Use of Force by Police

U.S. Department of Justice RTMENT OF JUS Office of Justice Programs DEPA TICE S BJA GRAOMVSC OFF ICEN IJ UOSJJTDICP EBJPRO OF J

U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs 810 Seventh Street N.W. Washington, DC 20531 Janet Reno Attorney General Raymond C. Fisher Associate Attorney General Laurie Robinson Assistant Attorney General Noël Brennan Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jeremy Travis Jan M. Chaiken Director, National Institute of Justice Director, Bureau of Justice Statistics Office of Justice Programs National Institute of Justice Bureau of Justice Statistics World Wide Web Site World Wide Web Site World Wide Web Site http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/nij http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs

Use of Force by Police Overview of National and Local Data Contributors: Kenneth Adams Joel H. Garner Patrick A. Langan Geoffrey P. Alpert Lawrence A. Greenfeld Christopher D. Maxwell Roger G. Dunham Mark A. Henriquez Steven K. Smith October 1999 NCJ 176330

Jeremy Travis Jan M. Chaiken Director, National Institute of Justice Director, Bureau of Justice Statistics Robert J. Kaminski Program Manager, National Institute of Justice Acknowledgments: This report is indebted to many individuals and organizations for their valuable assistance and insights. Special thanks are extended to the law enforcement agen- cies that cooperated with the researchers whose findings appear in this report. In so doing, the following agencies demonstrated the type of leadership so critical to the advancement of policing practice and policy: Charlotte-Mecklenburg (North Carolina) Police Department, Colorado Springs (Colorado) Police Department, Dallas (Texas) Police Department, Eugene (Oregon) Police Department, Miami-Dade (Florida) Police Department, St. Petersburg (Florida) Police Department, San Diego (California) Police Department, San Diego County (California) Sheriff’s Department, Springfield (Oregon) Police Department, and the many departments that have participated in the use-of-force database project of the International Association of Chiefs of Police. Points of view expressed by contributors to this report do not necessarily represent the official positions or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. The National Institute of Justice and the Bureau of Justice Statistics are components of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, and the Office for Victims of Crime.

Foreword L aw enforcement officers are authorized jurisdictions, and offers a researcher’s sug- to use force in specified circumstances, gestions for a future research agenda on are trained in the use of force, and typically police use of force, with special attention face numerous circumstances during their given to issues of excessive force. careers when use of force is appropriate—for example, in making some arrests, restrain- Research consistently demonstrates that a ing unruly combatants, or controlling a dis- small percentage of police-public interac- ruptive demonstration. When the level of tions involve use of force. Various data force exceeds the level considered justifiable sources, including police use-of-force reports, under the circumstances, however, the activi- civilian complaints, victim surveys, and ob- ties of the police come under public scrutiny. servational methods, confirm this basic find- ing. For example, the 1996 pilot test of the Incidents involving the use of excessive force PPCS found that about 1 percent of people by the police frequently receive attention reporting contacts with police said that offic- from the media, legislators, and, in some ers used or threatened force. Beginning in instances, civil and even criminal courts. July 1999, the PPCS is being fielded to a Whether the excessive force is aberrant much larger sample than responded to the behavior of individual officers or is a pattern 1996 test, and the results will be presented and practice of an entire law enforcement in a report next year. In the years ahead, it agency, both the law and public opinion is expected that the PPCS will provide the condemn such incidents. basis for a legislatively mandated annual report by the Attorney General documenting This report is one in a series of publications the prevalence of the use of excessive force. by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) NIJ-sponsored research at the local level that seek to inform public discussion by found that, in the context of the subset examining police use of force from many per- of police-public contacts involving adult spectives. The report provides an overview custody arrests, police used physical force of the state of research knowledge about (handcuffing excluded) in less than 20 per- police use of force, updates progress on the cent of 7,512 arrests studied (chapter 4). national BJS Police-Public Contact Survey Even in those instances, police primarily (PPCS) and the database project of the Inter- used weaponless tactics, such as grabbing or national Association of Chiefs of Police, pro- holding, which is consistent with the view vides the latest findings from NIJ-supported that relatively minor types of force dominate use-of-force research projects in several local statistics on police use of force. That view iii

Use of Force by Police is further supported by research indicating public, enhancing the safety of the commu- that in incidents involving resistance by sus- nity and officers, and building widespread pects, their injuries resulting from police use support among those they serve. of force were typically minor (chapter 5). Jeremy Travis Ongoing research by NIJ and BJS seeks to Director provide the perspective, insight, and factual National Institute of Justice data needed by police and others to address use-of-force issues constructively. Through Jan M. Chaiken, Ph.D. this and other policing research, we seek Director to advance our goal of assisting law Bureau of Justice Statistics enforcement agencies in protecting the iv

Contents Foreword .............................................................................................................................. iii Executive Summary ......................................................................................................... vii 1. What We Know About Police Use of Force ................................................................ 1 by Kenneth Adams 2. Revising and Fielding the Police-Public Contact Survey ................................... 15 by Lawrence A. Greenfeld, Patrick A. Langan, and Steven K. Smith 3. IACP National Database Project on Police Use of Force .................................... 19 by Mark A. Henriquez 4. Measuring the Amount of Force Used By and Against the Police in Six Jurisdictions ........................................................................................................... 25 by Joel H. Garner and Christopher D. Maxwell 5. The Force Factor: Measuring and Assessing Police Use of Force and Suspect Resistance ....................................................................................................... 45 by Geoffrey P. Alpert and Roger G. Dunham 6. A Research Agenda on Police Use of Force ............................................................ 61 by Kenneth Adams Bibliography ....................................................................................................................... 75 v

Executive Summary R ecent developments have heightened For example, about 1 percent of people who The organization of the concern about police use of force. They had face-to-face contacts with police said executive summary par- range from well-publicized incidents involv- that officers used or threatened force, ac- allels that of the report ing allegations of excessive force to the onset cording to preliminary estimates based on as a whole; that is, the of “aggressive” policing, whose frequent the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ 1996 pretest order of topics highlighted emphasis on zero-tolerance enforcement is of its Police-Public Contact Survey (chapter in this summary tracks sometimes regarded as encouraging use-of- 2). In 7,512 adult custody arrests, another the chapter sequence. Oc- force abuses. No matter what specific event study (chapter 4) notes that fewer than one casional cross-references triggers concern about police use of force, out of five arrests involved police use of to specific chapters are how is the public to assess whether such physical force (defined as use of any weapon, intended to assist readers force is, in the aggregate, a major problem? use of any weaponless tactic, or use of severe in locating more detailed One way is to examine what research has restraints). That can be considered a low information. unearthed. rate in view of the study’s broad definition of force. Overview: What Do We Know About Police Use of Force? Also known with substantial confidence is that police use of force typically occurs at the As discussed in chapter 1, research-based lower end of the force spectrum, involving knowledge about police use of force can be grabbing, pushing, or shoving. In the study placed into three categories. The first per- focusing on 7,512 adult custody arrests, tains to knowledge that can be accepted with for instance, about 80 percent of arrests in substantial confidence as “fact.” The second which police used force involved use of weap- relates to use-of-force knowledge that can be onless tactics. Grabbing was the tactic used accepted only with modest confidence be- about half the time. About 2.1 percent of all cause, for example, additional research is arrests involved use of weapons by police. warranted. The third category consists of Chemical agents, such as pepper spray, were knowledge yet to be developed through the weapons most frequently used (1.2 per- research—that is, what is not yet known. cent of all arrests), with firearms least often used (0.2 percent). Known with substantial confidence From a police administrator’s point of view, Known with substantial confidence is that these findings are predictable. Officers are police use force infrequently. The data indi- trained to use force progressively along a cate that a small percentage of police-public continuum, and policy requires that officers encounters involve force. use the least amount of force necessary to vii

