What Is Excessive Force? | Police Brutality Center (2024)

Excessive force by police is apublic crisisthat has not improved despite media attention and growing public outrage.

United States police kill farmore peoplethan any other country:

• U.S. police kill nearly 1,100 people every year, with Canada in second place at 36.
• U.S. police kill 33.5 people out of every 10 million with Canada in second place at 9.8.
• European countries have death rates of 2.3 per 10 million people or less.
• Police are twice as likely to use force against Black and Latinx Americans than whites.
• Police are more than twice as likely to pull over Black drivers in “investigatory stops.”
• Approximately half of all high-profile police killings are of people with disabilities.

Tasers areconducted-electricity weaponsthat override the nervous system for five seconds, rendering the individual incapable of movement. Chemical sprays, such as pepper spray, are eye, skin, and respiratory system irritants.

Their intended purpose is to save lives by providing alternatives to lethal force while apprehending noncompliant suspects who pose a threat. However, they can be improperly used when:

• Officers are not properly trained in their use.
• Police overuse them.
• Police use them as punishments and implements oftorture, even after suspects are handcuffed and placed in police vehicles.
• Police sometimes confuse a gun with a taser, as in the shooting of Daunte Wright by Kim Potter.

At least 500 people have died from police use of tasers since 2010, and 39 percent were Black.

The right to peacefully protest is protected by the Constitution, but police routinely use dangerous weapons against protestors without warning. Black Lives Matter protestors have repeatedly been met with tear gas, rubber bullets, beanbag rounds, and disorientation devices.

Although the media has sensationalized these protests with images of burning buildings and violence, the majority of BLM protests have been peaceful and posed no danger to officers, civilians, or property.

The following uses of force have been employed:

• Tear gas: In one analysis, 53 of 1,981 people exposed to tear gas died, 71 sustained serious injuries, and 300 became permanently disabled.
• Rubber bullets and beanbag rounds: These are no longer considered nonlethal but less lethal. Despite manufacturer warnings, police often aim rounds at the head, face, and stomach.
• Disorientation andacoustic devicessuch as flashbangs and sound cannons: These create painfully loud noises and blinding flashes of light. They cause long-term hearing damage, internal injuries, and blunt force trauma.

In 1990,Rodney King, a well-known victim of excessive force, was beaten with batons by four police officers at a traffic stop. He received 56 blows, resulting in a broken leg and multiple facial fractures.

According toAmnesty International, only large muscled areas of the body should be struck, and more than one strike may be excessive use of physical force and a human rights violation.

Firearms are the lethal weapons of choice in the use of deadly force by police officers. Approximately96 percent of killings by policeare shootings. The high rate of police shootings in the United States in contrast to other developed nations raises questions about the legitimacy of these shootings.

The following high-profile excessive-force cases show instances of unjustified police shootings:

Walter Scott, an unarmed 50-year-old Black man was shot in the back as he fled following a traffic stop.

The fourth amendment guarantees protection against unreasonable searches and seizures and requires probable cause. Excessive force by law enforcement is an unreasonable seizure.

The Supreme Court as well as lower courts have defined thestandard of reasonablenessas follows:

• A police officer may only use as much force as is “objectively reasonable” under the circ*mstances.
• The reasonableness of the level of force must be judged from the perspective of any fair-minded officer under the circ*mstances and not with the advantage of hindsight.
• The officer’s intent or motive is not relevant in determining reasonableness.

The Civil Rights Act prohibits discriminatory treatment by state and local law enforcement agencies based on the following:

• Race
• Color
• National origin
• Sex
• Religion

Theintention of 42 U.S.C. § 1983was to give individuals the right to sue government officials, including law enforcement, when their Constitutional rights are violated.

However, this statute institutesqualified immunity, a doctrine that allows officers to escape civil liability unless the following can be established after the court considers the totality of the circ*mstances:

• The officer violated an individual’s constitutional rights.
• The right that was violated is “clearly established.”