Week 4 – Essay 2
Topic: Police Discretion, Use of Force, and De-escalation
This week you are presented with the body camera footage from two police officers in two unrelated incidents. Watch and listen to the officers in each incident. Be mindful of possible tactical skills and de-escalation skills that were employed or not exercised. Both incidents ended very differently.
Body Camera Footage 1
https://www.citizen-times.com/videos/news/local/2018/03/01/apd-chase-beat-man-they-say-jaywalked/110950514/
Body Camera Footage 2
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/95090133-132.html
Before you write your essay, consider the following definitions and research findings:
Police discretion is the flexibility police officers have in deciding between multiple courses of action to resolve a situation in the course of performing their duties. Research identifies several factors that determine whether law enforcement officers decide to enforce or not enforce laws: (1) the officer’s personal feelings regarding the severity of an offense and the potential risk it poses to the public; (2) the specifics of a situation; and (3) supervisor expectations of how officers will carry out their job functions (Ishoy, 2016). Other studies find that if an offender is a resident in the community where the offense occurs, an officer is 18% less likely to arrest the offender, especially if the offender is under the age of 21 or over the age of 51 (McCamman & Mowen, 2017).
Use of force is the amount of police effort necessary to get a resistant suspect to comply. Below read the case Graham v. Connor (1989). The United States Supreme Court determined that the Fourth Amendment’s objective reasonableness standard should be the measure used in alleged excessive use of force cases.
GRAHAM v. CONNOR, (1989) [http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/490/386.html]
All claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force – deadly or not – in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a free citizen are properly analyzed under the Fourth Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” standard, rather than under a substantive due process standard.
Points of interest from this case:
a. If use of force is being questioned, it has to be based on a specific constitutional right infringement. You have to judge this claim of constitutional right infringement by the specific constitutional standard which governs that right. What specific constitutional right is being infringed upon?
b. Claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a free citizen are most properly characterized as invoking the protections of the Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right “to be secure in their persons . . . against unreasonable seizures,” and must be judged by reference to the Fourth Amendment’s “reasonableness” standard.
c. The Fourth Amendment must be the guide to judge law enforcement excessive force incidents in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a free citizen.
De-escalation is when officers reduce the intensity of a potentially violent situation. It is the actions of the suspect (their level of cooperation or resistance) that impacts the discretionary powers of the police in deciding how to de-escalate the situation, if possible.
Based on the above information, respond to the following questions:
1. When comparing Body Camera Footage 1 to Body Camera Footage 2, how does the severity of the crime in each incident compare with the discretionary tactics employed by the officers involved? What biblical principles can you apply to the better approach?
2. Assignment help – Discuss whether the suspect in each incident posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officers, himself, or the public. Consider if each suspect was actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight?
3. When comparing the two incidents, why do you think one ended more appropriately than the other?
4. Why are non-coercive measures such as conversational requests and directives better than coercive measures?
Requirements: In your essay, support your views with the required readings and study materials for this week, or other scholarly sources to support your statements. Four in-text citations are required for this assignment. Your paper must be formatted using 12 pt. Times New Roman font, with a 400-word minimum/425-word maximum double-spaced. (Do not include a Title page or Reference page).
Submit this assignment by 11:59 p.m. (ET) on Monday of Module/Week 4.
Ishoy, G. A., & Dabney, D. A. (2017). Policing and the Focal Concerns Framework: Exploring How its Core Components Apply to the Discretionary Enforcement Decisions of Police Officers. Deviant Behavior, 1-18. doi:10.1080/01639625.2017.1335537
McCamman, M. & Mowen, T. (2017). Does residency matter? Local residency as a predictor of arrest, Criminal Justice Studies, DOI: 10.1080/1478601X.2017.1420651
Police Discretion, Use of Force, and De-escalation
Student’s Name:
Institution:
Police Discretion, Use of Force, and De-escalation
1. How does the severity of the crime in each incident compare with the discretionary tactics employed by the officers involved?
The two footage shows that the police are presented with different situations that call for them to act in the most reasonable way of handling their suspects/ victims. In the first footage, the police officers use excessive force in handling a suspect who poses no threat to them. The suspect runs away, and when the police catch up with him, they hit him and use a Taser on him as opposed to arresting him without much violence. On the other hand, the police officer is faced with actual threats from the suspect and the members of the public (Ishoy and Dabney, 2018). In this case, the suspect resists arrest from the police and wrestles him on the ground. Additionally, the members of the public join the suspect in beating up the police. At this point, the police would have used reasonable force since the suspect, and the members of the public posed a threat to his life while he was on duty. This fact shows that the police acted contrary to the expectation based on the existing circumstances of threats and levels of violence in the two footages.
2. Assignment help – Discuss whether the suspect in each incident posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officers, himself, or the public. Consider if each suspect was actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight?
In the first footage, the suspect did not pose any threat to the officers, but he was actually protesting for the arrests arguing that he was on his way home, and that cannot be connected to any form of crime (Ishoy and Dabney, 2018). In this case, the suspect runs away to resist the arrest, meaning that he was not a threat to the officers on duty. On the other hand, in footage two, the suspect posed a great threat to the police officer to the point that he wrestled him on the ground. The suspect, in this case, resisted arrest both actively and forcefully to the point of attracting the members of the public that joined in beating up the police officer.
3. When comparing the two incidents, why do you think one ended more appropriately than the other?
The incident in the first footage ended in a more appropriate manner as compared to the incident in the second footage. The police are at discretion to act based on different factors such as the circumstances and expectations, thus determining the reasonableness in their action (McCamman and Mowen, 2018). The first incidence ended in a more appropriate way because the police used more force, thus subduing the suspect and arresting him. On the other hand, second footage, the police officer did not use the required force, thus prompting the suspect to forcefully resist the arrests and subsequently wrestle the officer on the ground. The fact that the police officer did not use force further inclined the members of the public to beat him while he was on the ground with the suspect. In the case, if the police officer used reasonable force, he would have arrested the suspect and kept away the members of the public.
4. Why are non-coercive measures such as conversational requests and directives better than coercive measures?
The non-coercive measures are better in different ways as compared to coercive measures. First, the use of non-coercive measures improves the relationship and reputation between members of the public and the police (Goodman and Delahunty, 2020). This ensures that they can law and order can be effectively maintained in society. Consequently, non-coercive measures ensure that the rights of the suspect are honored and upheld even as their case proceeds to the other levels of the criminal justice system. This approach ensures that the suspect cannot raise an objective3 in a court of law of their rights under the fourth amendment being disregarded.
References
Goodman-Delahunty, J., & Martschuk, N. (2020). Securing reliable information in investigative interviews: Coercive and noncoercive strategies preceding turning points. Police Practice and Research, 21(2), 152-171.
Ishoy, G. A., & Dabney, D. A. (2018). Policing and the focal concerns framework: Exploring how its core components apply to the discretionary enforcement decisions of police officers. Deviant Behavior, 39(7), 878-895. Retrieved from doi:10.1080/01639625.2017.1335537
McCamman, M., & Mowen, T. (2018). Does residency matter? Local residency as a predictor of arrest. Criminal Justice Studies, 31(2), 128-142. Retrieved from DOI: 10.1080/1478601X.2017.1420651