Use of Force by Police accomplish their goals. The kinds of police areas where it is difficult to decide whether actions that most arouse the public’s con- an officer acted properly, given credible evi- cerns—such as fatal shootings, severe dence that use of force was necessary. beatings with fists or batons that lead to hos- pitalization, and choke holds that cause un- Known with modest confidence consciousness or even death—are not typical of situations in which police use force. Regarding what is known with modest confi- dence about police use of force, chapter 1 When injuries occur as a result of the use identifies three conclusions suggested by of force, they are likely to be minor. In one research data: study (chapter 5), researchers found that the most common injury to a suspect was a q Use of force appears to be unrelated to an bruise or abrasion (48 percent). officer’s personal characteristics, such as age, gender, and ethnicity. This conclusion Another research finding that can be ac- should be accepted with caution, however. cepted with substantial confidence is that Additional verification is needed. use of force typically occurs when police are trying to make an arrest and the suspect is q Use of force is more likely to occur when resisting. This conclusion is based on four police are dealing with persons under the types of data: arrest statistics, surveys of po- influence of alcohol or drugs or with men- lice officers, observations of police behavior, tally ill individuals. Research findings in and reports by the public about their encoun- this area are inconsistent, however. Fur- ters with police. ther investigation, with an emphasis on implications for training, could lead to a The foregoing findings leave open the issue reduction in the risk of force and injury of excessive force because issues of propor- for both police officers and civilians. tionality are not clearly addressed. Research findings suggest, however, that many de- q A small proportion of officers are dispro- bates over excessive force will fall into gray portionately involved in use-of-force incidents. More research is needed. About this report sons age 12 or older. The other seeks to encourage as many local law enforcement This report is one of a series of use-of-force agencies as possible to submit voluntarily publications (see Bibliography, page 75) and anonymously use-of-force data to a generated by research supported by the central database for analysis. National Institute of Justice or Bureau of Justice Statistics. The data and findings Chapters 4 and 5 focus on the local level. herein contribute to a better understanding They present use-of-force findings based of the extent and nature of police use of on data acquired from nine police agencies. force and of the circumstances under which such force is applied. The final chapter looks ahead by proposing a research agenda on police use of force, A major objective of chapter 1 is to provide with special attention given to issues of an overview of what is known (and not excessive force. known) about police use of force and thereby help readers put the issue in per- Thus, this report begins with an overview spective. The next two chapters are updates of what is known about police use of force, of two national projects. One is designed to proceeds to outline what is being learned, collect data on police-public contacts, includ- and concludes with a proposed plan for ing those involving police use of force, from future research. a nationally representative sample of per- viii

Executive Summary Among what is not known lead to excessive force by police seem ob- “NCVS is based on inter- vious, or appear to be a matter of common views conducted with a As stated in chapter 1: “The incidence of sense, a great need for systematic re- nationally representative wrongful use of force by police is unknown. search in this area exists. sample of U.S. house- Research is critically needed to determine holds and has become a reliably, validly, and precisely how often q Influences of situational characteristics highly useful platform for transgressions of use-of-force powers occur.” on police use of force and the transac- testing new question- tional nature of these events are largely naires and periodically Researchers and practitioners both tend to unknown. For example, little is known implementing supple- presuppose that the incidence of excessive beyond research indicating that situations ments.” —Greenfeld, et force by police is very low. If use of force is most likely to involve police use of force al., page 15 of this report. uncommon, and civilian complaints are in- are interpersonal disturbance and violent frequent, and civilian injuries are few, then personal crime, and situations when sus- excessive force by police must be rare. That pects attempt to flee or physically resist conclusion may indeed be correct, but to the arrest. Those findings, however, do not extent that it hinges on official police statis- address the transactional, or step-by-step tics, it is open to serious challenge. unfolding, of police-public encounters. Was suspect resistance the result of police use Current indicators of excessive force, such as of force, or did police use force after expe- civilian complaints and civil lawsuits, are all riencing suspect resistance? critically flawed. The difficulties in measur- ing excessive force with complaint and Updates on Two National Projects lawsuit records have led academics and practitioners to redirect their attention to In 1996, the Bureau of Justice Statistics all use-of-force incidents. Theoretically, un- (BJS) and the International Association of derstanding all use-of-force incidents helps Chiefs of Police (IACP) initiated projects in- put wrongful use of force in perspective. volving collection of data encompassing po- lice use of force. Both are currently ongoing. As one example of how understanding all use-of-force incidents can help put excessive The BJS survey force in perspective, the study of 7,512 adult custody arrests (chapter 4) makes this To learn more about police use of force re- observation: quires an understanding of the reasons for and the results of police-public encounters. “ . . . most arrests involve no force, excessive As a step toward developing that under- or otherwise. When force is used, it typically standing, BJS supplemented the National involves less severe forms of tactics and Crime Victimization Survey with a pilot test weapon use. These findings provide a context of its Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS) in for understanding excessive force, which we 1996 (chapter 2). know can involve low-level acts of force . . . as well as the acts of force that result in Among the findings was a preliminary physical injury or death of civilians. Arrests estimate that about 1 percent of people re- that involve no force, however, cannot in- porting contacts with police indicated that volve excessive force and arrests that involve officers used or threatened force. In the low levels of force are less likely to involve majority of those instances, respondents said excessive force.” that their own actions, such as threatening police, may have provoked officers. Additional gaps in use-of-force knowledge include the following: In July 1999, a second test of PPCS was fielded to a much larger sample than that q The impact of differences in police organi- used in the 1996 pilot test. In addition, BJS zations, including administrative policies, anticipates adding items to its periodic sur- hiring, training, discipline, and use of veys conducted among nationally representa- technology, on excessive force is unknown. tive samples of those confined in local jails Although many conditions that arguably ix

