Elsevier

Journal of Criminal Justice

Volume 31, Issue 2, March–April 2003, Pages 119-127
Journal of Criminal Justice

Police use of force: examining the relationship between calls for service and the balance of police force and suspect resistance

https://doi.org/10.1016/S0047-2352(02)00219-2Get rights and content

Abstract

Over the past decade, the use of force by the police has become an important public policy concern and topic of social science research. A number of researchers hypothesized about the factors that explain the amount of force used by police officers. Prior research focused almost exclusively on the highest level of force used in police–citizen interactions and neglected to examine the relative amount of forced used by the police compared to that used by suspects. To address this shortcoming, this study analyzed data from three years of official use-of-force reports in the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD). Contrary to studies that examine only the use of force by the police, this study found that the relative amount of force used by the police was greatest in the less threatening types of offenses. The implications of this study for research and policy are discussed.

Introduction

The use of force by the police in their enforcement encounters with the public is becoming an increasingly contentious issue. When the police are involved in an encounter with a citizen, it is usually following a call for service, and the gravity of such calls can range from benign to life-threatening. Thus, there is a deal of uncertainty for officers who respond to calls for service. Officers rarely know exactly what they will encounter when they arrive at the call. Police officers, for example, cannot know whether the citizens with whom they interact will be cooperative or combative and can make up assumptions either way. The likelihood that the police will encounter uncertainty or violence means the police are trained to quickly assess the situation and to act to maintain control. Police have numerous ways to maintain order, but the one that sets them apart from other citizens is their right to use physical force.

The police must be prepared to use force under circumstances in which its rationale is often morally, legally, and practically ambiguous (Hunt, 1985). There is undoubtedly a fine line between the necessary force to achieve legitimate police objectives and the use of excessive force. Many situations to which officers are called require them to make split-second judgments that result in actions that retrospectively can be viewed as unnecessary. One of the most problematic issues is what level of force is necessary to facilitate an arrest. Most citizens would agree that the use of a reasonable amount of force in order to ensure public safety is appropriate. When an officer uses force that may be considered excessive or unwarranted, the tenuous public approval for police authority is shaken.

The power entrusted to the police to deprive citizens of “life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness” in the name of public safety makes studying police use of force one of the most important topics for social science research. Media events depict prominent abuses of force, such as the Rodney King incident, as examples of the frequent cases undertaken by overzealous officers. Moreover, high-profile cases often result in multimillion-dollar judgments against police departments (MacManus, 1997). Even though these incidents are the exception rather than the rule, they have promulgated a movement for police department policy reform.

Clearly, there are serious social and legal consequences to police-use-of-force situations. In contrast to the high-profile cases detailed in the media, the majority of police use-of-force cases involve situations in which a suspect resists a police officer's orders and a minor case of force occurs (Adams, 1999). The purpose of this article is to analyze physical force and resistance in police–citizen encounters by investigating the original call received by the officer. Before turning to an analysis of the data on force, a brief review of the literature on police–citizen encounters is provided.

Section snippets

Police interactions with citizens

There has been a rich history of research on the way police officers interact with citizens. Sykes and Clark (1975) propose an interesting theory of police and citizen interactions and hypothesize that police behavior should be explained in terms of the norms that influence their relations with civilians, norms that are acknowledged by both parties. These norms include the racial identities, behavioral cues, and other relations between those of unequal status. As police regard themselves as

Interactions that result in the use of force

Fortunately, police use of force is a relatively rare event. Whether measured by use-of-force reports, citizen complaints, victim surveys, or observational methods, the data consistently indicate that only a small percentage of police–public interactions involve the use of force Adams, 1999, International Association of Chiefs of Police, 2002. For example, the 1996 and 1999 Police Public Contact Survey developed by the Bureau of Justice Statistics found that about 1 percent of people who had

Present study

Prior research on police use of force and citizen use of force against the police generally focused on the highest level of force used in an encounter. It is likely, however, that the majority of situations involving the use of force by police officers are the result of an escalation of conflict between police officers and civilians. Regardless of which party initiates the situation where force is used, the fact remains that a continuum of force exists and, further, that officer force and

Method

The data in this study consisted of all control of persons reports (use-of-force reports) collected from 1996 to 1998 by the Miami-Dade Police Department (MDPD) that contained complete information on suspect and officer force (N=673).1

Results

An analysis of variance(ANOVA) was employed to examine whether there were any statistically significant differences across the calls for service categories in the level of force used relative to suspect resistance. ANOVA models are intended for applications where the effects of one or more factors on the response variable are of interest (Neter, Kutner, Nachtsheim, & Wasserman, 1996). ANOVA was an appropriate method to compare mean differences in the level of force across types of calls for

Discussion and conclusion

Police use of force is an important topic due to its social and legal implications. Research on this topic needs to be able to provide insight on the mechanisms that might cause or prevent excessive police action. The present study illuminated this issue by examining the relative force across calls for service. The majority of findings were insignificant, but there were a couple of noteworthy findings. The most noteworthy finding was the statistically significant difference in the levels of

Acknowledgements

Support for this research was provided, in part, by grant 98-IJ-CX-0018 from the National Institute of Justice, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view stated in this article are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official positions of the Department of Justice.

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