Thursday, January 29, 2015

Police and use of force


What is going on with excessive use of force by police?
Author: Natalie S. Longley

If we are going to open up the discussion regarding police use of excessive force, then we must first look at the larger picture regarding police misconduct, or the inappropriate/illegal actions taken by police officers while performing their official duties, and then work our way further into the issue.  By tracking the national reports throughout a certain time frame we can see the overall trend of what's occurring in regards to police misconduct and excessive use of force.  According to the National Police Misconduct Statistics and Reporting Project in 2010 they tracked 4,861 misconduct reports involving 6,613 sworn officers and 6,826 alleged victims.  There were 247 fatalities reported by this report and it's estimated that over 340 million dollars was spent in the fiscal year by the U.S. government on these cases.

Now, of the 6,613 officers that were involved in these misconduct cases, 1,575 of them were specifically accused of excessive use of force.  This means that in 2010 23.8% of all misconduct reports were related to excessive use of force, which is the largest category of misconduct reports in comparison to all other categories.  If we were to break down these 1,575 officers involved in excessive force complaints, we see that 897 of them were accused of physical use of force including fist strikes, holds, choke holds, baton strikes, etc. (56.9% or the majority).  The remaining officers were involved in the following: 232 accused of firearm misconduct (14.7%), 166 involved in taser incidents (10.6%), and the last of these cases involved a combination of force types, police dogs, chemical weapons, and police vehicles.

When we look at the 127 civilian deaths associated with credible excessive use of force complaints in 2010, we see that the majority of them were caused by firearms (71%), and the second largest majority of them were caused by physical force (15%).

When delving deeper into the pattern of civilian deaths caused by law enforcement, we find that from 2003 to 2009, of the 4,813 arrest related deaths, 61% of them were homicides caused by law enforcement personnel, according to the U.S. Department of Justice Statistics.  Of the male arrest related deaths, approximately 62% of them were homicides, about 49% for females.  The report also found that while only 127 of the total arrest related deaths were minors, 78% of those minors' deaths were in fact homicides inflicted by law enforcement, which is about 16% higher than the overall average.  When we break down these deaths by racial demographics, we can see that 63.1% of Hispanic deaths, 61.3% of black non-Hispanic deaths, and 60.9% of white non-Hispanic deaths were ruled as homicides.

When it comes to the outcome of complaints against police use of force we can really only take a look back at 2002 since that is the last time the bureau of justice statistics released a report about it.  In 2002 they found that of the 26,556 reported police use of force complaints 94% of them had a final disposition at the time of data collection.  Of those with a final disposition 34% were not sustained (insufficient evidence to prove the allegation), 25% were unfounded (allegation not based on fact or reported incident didn't occur), 23% were exonerated (alleged incident occurred but officers’ actions were deemed lawful), and 8% were sustained (sufficient evidence of allegation to warrant disciplinary action against an officer).  This means that in 2002 of the 26,566 use of force complaints against police, only about 2,000 of those complaints resulted in any sort of disciplinary actions against police officers.

According to “a multi-method evaluation of police use of force outcomes: final report to the National Institute of Justice” previous studies have shown that only 1-2% of police-citizen interactions result in threat or physical use of force by police, whereas 15-20% of arrests may end in police use of force to “control a resistant subject”.  Some studies have found that of those 1-2% of police-citizen interactions involving use of force only about 14% of those citizens claimed they sustained an injury.  Whether or not more or less of those citizens actually sustained an injury is unknown, the reports only tracked the claims.  Alternatively, some studies using official agency records found higher rates of injuries to civilians during police use of force incidents, roughly about 40%.  However, keep in mind that this disparity in injury rates can partially be contributed to differing research methodologies and different police departments.  An older Los Angeles Police Department use of force study (1992) found that flashlights resulted in moderate to major suspect injuries in about 80% of cases where they were used as a weapon.   They also found that “punching suspects resulted in major or moderate injuries 64% of the time, the use of the baton 61% of the time, and other bodily force 61%” (Alpert et. al, 2-4).  A use of force report on the Miami-Dade Police Department in 2000 found a similarly high likelihood of suspect injury to the Los Angeles study in regards to the use of a police baton.  Another study done in 2002 by Smith and Petrocelli also found that suspects were most likely to be injured when police used bodily force (Alpert et. al, 2-4). 

While it is crucial to examine civilian and suspect injury in police use of force interactions it is equally imperative to examine office injury during these interactions.  Again, according to “a multi-method evaluation of police use of force outcomes” there are mixed results in regards to the frequency of officer injury during these interactions.  Analysis of data collected from Miami-Dade PD (2000) and Baltimore County PD (1995) have found that officers have a relatively high injury rate during these interactions, about 38% for Miami and 25% for Baltimore.  However, many agencies with lower rates of officer injury allowed their officers to use OC spray (pepper spray), whereas agencies with higher injury rates are not authorized to use OC spray.  In Miami-Dade PD it was found that the “greatest likelihood of police injury occurred when officers attempted to subdue a suspect with bodily force, which accounted for 69% of injuries” (Alpert et. al, 2-5).  Similar results were found during analysis of multiple agencies, regardless of their methodology.  Overall the evidence shows that using hands on tactics increases the risk of injury to an officer.  Three police departments were looked at to see if OC spray and CED’s (tasers) could reduce the risk of injury to officers and suspects.  Analysis of the Seattle PD found that CED’s reduced the risk of injury to suspects but not officers whereas OC spray made no difference to risk of injury for either.  Richland County PD saw a reduced risk of injury to suspects with OC spray and no difference with CED’s.  Miami-Dade PD saw a reduced risk of injury to suspects and officers with CED’s but was unauthorized to use OC spray.  Another thing to keep in mind when referring to this evidence is the differences in police departments, while some may have extensive training with OC spray/CED’s some may not, which could result in officers being more or less likely to utilize them.

The “emerging use of force issues” report from the International Association of Chiefs of Police published in March 2012, gives us a unique perspective into how this association recommended the U.S. address the police use of force issue.  They proposed that we need a standardized national use of force reporting system to collect data annually from these reports in order to conduct a national use of force analysis.  Additionally they recommended we conduct evaluations of use of force issues on mid-size and small police agencies instead of just metropolitan areas.  Also they recommended we develop a use of force management institute for police leaders and a publication for city officials regarding the issue.  This organization thinks we need a national survey to determine the current spectrum of police use of force training and develop a model for officer in-service use of force training.  While these aren't necessarily facts, more like insights from an organization that is currently effected by this issue, I think it’s important to see what reports and recommendations the U.S. Department of Justice and most likely our congressman are looking at.

Whether or not you think that police are overly forceful or just doing their jobs these are the facts surrounding the issue, and should be used to help you make an informed opinion on the matter.  It is up to you to decide if you think policies need to be changed regarding police use of force.  It is up to you to decide if something needs to be done about it, or if nothing needs to be done about it and the media is blowing everything out of proportion.  Regardless of where you now stand on the issue, don’t base your opinion off of the people who are screaming the loudest.  Base your opinion on all issues you are faced with by doing your own research, by only referring to good reputable sources with statistically significant data that backs up their conclusions! 

Works Cited
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