Use of Force by Police “...IACP designed the and prisoners held by State and Federal the force factor, a measure of the level of project from the outset to authorities. The new survey items would force used by officers relative to the level of reflect operational reali- provide, for the first time, information about resistance by suspects. ties of modern, street-level respondents’ interactions, including use of law enforcement, includ- force, with police during the arrest preceding Study on the amount of force used in ing the very meaning of incarceration. six jurisdictions ‘police use of force,’ de- fined as the amount of The IACP database project The six-jurisdiction study (chapter 4) gath- force required by police to ered data about officers’ and suspects’ behav- compel compliance by an Initiated in 1996, the IACP database project iors in connection with 7,512 adult custody unwilling subject.” is designed to collect use-of-force information arrests (arrests in which suspects are trans- —Henriquez, page 20 of from law enforcement agencies across the ported to a detention facility, in contrast to this report. Nation (chapter 3). To promote accurate re- being issued a summons to appear before a porting and overcome potential reluctance judicial officer). The researchers focused on of agencies to participate, IACP decided that the amount of force used by and against po- provision of data would be both voluntary lice, with the expectation that this informa- and anonymous. tion would inform issues surrounding the use of excessive force. For instance, excessive Collected data pertain to reported use of force is typically but not necessarily associ- force stemming from police responses to calls ated with more severe forms of force that for service, whether or not those responses could or do result in injury or death. resulted in arrests. About 150 agencies are expected to contribute data for the 1998–99 Emerging from the research is a more complete data year. Among preliminary findings: understanding of the frequency with which cer- tain types of tactics are used and what types of q Based on 1995 data reported by 110 agen- weapons are displayed, threatened, or actually cies, the police use-of-force rate was 4.19 used. The consistent findings across all six per 10,000 responded-to calls for service, jurisdictions are that most arrests (more than or 0.0419 percent. 80 percent) did not involve force by police (ex- cluding handcuffing) or by suspects. In 98 per- q Based on data reported for 1996–97, 87 cent of arrests where force was used, no weapon percent of 62,411 use-of-force incidents was used, threatened, or even displayed. When involved officers using physical force. Of- police used some form of weaponless tactic (hit- ficers used chemical force in 7 percent of ting, kicking, wrestling, etc.), the most frequent the incidents, firearms in about 5 percent. tactic involved only grabbing (about half the time). q Based on available data for 1996–97, about 10 percent of 2,479 officers using force sus- In addition to providing data on the use of tained injuries, less than 1 percent serious. weapons and weaponless tactics, the study About 38 percent of subjects were injured identified three other elements, sometimes due to police use of force, with 1.5 percent included in the concept of use of force: sustaining major injuries. q Restraints. In about 82 percent of all Because the data are not yet nationally 7,512 arrests, officers reported use of representative, conclusions about national handcuffs. Leg cuffs were used in 0.9 per- use-of-force trends should not be attempted. cent of arrests. Officers used more severe restraints in 0.4 percent of arrests. Re- Two Local-Level Studies straints were not used in approximately 16 percent of arrests. One of the local-level studies measured the amount of force used by and against police q Motion. Pursuit on foot and by car oc- in six jurisdictions. The other measured and curred in 3 percent and 2.4 percent, re- assessed police use of force and suspect re- spectively, of all arrests. Pursuit did not sistance in three jurisdictions and developed x

Executive Summary occur in 94.4 percent of arrests. Suspect The two-city Oregon site of Eugene/ flight most frequently occurred by foot (in Springfield. Researchers analyzed 562 po- 4.7 percent of arrests). In 93.5 percent of lice actions, 57 percent of which were taken arrests, suspects did not flee. by officers responding to calls for service and 33 percent by officers reacting to situations q Voice. In 61.2 percent of arrests, police they had observed. The most common type of reported they used a conversational tone incident (25 percent) confronting officers was with suspects. street violence. Most police action (76 per- cent) was taken to apprehend or control a Among the measures of force used by police person. officers that were developed by the research- ers are physical force and physical force plus Officers often used more than one verbal or threats. The study found that 17.1 percent physical control tactic per incident. For in- of arrests involved physical force (use of a stance, 93 percent of 546 incidents involved weapon, weaponless tactic, or severe re- at least two tactics; 87 percent, at least three; straint) and that 18.9 percent entailed and 41 percent, at least four. The pattern of physical force or the display or threatened tactic use that emerged corresponds to the use of any weapon. traditional use-of-force continuum. The first tactic used in an incident is nearly always To better distinguish between different types the least severe use of force on the con- of force—such as between grabbing and kick- tinuum; the second is almost always the sec- ing—the researchers developed a maximum ond-most lenient; and so on, with very few force measure, which involved officers’ rank- exceptions. ing 60 hypothetical types of force in terms of their severity on a scale from 1 (least force- Of 504 reported incidents in which force was ful) to 100 (most forceful). When the mea- used, 1.8 percent resulted in injury to officers. sure was applied to the types of force officers They were most at risk for injury when wres- reported using, the study found that the tling, striking, or taking a suspect to the ranking score for commanding a suspect to ground. do something (1.3 percent of all arrests) was 22; for using handcuffs (57.3 percent of The level of force used by the department’s arrests), 28.2; and for displaying a handgun officers relative to the amount of the sus- (2.2 percent of arrests), 55.4. The average pects’ resistance—the force factor—averaged ranking score for the types of force used in slightly higher than the amount of resistance all arrests was 30. encountered. On average, more force than resistance was used. This does not necessar- The researchers state that their findings ily imply that the level of police force was are beginning to provide a stable picture of excessive. For example, an officer may justifi- police behavior and the amount of force that ably use more force than does a suspect to police use in arrest situations, but they note gain control of a situation. the findings remain tentative given the small number of jurisdictions involved in The Florida site. The study focused on data the research, among other reasons. in 882 official Control-of-Persons Reports prepared by officers’ supervisors in the Study on police use of force and Miami-Dade Police Department. Ninety- suspect resistance seven percent of suspects resisted. The study collected use-of-force data from The type of resistance most often reported three law enforcement agencies— police was actively resisting arrest (36 percent), fol- departments in two Oregon cities and one lowed by assaulting the officer (25 percent). county department in Florida (chapter 5). Twenty one percent of suspects attempted to The areas served by the Oregon departments escape or flee the scene. The most common were considered one site. type of force used by suspects was striking or xi

