Excessive Force In Law Enforcement

How do you judge what is excessive force. People not in law enforcement would judge an officer tazering someone who is being noncompliant as excessive. But the officer could view it as nullifying as aggressive suspect, so they can be searched for weapons that could be used to harm the officer and others as well as arrested for any crimes they have committed. Police are required to make fast judgment calls in situations that normal people would not be in. So how can people who aren’t in those situations judge the incident and say that the force used is excessive? What the officer sees as necessary, a civilian could see as excessive. At the same time the conduct of officers in the performance of their duties must be watched so that cases of excessive …show more content…
It is only after the completion of POST training that a recruit is allowed to begin duties as a police officer, and then must complete additional field training under the direct supervision of a training officer. According to the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), excluding any field training, the duration of a POST recruit's training is approximately 18 to 24 weeks. The amount of time need for training at POST academies can vary anywhere from four weeks to six months with some going as long as a year. The standard POST recruit class can have and where from 21 to 32 recruits, with the larger academies having a much larger class sizes. Training at POST is all inclusive. Recruits will be trained in everything from firearms, to skills to subdue a suspect, and even basic foreign language and problem solving. They are taught the laws of their state and how to command, control, and deescalate situations that they may become involved in. Once POST is completed, field training is the next step in the officers training. In field training officers are supervised by training officers who accompany them on patrol. A new officer is often required to work different shifts, such as night versus days and weekends versus weekdays, to gain experience in the different situations that are encountered in …show more content…
In case where the alleged brutality is reported an investigation of the case is conducted. The investigation of police brutality has often been in the hands of an internal police commissions and/or district attorney. These internal police commissions have often come under fire from the media for a lack of accountability in their finding, as well as having a bias that favors officers. This is backed by the fact that they have quite frequently declared that the officer acted within the department's rules, or according to their training. In an effort to change this police departments have begun implementing oversight by civilians in the form of a civilian complaint review board. After shooting officers are required by most departments to file a written report after they discharge their firearm, and then those reports are reviewed by higher-ranking officers. According to the ACLU, "the police department should establish an early warning system to identify officers who are involved in an inordinate number of inappropriate physical force incidents." While great strides have been made to combat police brutality many still believe that there is more that can be