The Pros And Cons Of Police Abuse

1495 Words3 Pages

Police abuse is a relevant and timely issue that affects communities across the country. The majority of victims of police violence are ethnic (particularly people African-American and Hispanic descent). Civil liability is legal damages awarded in a civil lawsuit. The award amounts due to civil liability suits against police departments is the subject of heated debate and media scrutiny. There are several studies which review the use of excessive force. Three articles in this literature review discuss the use of excessive force; two in regards to civil liability while the third is a survey of officers’ attitudes. Landmark court cases are discussed. Solutions to the use of excessive force are reviewed.
Keywords: excessive force, police abuse,
Connor (1989) where the Supreme Court created limitations under the constitution. The court decided that “‘excessive forces in the course of arrest, investigatory stop, or other ‘seizure’ of a person are properly analyzed under the Fourth Amendment 's 'objective reasonableness ' standard (Lee & Vaughn, 2010)." In addition, the case of City of Canton v. Harris (1989) showed that agencies are liable under Section 1983 if they fail to properly train police officers. "The Court reasoned that municipalities are deliberately indifferent to the inhabitants ' constitutional rights when they do not train their officers regarding the appropriate use of force... (Lee & Vaughn,
In addition, women face incredible challenges when the progress in their careers, such as harassment and discrimination. These problems negatively affect police departments nationwide.
The third journal article was written by policing scholars and details police attitudes about police violence and abuse. The abuse of police authority: A national study of police officers ' attitudes was the first national study of its kind. Researchers interviewed over 900 police officers in over 5,000 police departments across the country. An interesting finding is that officers believe the "potential for abuse of police authority comes directly from the heightened community expectations and the closer community-police contact (Weisburg, Greenspan, E. Hamilton, Bryant, & Williams, 2001)." In addition, "Participants indicated the need for more experienced officers to take a lead in helping officers cope with the stress of the job and their personal lives (Weisburg, Greenspan, E. Hamilton, Bryant, & Williams, 2001)." While this report does not touch on civil liability it does discuss abuse of authority and community policing. It goes over how supervisors handle misconduct complaints and allegations. It gives readers a viewpoint into the culture of policing and the mindset of officers and their supervisors, decisions are made. This article is helpful in that it provides an inside look into the lives of police

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