Use of Force by Police hitting the officer (44 percent). Initially calm A Proposed Research Agenda suspects were least likely to resist officers but were the most likely to flee and the most The development of a research agenda on likely to resist with a gun or assault officers police use of force, with special attention with a vehicle. given to issues of excessive force, should be guided by these general considerations. The most common type of suspect injury was a bruise or abrasion (48 percent of those in- q Research should provide new knowledge jured), followed by lacerations (24 percent), that significantly increases our under- and gunshot injuries (4 percent). The chance standing of the problem. of suspect injury was significant no matter what type of force was used by police. For q Research should be policy relevant. example, officer use of fists entailed an 81 percent chance of suspect injury; use of a q Research activities, taken as a whole, PR-24 baton, a 67 percent chance; and use of should be comprehensive and systematic. a handgun, a 48 percent chance. Within that general framework, more work Suspects who were reportedly impaired by is required on what various people—general alcohol or drugs were no more likely to resist public, minorities, police administrators, pa- officers than sober suspects. When they did trol officers, judges, offenders, etc.— have in resist, however, they were more likely than mind when they refer to excessive force and nonimpaired suspects to directly assault the how they adjudge specific instances of police officer and more than twice as likely to use behavior when questions of excessive force a gun. arise. This research is important because so- cial problems often require shared solutions, The most common type of force used by officers and shared solutions require a common basis was use of hands and arms (77 percent of use- of understanding and mutual respect for of-force incidents). In 64 percent of incidents, differences in views. officers grabbed or held suspects. There were no statistically significant differences in the Also needed is more and better data on level of force used by male and female officers. police use of force. Most discussions occur in The ethnicity of an officer did not affect the an empirical vacuum where arguments are general level of force used or whether force was made without the benefit of solid, useful used. information. Data suggest that officers are significantly Research is required on how use of force by at risk for injury when they use force, par- police varies across time, cities, and indi- ticularly when they strike a suspect with vidual police departments. Research also is their fists (48 percent chance) or use their needed on individual, situational, and orga- hands and arms to control a suspect (43 per- nizational factors related to variations in cent chance). Because most use-of-force inci- use-of-force levels, along with excessive force dents involved use of hands, arms, or fists levels and should focus on the relation be- by officers, they are most at risk for injury tween excessive use of force, meaning the when using precisely the types of force that frequency with which police use force, and they report using most frequently. excessive force, meaning instances in which police use more force than is necessary. Police officers’ use of force in relation to sus- pect resistance—the force factor—averaged Finally, interventions, changes, and reforms slightly less force than the resistance en- that may mitigate police use-of-force prob- countered. Data indicate that officers are lems should be identified, documented, and more likely to be injured when using less evaluated. force than that used by resisting suspects. xii

1 What We Know About Police Use of Force by Kenneth Adams A mbrose Bierce, a social critic known for operate as members of the community they Kenneth Adams, Ph.D., his sarcasm and wit, once described the serve. The community, in turn, enters into a is Associate Professor police as “an armed force for protection and solemn and consequential relationship with and Chair of the Crimi- participation.”1 In this pithy statement, the police, ceding to them the power to de- nal Justice Faculty, Bierce identifies three critical elements of prive persons of “life, liberty, and the pursuit School of Public and the police role. First, by describing the police of happiness” at a moment’s notice and de- Environmental Affairs, as “armed,” their ability to coerce recalci- pending on them for public safety. Without Indiana University– trant persons to comply with the law is em- police, the safety of the community is jeopar- Indianapolis. phasized. Because police carry weapons, dized. Without community support, police it follows that the force they use may have are dispossessed of their legitimacy and lethal consequences. The capacity to use robbed of their effectiveness. coercive, deadly force is so central to under- standing police functions, one could say that This three-element definition of police it characterizes a key element of the police makes it easy to understand why abuse of role. force by police is of such great concern. First, there is the humanitarian concern that po- Second, the primary purpose of police is lice are capable of inflicting serious, even le- protection, and so force can be used only to thal, harm on the public. Second, there is the promote the safety of the community. Police philosophical dilemma that in “protecting” have a responsibility for safeguarding the the whole of society, some of its constituent domestic well-being of the public, and this parts, meaning its citizens, may be injured. obligation even extends in qualified ways to Third, there is the political irony that police, protecting those who violate the law, who are who stand apart from society in terms of au- antagonistic or violent toward the police, or thority, law, and responsibility, also are part who are intent on hurting themselves. In of society and act on its behalf. Thus, rogue dealing with such individuals, police may actions by a few police, if condoned by the use force in reasonable and prudent ways to public, may become perceived as actions of protect themselves and others. However, the the citizenry. amount of force used should be proportional to the threat and limited to the least amount Recent developments in policing have el- required to accomplish legitimate police evated concerns about police use of force action. beyond ordinarily high levels. In particular, community policing, which is becoming wide- Third, the concept of participation empha- spread as a result of financial incentives by sizes that police and community are closely the Federal Government, and “aggressive” interrelated. Police are drawn from the policing, which is becoming widely adopted community, and as police they continue to as a solution to serious crime problems, have 1

Use of Force by Police come to the fore as perspectives of choice Use-of-force concerns also are reflected in by policing experts. Community policing the attention the media give to possible emphasizes the role of the community as instances of police abuse. An accumulation “coproducers” of law and order in conjunction of alleged abuse-of-force incidents, widely with the police. Communities naturally vary reported in the media, encourages over- in attributes, and they vary in how they are generalization by giving the impression that defined for the purposes of community polic- police brutality is rampant and that police ing. Consequently, some communities look to departments across the Nation are out of add restrictions on police use of force, while control. For example, Human Rights Watch others are satisfied with the status quo, and states, “Allegations of police abuse are rife in still others seek to ease current restrictions. cities throughout the country and take many Regardless of the community’s orientation forms.”3 on this issue, community policing means in- creased levels of accountability and respon- Before considering the details of recent siveness in key areas, such as use of force. research efforts on police use of force, it is Increased accountability hinges on new in- useful to summarize the state of our knowl- formation, and new information stimulates edge.4 We know some details about police debate. use of force with a high degree of certainty. These items represent “facts” that should The other emerging perspective is “aggres- frame our understanding of the issues. Other sive” policing, which often falls under the details about police use of force we know in rubric of broken windows theory, and, as a sketchy ways, or the research is contradic- strategic matter, is concerned with intensify- tory. These items should be subject to addi- ing enforcement against quality-of-life and tional research using more refined methods order maintenance offenses. The influence of of inquiry. Finally, there are some aspects of aggressive policing can be seen in the prolif- police use of force about which we know very eration of “zero tolerance” enforcement strat- little or next to nothing. These items repre- egies across the Nation. The concern is that sent critical directions for new inquiry. the threat posed by petty offenders may be exaggerated to the point that use of force As is often the case with important policy becomes more commonplace and abuses of questions, the information that we are most force more frequent. confident of is of limited value. In many cases, it does not tell us what we really need The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforce- to know, because it does not focus squarely ment Act of 1994 mirrored congressional on the important issues or is subject to concern about excessive force by authorizing competing interpretations. Conversely, the the Civil Rights Division of the U.S. Depart- information that is most critical for policy ment of Justice (DOJ) to initiate civil actions decisions often is not available or is very dif- against police agencies when, among other ficult to obtain. Such is the case with police conduct, their use of force reaches a level con- use of force. The issues that most concern stituting a pattern or practice depriving indi- the public and policymakers lack the kinds viduals of their rights. DOJ exercised that of reliable and solid information that ad- authority when, for example, it determined vance debate from the realm of ideological that an urban police department engaged in posturing to objective analysis. Nonetheless, such conduct and negotiated a consent decree it is important to take stock of our knowl- that put in place a broad set of reforms, in- edge so that it is clear which issues can be cluding an agreement by the department to set aside and which should be the target of document its use of force and to implement efforts at obtaining new knowledge. an early warning system to detect possible abuses.2 2

