Use of Police Force and its Evolution from the 1970’s to the Present Time

Since modern policing started almost 200 years ago criminals most of the time never surrender on the first contact. Police and the use of force needed to subdue the suspect have seemed to always and will forever be under the microscope. This essay will be looking at the drastic changes from the 1970’s to present time and the correlations that might have caused the increase or decrease in effective means of force. The 1970’s was statistically a dangerous time for society. There was a lot happening in the world both politically and physically, between the Vietnam War ending and political movements stateside. In 1972 the New York Police Department fired over 2,500 rounds in a use of force; this was because of the increase in crime and lack of appropriate staffing. In 1994 Mayor Dinkins of NYC implemented a “Safe Streets, Safe City” program which cause a large influx of officers. Almost immediately following the program the amount of police shootings as a use of force drastically dropped, with a 20% decrease from 1995 to 1996. After these successful results from NYPD, departments across the nation began to follow suit. This Shaylor 2 is a positive situation in the public eye considering the police Use-of-Force Continuum was able to be dialed back. Unfortunately not all use of force situations is positive and with the increasing amount of surveillance on the streets it is almost impossible to use force without it being “police brutality” in some areas. 40 years ago if a police officer used a night stick to subdue a suspect nobody would have thought twice, now it is considered to be excessive force in the public eye. Most of the exaggeration is thanks to media and word of mouth observations, statistically it is vastly diffe... ... middle of paper ... ...n it is in the eye of the beholder. Police officers have never had an easy job, their jobs may have been easier at one point in time because 40 years ago they could use whatever force was necessary to subdue there subject. Nowadays police officers almost seem to second guess themselves on their ability to use force and Shaylor 4 the amount of paperwork that will follow. An article I read in a police magazine said “paperwork kills” and what it said was that almost 75% of all officer that had to threaten deadly force had the thought cross their minds that if they pulled the trigger that it would be the death of them from paperwork. If the community really understood what modern day police officers were up against and what situations they have to deal with, there would be significantly less “police brutality” cases. Unfortunately that is not the world we live in.