened versus what the officer perceived.
As long as training is viewed as a dynamic it can change and adapt to address future
issues. The public has many concerns about how police handle confrontations, there is also
a misunderstanding about what the can legally do and why there are no legal ramifications
when an officer has to take a life. There are ways for law enforcement to balance out their

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lethality with better training and technology that can support or disprove what an officer
said.

Works Cited
Farrar, Tony Self-awareness to being watched and socially-desirable behavior
Police Foundation.

March 2013. Web. 14 Feb. 2015.

Leonnig, Carol Current law gives police wide latitude to use deadly force
Washington Post. 28 Aug.

2014. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.

Use of force Bureau of Justice Statistics. 2008. Web. 17 Feb. 2015.

Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report Centers for Disease Control. 2009. Web. 17
Feb. 2015

Graham v. Connor. 490 U.S. Supreme Court. 1989.

Garda ERU SWAT Team. Digital Image. Flickr. 30 Oct. 2013. Web. 23 February 2015

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