Chapter 1: What We Know About Police Use of Force What, then, is the state of knowledge regard- police-public “interactions,” such as calls for “Thus, the Commission ing police use of force? We begin with issues service, which capture variegated requests concludes that factors about which we have considerable informa- for assistance, lead to low rates of use of substantially contributing tion and a high degree of confidence in our force. Conversely, narrow definitions of to misperceptions about knowledge. Discussed next are issues where police-public interactions, such as arrests, use of physical and knowledge is modest and considerably more which concentrate squarely on suspects, lead deadly force by law research is merited. Finally, we conclude to higher rates of use of force. enforcement officers with issues that are critical to debates over include...[f]ailure to ap- police use of force and about which little The International Association of Chiefs of preciate the relative infre- knowledge exists. Police (IACP) is in the process of compiling quent use of physical and statistics on use-of-force data being submit- deadly force by law en- What We Know With Substantial ted by cooperating agencies (see chapter 3). forcement personnel....” Confidence About Police These data indicate that force is used in —New York State Com- Use of Force less than one-half of 1 percent of dispatched mission on Criminal Jus- calls for service. From this point of view, one tice and the Use of Force, Police use force infrequently. might well consider police use of force a rare Report to the Governor, event. This figure is roughly consistent with Vol. 1, New York: New Whether measured by use-of-force reports, the preliminary estimate reported by BJS, York State Commission citizen complaints, victim surveys, or obser- although the IACP figure is subject to the on Criminal Justice vational methods, the data consistently reporting biases that may exist in police and the Use of Force, indicate that only a small percentage of agency data. Furthermore, IACP data are May 1987: 6. police-public interactions involve the use not yet representative of the national picture of force. As Bayley and Garofalo observed, because of selection bias; the estimate is police-citizen encounters that involve use of based on a small percentage of police depart- force and injury are “quite rare.”5 ments that voluntarily report information on use of force. Because there is no standard methodology for measuring use of force, estimates can Garner and Maxwell found that physical vary considerably on strictly computational force (excluding handcuffing) is used in grounds. Different definitions of force and fewer than one of five adult custody arrests different definitions of police-public interac- (see chapter 4). While this figure hardly tions will yield different rates6 (see sidebar qualifies as a rare event, it can be considered “Working definitions”). In particular, broad low, especially in light of the broad definition definitions of use of force, such as those that of force that was used. include grabbing or handcuffing a suspect, will produce higher rates than more conser- In characterizing police use of force as infre- vative definitions. The Bureau of Justice quent or rare, the intention is neither to Statistics’ (BJS) 1996 pretest of its Police- minimize the problem nor to suggest that Public Contact Survey resulted in prelimi- the issue can be dismissed as unworthy of nary estimates that nearly 45 million people serious attention. Society’s ends are best had face-to-face contact with police over a achieved peaceably, and we should strive to 12-month period and that approximately minimize the use of force by police as much 1 percent, or about 500,000 of these persons, as possible. However, it is important to put were subjected to use of force or threat of police use of force in context in order to un- force7 (see chapter 2). When handcuffing is derstand the potential magnitude of use-of- included in the BJS definition of force, the force problems. Although estimates may not number of persons increases to 1.2 million. completely reassure everyone that police are doing everything they can to minimize the Expanding and contracting definitions of use of force, the data do not support the “police-public” interactions also work to af- notion that we have a national epidemic of fect use-of-force rates but in an opposite way police violence. from definitions of force. Broad definitions of 3

Use of Force by Police derived from such a small number of respon- dents are subject to a wide margin of error. Another purpose for emphasizing the infre- This issue is particularly important if one quent nature of police use of force is to high- is interested in tracking changes over time, light the methodological challenges of trying because a very small change in reporting can to count or study infrequent events. In this have a very large impact on estimates. In the regard, methodological approaches can survey’s continuing development, the next vary considerably in terms of cost efficiency, pilot test will use a sample about 10 times reliability, and precision of information ob- the size of the 1996 pilot test as well as tained. In BJS’s 1996 pilot household survey involve a redesigned questionnaire. of 6,421 persons, 14 respondents, or roughly 1 in 450, said that they were subjected to Police use of force typically occurs at the use of force or threat of force by police over a lower end of the force spectrum, involv- year’s time. The household survey approach ing grabbing, pushing, or shoving. has the benefit of providing national-level estimates based on data that are free of Relatively minor types of force dominate police agency reporting biases. However, as statistics on police use of force. Garner and noted by BJS, the preliminary estimates Working definitions Reference also is made to “excessive use of force,” a similar, but distinctly different, Police use of force is characterized in a va- term. Excessive use of force refers to high riety of ways. Sometimes, these character- rates of force, which suggest that police are izations are functionally interchangeable using force too freely when viewed in the so that one can be substituted for another aggregate. The term deals with relative without doing injustice to the factual inter- comparisons among police agencies, pretation of a statement. At other times, and there are no established criteria for however, differences in terminology can be judgment. very consequential to a statement’s mean- ing. For example, “deadly force” refers to “Illegal” use of force refers to situations in situations in which force is likely to have which use of force by police violated a law lethal consequences for the victim. This or statute, generally as determined by a type of force is clearly defined and should judge or magistrate. The criteria for judg- not be confused with other types of force ing illegal use of force are fairly well that police use. established. In contrast, “police brutality” is a phrase “Improper,” “abusive,” “illegitimate,” and used to describe instances of serious “unnecessary” use of force are terms that physical or psychological harm to civilians, describe situations in which an officer’s with an emphasis on cruelty or savage- authority to use force has been mishandled ness. The term does not have a standard- in some general way, the suggestion being ized meaning; some commentators prefer that administrative procedure, societal ex- to use a less emotionally charged term. pectations, ordinary concepts of lawfulness, and the principle of last resort have been In this report, the term “excessive force” is violated, respectively. Criteria for judging used to describe situations in which more these violations are not well established. force is used than is allowable when judged in terms of administrative or professional To varying degrees, all of the above terms guidelines or legal standards. Criteria for can be described as transgressions of judging excessive force are fairly well es- police authority to use force. tablished. The term may also include within its meaning the concept of illegal force. 4

