The Use Of Force Continuum For Police Officers

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Use of Force Continuum
Siry T. Then
CJCR 3700
Georgia Gwinnett CollegeUse of Force Continuum
Law enforcement officers are in constant dangerous situations while out doing their responsibilities. When in these threatening situations, police officers typically have little to no time to determine the right precaution. These precautions may lead to the death of a suspect or even the officer themselves. The media has recently shed light on police brutality with use of force. Use of force could be defined as the amount of effort an officer must use in order to make an unwilling subject compel. Police officers are usually trained to enable the proper responsible to a dangerous situation they may be put in. In this paper I will go through the guidelines that a police officer must obey when considering a certain degree of use of force. Within each guideline there will be the pro and cons with that situation and also a recent case that happened. This paper will also talk about how this topic can be addressed more properly. These guidelines that officer are taught during their training are called Use of Force Continuum.
The purpose of a Use of Force Continuum is to clarify, to both the law enforcement officer and residents, the proper guideline as to how much force may be used against a resisting subject in a given situation.
Using The Use-of-Force Continuum (n.d.), it listed the guidelines and what each one stands for, as follows:
Officer presence; no force is used, and considered the best way to resolve a situation. The presence of a law enforcement officer in a particular place can prevent crimes and/or even diffuse a situation. A good situation in which the officer’s presence could help is at schools. The pro for this situati...

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...using chemical sprays or projectiles implanted with chemicals, such as pepper spray. Officers may also use “Conducted Energy Devices, CEDS” to control an individual, these weapons are usually known as Tasers. Tasers release a high-voltage jolt of electricity from a distance. A good situation in which law enforcement officers use this guideline is when they are trying to control riots. Using less-lethal technologies officers may be able to control a large group, if they are not able to restrain them then officers will be left to use blunt impact, chemicals such as tear gas or pepper spray, or even conducted energy devices until they are able to get ahold of the situation

References
N.p (n.d.). The Use-of-Force Continuum. National Institute of Justice. Retrieved from http://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/officer-safety/use-of- force/pages/continuum.aspx

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