Alternatives to Deadly Force: A Look at Tasers, Pepper Spray, Bean Bag Guns and Batons

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Recommended: The use of a taser

The purpose is to explain the necessity and the alternatives to deadly force. Necessity of deadly force will include laws that have been passed by the United States Supreme Court, training methods and policies of Federal, State and Local agencies Alternatives to deadly force are less-lethal weapons that are used by law enforcement today, TASERS, pepper spray, bean bag guns and batons. Does deadly force need to be used against violent suspects?

Federal Law

Under federal law if a suspect poses a threat to a law enforcement officer or the public the officer has permission to use deadly force. The Supreme Court says there are two factors that are involved to use deadly force, dangerousness and necessity (Hall, 2004). An example of dangerousness is a suspect threatening an officer with a weapon. Necessity on the other hand is hard to prove and there has been legal issues surrounding the necessity of deadly force.

Legal Issues

The first legal issue is that deadly force was not necessary because there was a less lethal way of handling the situation meaning an officer would have to consider other options before he chooses to use deadly force. The second legal issue is that the officer’s actions made it necessary to use deadly force meaning the officer would have to know what the suspect is going to do and prevent the suspect from making the officer use deadly force. The starting point to these legal issues is Graham v. Connor a Supreme Court case in 1989.

Reasonableness Standard. The Supreme Court established a standard to the Fourth Amendment called objective reasonableness. Objective reasonableness assesses an officer’s use of force when making an arrest or any other seizure of a person. Since this case the Supreme Court has hel...

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...s should be aware of legal issues that are concerned with the TASER as well.

Fernandez, Elizabeth. (December 5th, 2006). “The Use of Force/SFPD has a ‘Beanbag Gun’ Officers Can Use to Subdue Suspects Who May be Mentally Ill”. Retrieved July 22, 2010.

The beanbag gun is an efficient less lethal weapon used by law enforcement because it can be used from a further distance when dealing with a violent suspect. Since September 2002 the beanbag gun has been used by the San Francisco Police Department 25 times to help subdue a suspect. According to Sgt. Rod Nakanishi it looks intimidating, so people just give up rather than be shot by a bean bag round. In the 25 incidents officers used the gun to resolve deadly encounters. The gun and ammunition seems safer for the officer and for the suspect due to the fact people do not die unless the officer aims in the wrong spot.

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