Chapter 1: What We Know About Police Use of Force Maxwell (see chapter 4) observed that police most frequently used (1.2 percent of arrests), “The first tactic used in use weaponless tactics in roughly 80 percent while firearms were the weapons least often an incident is nearly al- of use-of-force incidents and that half the used (0.2 percent of arrests). Most police ways the least severe use time the tactic involved grabbing the sus- departments collect statistics on all firearm of force on the continuum, pect. Alpert and Dunham (see chapter 5) discharges by officers. These data consis- and the second…is nearly found that in Miami 64 percent of use-of- tently show that the majority of discharges always the second-most force incidents involved grabbing or holding are accidental or are directed at animals. lenient.” —Alpert and the suspect. In the BJS pilot national survey, Only on infrequent occasions do police use Dunham, page 48 of this it was estimated, preliminarily, that about their firearms against the public. One impli- report. 500,000 people were “hit, held, pushed, cation of these findings is that increased choked, threatened with a flashlight, re- training in how to use standard police weap- strained by a police dog, threatened with or ons will be of little value in dealing with day- actually sprayed with chemical or pepper to-day situations that involve use of force. spray, threatened with a gun, or experienced Training, if it is to be effective in reducing some other form of force.”8 Three-fifths of the use of force, needs to focus on how to these situations, however, involved only gain compliance without resorting to physi- holding. Finally, Pate and Fridell’s survey of cal coercion. law enforcement agencies regarding use of force and civilian complaints also confirms Use of force typically occurs when police that minor types of force occur more fre- are trying to make an arrest and the quently than serious types.9 suspect is resisting. As a corollary finding, when injuries occur as Research indicates that police are most a result of use of force, they are likely to be likely to use force when pursuing a suspect relatively minor. Alpert and Dunham (see and attempting to exercise their arrest pow- chapter 5) observed that the most common ers. Furthermore, resistance by the public injury to a suspect was a bruise or abrasion increases the likelihood that police will (48 percent), followed by laceration (24 per- use force. These findings appear intuitively cent). The kinds of police actions that most sound given the mandate that police have captivate the public’s concerns, such as fatal regarding use of force. Police may use force shootings, severe beatings with fists or ba- when it is necessary to enforce the law or to tons that lead to hospitalization, and choke protect themselves or others from harm. The holds that cause unconsciousness or even findings also seem logical in view of police death, are not typical of situations in which training curriculums and departmental police use force. These findings reassure us regulations. Alpert and Dunham (see chap- that most police exercise restraint in the use ter 5) find that police almost always follow of force, even if one has concerns over the the prescribed sequence of control proce- number of times that police resort to serious dures they are taught, except when suspect violence. resistance is high, in which case they tend to skip the intermediate procedure. From a police administrator’s point of view, these findings are predictable. Officers are The conclusion that police are most likely to trained to use force progressively along a use force when dealing with criminal sus- continuum, and policy requires that officers pects, especially those who are resisting use the least amount of force necessary to arrest, is based on four types of data: arrest accomplish their goals. statistics, surveys of police officers, observa- tions of police behavior, and reports by the Another affiliated finding is that police public about their encounters with police. rarely use weapons. According to Garner and Maxwell (see chapter 4), 2.1 percent of adult Arrest statistics show that resisting-arrest custody arrests involved use of weapons by charges often are involved in situations in police. Chemical agents were the weapons which officers use force. The interpretation 5

Use of Force by Police Regarding suspect force of this finding is ambiguous, however, be- arrests involved use of force by police, 14 as a consistent predictor cause officers may bring such charges in an percent of arrests involved use of force by of police use of force: “This attempt to justify their actions against a suspects. Police officers in Phoenix com- remained true when con- suspect. Some commentators even would ar- pleted a use-of-force survey after each arrest trolling for the possibility gue that resisting-arrest charges are a good to generate these data. that some suspect use of indication that police officers acted inappro- force could be a priately or illegally. Because we are relying Finally, Bayley and Garofalo tallied 36 in- reaction to police use of on official reports by officers who are in- stances of force used by police or suspects force.” —Garner, et al. (see volved in use-of-force incidents, and because out of 467 police-public encounters observed note 11). they have self-interest in presenting the firsthand by researchers.12 They found that situation in the most favorable light possible, in 31 incidents police used force against sus- we cannot rely on arrest records alone in pects and in 11 incidents suspects used force determining what happened. against police. Fortunately, other research is available to One implication of the research is that the help clarify the situation. The pilot national decision to use some level of force probably household survey by BJS included a series of has legal justification in most cases. Force is questions about the respondent’s behavior likely to be used when suspects resist arrest during contact with police.10 The preliminary and attempt to flee. Also, in a significant analysis revealed that of the 14 respondents number of instances, suspects use force in the sample who reported that police used against the police. These findings leave open or threatened force against them, 10 sug- the issue of excessive force, since issues of gested that they might have provoked the proportionality are not clearly addressed. officer to use force. The provocative behav- However, the findings do suggest that many iors reported by suspects include threaten- debates over excessive force will fall into ing the officer, assaulting the officer, arguing gray areas where it is difficult to decide with the officer, interfering with the arrest of whether an officer acted properly, because someone else, blocking or interfering with an there is credible evidence that the use of officer’s movement, trying to escape, resist- force was necessary. ing being handcuffed, and resisting being placed in a police vehicle. What We Know With Modest Confidence About Police Use Research by Alpert and Dunham (see chap- of Force ter 5) confirms that criminal suspects are not always cooperative when it comes to Use of force appears to be unrelated to arrest. In almost all (97 percent) cases in an officer’s personal characteristics, which police officers used force in a Florida such as age, gender, and ethnicity. jurisdiction, the suspect offered some degree of resistance. In 36 percent of use-of-force A small number of studies suggest that use incidents, the suspect actively resisted ar- of force by police is not associated with per- rest, and in one-quarter of the incidents the sonal characteristics, such as age, gender, suspect assaulted the officer. The research- and ethnicity. Bayley and Garofalo concluded ers observed that the most common type of that use of force is not related to age, al- suspect force was hitting or striking a police though it may be related to experience.13 officer (44 percent). Worden, in an analysis of observational data on 24 police departments in 3 metropolitan Garner and colleagues, after using statistical areas, concluded that the personal character- controls for more than 50 characteristics of istics of police officers do not have a substan- the arrest situation, the suspect, and the po- tively significant effect on use of force.14 lice officer, found that forceful action by sus- pects was the strongest and most consistent Likewise, Garner and colleagues reported predictor of use of force by police.11 Further- that the race of suspect and officer is not more, they found that while 22 percent of predictive of use of force.15 However, they 6

Chapter 1: What We Know About Police Use of Force found that incidents involving male police against suspects of their own race. The lack of “Suspects reported as officers and male suspects are more likely to relationship between race and use of force, as impaired were more than involve force. Alpert and Dunham (see chap- well as between gender and use of force, is twice as likely than sober ter 5) found that officer characteristics are of probably disheartening to those who argue suspects to use a gun to little utility in distinguishing between force that integration of police agencies along ra- resist the police.” —Alpert and nonforce incidents. cial and gender lines will do much to reduce and Dunham, page 51 of the incidence of police violence. Again, more this report. Hence, gender and ethnicity appear unre- research is needed to understand the situa- lated to use of force. Given the limited re- tion of minority and female police officers search in this area, these conclusions should with regard to their use of force. be accepted with caution and additional veri- fication of these findings is needed. Use of force is more likely to occur when police are dealing with persons under It is widely accepted in criminology that the influence of alcohol or drugs or with violence, along with a wide variety of other mentally ill individuals. More research risk-taking and norm-violating behaviors, is is needed. a young man’s game. Thus, we should expect that young, male police officers should use Police come across a wide variety of situa- force more than their female colleagues or tions in their work. They encounter problems older officers. The fact that this is not clearly that range from relatively minor to serious the case seems surprising. to potentially deadly. They also interact with people exhibiting various mental states, in- A lack of relationship between age and gen- cluding persons who are hysterical, highly der, on the one hand, and use of force, on the agitated, angry, disoriented, upset, worried, other, may be a function of police hiring and irritated, or calm. deployment practices. Retirement plans keep the age of police officers lower than that of Two situations that often give police officers most other occupations, and seniority, which cause for concern are when suspects appear is derivative of work experience, often brings to be under the influence of alcohol or drugs more choice in work assignments, including and when civilians appear to suffer from duties that limit one’s contact with criminal serious mental or emotional impairments. suspects on the street. Both these tendencies The concern stems from the fact that in such serve to constrain variation in the age of situations a person’s rational faculties ap- police officers who are exposed to potentially pear impaired. In dealing with problem situ- violent situations. This may attenuate the ations, officers most often talk their way, relationship between age and use of force. rather than force their way, into solutions. However, it is equally plausible that young For this reason, when a civilian is in a highly male officers are assigned to high-crime irrational state of mind, the chances of the areas where frequent use of force is neces- police officer having to use force presumably sary to gain compliance. Finally, it is possible increase and the possibility of injury to both that exposure to the police culture works to officer and civilian increases as well. encourage the use of force, thus counterbal- ancing the decline in aggressivity that comes Research carried out for the President’s with age as demonstrated in criminological Commission on Law Enforcement and Ad- studies. More research is needed to disen- ministration of Justice observed that alcohol tangle these relationships. use by either a suspect or an officer in- creased the chances that force will be used.16 The finding that an officer’s race is unrelated Garner and colleagues found that alcohol to the propensity to use force runs counter to impairment by suspects was a consistent the argument that racial animosity lies at predictor of police use of force, while drug the heart of police abuse. Indeed, Alpert and impairment predicted increased use of force Dunham’s research (see chapter 5) indicates for some but not all measures of use of that officers are more likely to use force force.17 In contrast, Alpert and Dunham (see 7

Use of Force by Police chapter 5) observed that alcohol or drug im- We often are told that a small number of pairment of suspects was unrelated to police people are responsible for most of the pro- use of force or subsequent injury. That find- ductive or counterproductive work in an or- ing is interesting because, although im- ganization. For example, we hear about the paired civilians did not demonstrate an 80/20 rule in organizational management. increased propensity to resist an officer’s That is, 20 percent of the workers account actions, when they did resist they were more for 80 percent of the work. Policing has its inclined to do so by actively resisting or as- counterpart explanation for deviant or ille- saulting the officer. gal behavior. It is called the rotten apple or rogue officer theory, and it is often used to Part of the disparity in findings between the explain police corruption. Recently, a varia- President’s Commission’s research and more tion of this theory has become the principal recent studies may be attributed to the fact explanation for use-of-force problems in po- that police officers today are better trained lice departments. In this context, we speak of in how to deal with impaired civilians. Most “violence prone” police officers and we point police officers now receive training in a vari- to these individuals as the reason why a ety of violence reduction techniques, and this department has problems with the use of development is partly attributable to con- force.18 cerns over the President’s Commission’s findings and over the frequency with which People with extraordinary work perfor- police now are called to respond to large- mance, either good or bad, are noticeable scale violence, such as riots. when compared with their colleagues, and their salience leads us to think that their Questions about how police deal with civil- work is highly consequential to the good for- ians who appear to have impaired mental tunes or misfortunes of an organization. The states are important from administrative utility of this perspective for police manag- and practical points of view. Police officers ers attempting to deal with illegitimate use are expected to exercise restraint in dealing of force lies in the presumed concentration of with impaired civilians, while at the same problem behaviors in the work force. If only time they need to be cautious about protect- a handful of police officers accounts for most ing their safety as well as the safety of other of the abuses, then effective solutions tar- civilians. This puts them in a precarious geted at those individuals should deal with situation, one in which mistakes of judgment the problem. The nature of the solution, be it or tactics can have grave consequences. employee selection, training, oversight, or discipline, is less important than its degree From a practical standpoint, police regularly of effectiveness and its ability to be directed encounter civilians with impaired mental at the problem group of employees. states, which makes the problem more than academic. Alpert and Dunham (see chapter The Christopher Commission, which investi- 5) found that in 42 percent of use-of-force gated the Los Angeles Police Department situations, suspects appeared to be under subsequent to the Rodney King incident, the influence of alcohol or drugs. Overall, the highlighted the “violence prone” officer theory.19 research on whether police use force more The Commission, using the department’s frequently in relation to civilians with im- database, identified 44 officers with 6 or more paired mental states is inconsistent. Further civilian allegations of excessive force or im- investigation, with an emphasis on implica- proper tactics in the period 1986 through tions for training, could reduce the risk of 1990. For the 44, the per-officer average for force and injury for both police officers and force-related complaints was 7.6 compared civilians. with 0.6 for all officers identified as having been involved in a use-of-force incident for the A small proportion of officers are dis- period January 1987 through March 1991. The proportionately involved in use-of-force 44 officers were involved in an average of 13 incidents. More research is needed. 8

Chapter 1: What We Know About Police Use of Force use-of-force incidents compared with 4.2 for For example, an officer’s work assignment “...a significant number of all officers reported to be using force. may involve a high-crime area that contains officers...repetitively mis- a high proportion of rebellious offenders. use force and persistently Put another way, less than one-half of Also, divisive, dehumanizing views of the ignore the written policies 1 percent of the department’s sworn officers world, such as “us-them” and “good guy-bad and guidelines of the De- accounted for more than 15 percent of alle- guy,” that facilitate violent behavior may be partment regarding force. gations of excessive force or improper tac- supported by the organizational culture. By their misconduct, this tics. The degree of disproportion (30:1) is Further, administrative views of work roles group of officers tarnishes striking and suggests that focusing efforts and products, communicated formally or the reputations of the vast on a handful of officers can eliminate informally, that emphasize crime control majority of LAPD officers roughly 1 out of 7 excessive force incidents. through aggressive police behavior may who do their increasingly This finding has led many police depart- encourage confrontational tactics that in- difficult job of policing ments to implement early warning systems crease the chances of violent behavior by the City with courage, designed to identify high-risk officers before either civilian or police officer. Unless the skill, and judgment.” — they become major problems. Most of these reasons for violence propensity are accu- Independent Commission systems use administrative records, such as rately identified, the effectiveness of inter- on the Los Angeles Police disciplinary records and citizen complaints, ventions targeted at violent police officers is Department, Report of the to monitor officer performance for possible a hit-or-miss proposition. Independent Commission problems. on the Los Angeles Police Of the 44 officers identified by the Christo- Department, Los Angeles, The concept of an early warning system for pher Commission in 1991, 14 subsequently CA: Independent Com- risk management of problem police officers is left the department as of October 1997. Of mission on the Los Ange- not new. In the early 1980s, a report on police the 30 remaining officers, two had a use-of- les Police Department, practices by the United States Commission force complaint that was sustained after 1991: 31. on Civil Rights found that “‘(e)arly warning’ review between 1991 and 1997.23 This low information systems may assist the depart- number may be due to a variety of reasons, ment in identifying violence-prone officers.”20 such as difficulties in sustaining citizen Consequently, it was recommended that “(a) complaints, reassignment of work duties, system should be devised in each department negative publicity leading to a change in to assist officials in early identification of behavior, or greater circumspection when violence-prone officers.”21 engaging in misconduct. However, the find- ing also may reflect regression to the mean. Until recently, these systems received limited This is a statistical phenomenon postulat- acceptance, owing in part to concerns over ing that extreme scores gravitate toward possible abuses. The abuses include use of the mean or average score, thereby becom- inaccurate information, improper labeling ing less extreme over time. of officers, misuse of confidential records regarding discipline and other personnel For example, groups of police officers who matters, and social ostracism by peers and receive many citizen complaints, or who are community for officers identified as problem- disproportionately involved in the use of atic. There also were concerns about limited force, or who frequently are given poor resources and about increased legal liability performance ratings, will tend to become for the organization and individual officers. “better” over time, in the sense of statisti- cally looking more like the “average” As Toch observes, the violence-prone officer officers, even if nothing is done about these paradigm often is based on a variety of problems. Statistical regression represents loosely articulated theories of violent behav- a serious threat to the validity of early ior.22 The theories include concepts such as warning systems based on the assumption racial prejudice, poor self-control, and ego that extreme patterns of behavior persist involvement. Furthermore, these theories over extended periods of time. often overlook the possibility that greater- than-average use of force may be a product of situational or organizational characteristics. 9

Use of Force by Police What We Do Not Know About involving use of force, and that only a hand- Police Use of Force ful of these complaints are sustained. The incidence of wrongful use of force The argument has appeal. We believe that by police is unknown. Research is criti- the vast majority of police officers are profes- cally needed to determine reliably, sionals who respect the law and the public. If validly, and precisely how often trans- use of force is uncommon, civilian complaints gressions of use-of-force powers occur. are infrequent, and civilian injuries are few, then excessive force by police must be rare. We do not know how often police use force in That conclusion may indeed be correct, but ways that can be adjudged as wrongful. For to the extent that it hinges on official police example, we do not know the incidence of statistics, it is open to serious challenge. excessive force, even though this is a very serious violation of public trust. We could Current indicators of excessive force are all pull together data on excessive force using critically flawed. The most widely available police disciplinary records and court docu- indicators are civilian complaints of exces- ments, for example, but the picture would be sive force and civil lawsuits alleging illegal sketchy, piecemeal, and potentially deceiving. use of force. Civilian complaints of excessive When it comes to less grave or less precise force are infrequent, and the number of sub- transgressions, such as “improper,” “abusive,” stantiated complaints is very low. These fig- “illegitimate,” and “unnecessary” use of ures are consistent with the argument that force, the state of knowledge is even more excessive force is sporadic. However, com- precarious. plaint mechanisms are subject to selection and reporting biases, and the operation of In discussing this issue, we will concen- complaint systems, which typically is man- trate on excessive force, because these aged by police, wields considerable influence transgressions are of utmost concern to the on whether people will come forward to public and because well-established profes- complain. sional and legal criteria are available to help us evaluate police behavior. Notwith- Civil lawsuits against police are exceedingly standing a generally agreed-upon terminol- rare relative to the number of times that ogy, we should recognize that developing a police use force. Because the legal process is count of excessive force that is beyond all highly selective in terms of which claims get dispute is an unworkable task. This is so litigated, lawsuits are a very unreliable mea- because difficult judgments are involved in sure of illegal use of force. With both civilian deciding whether use of force fits the crite- complaints and lawsuits, small changes in ria for these categories in a given situation, administrative practices can have a large and reasonable people will disagree in such impact on the magnitude of the problem judgments. We clearly need more accurate, measured in these ways. reliable, and valid measures of excessive force if we are to advance our understand- The difficulties in measuring excessive and ing of these problems. illegal force with complaint and lawsuit records have led academics and practitioners Academics and practitioners both tend to to redirect their attention to all use-of-force presuppose that the incidence of excessive incidents. The focus then becomes one of force by police is very low. They argue that, minimizing all instances of police use of despite their shortcomings, agency statistics force, without undue concern as to whether provide a useful picture of the use-of-force force was excessive. From this perspective, problem. These statistics show that most other records, such as use-of-force reports, officers do not engage in force on a regular arrest records, injury reports, and medical basis, that few people are injured by police records, become relevant to measuring the use of force, that only a small number of incidence of the problem. people complain about police misconduct 10

Chapter 1: What We Know About Police Use of Force From a theoretical perspective, understand- organization is on the road toward disaster. ing all use-of-force incidents helps us to put Yet, we lack research that systematically wrongful use of force in perspective. How- addresses these questions. ever, because political, legal, and ethical issues are very serious when we are dealing Less formal aspects of police organizations— with excessive force, pressures to know the officer morale, administrative leadership, incidence and prevalence of these events peer culture and influence, police-community with precision will always be present. relations, relations with other government agencies, and neighborhood environments— As a corollary of our current inability to also plausibly have a part in levels of officer measure excessive force, we cannot discern misconduct. Alienated officers who do not with precision changes in the incidence of have a clear vision of their role and responsi- these events over time and across places. bilities and who are working in disorganized This means that we can neither determine agencies and interacting with the public whether excessive force problems are under stressful circumstances probably are getting better or worse nor determine the more likely to abuse their authority, includ- circumstances under which those problems ing their authority to use force. Research are more or less severe. that systematically addresses these ques- tions is lacking. The impact of differences in police orga- nizations, including administrative Methodological investigation of relations policies, hiring, training, discipline, between organizational elements and use-of- and use of technology, on excessive and force transgressions will help explain police illegal force is unknown. Research is misconduct at a theoretical level. More im- critically needed in this area. portantly, research on these questions will allow us to deal effectively with police misbe- A major gap in our knowledge about exces- havior. Faced with serious misconduct prob- sive force by police concerns characteristics lems in a police agency, we need to focus of police agencies that facilitate or impede scarce resources on those aspects of police this conduct. Although many of the condi- organizations that are most clearly related to tions that arguably lead to excessive or ille- ensuring proper conduct of officers with re- gal force by police seem obvious, or appear to gard to use of force. Generalized efforts to be a matter of common sense, we still greatly reform police organizations that are expected need systematic research in this area. We to reduce misconduct problems tend to be need to know, for example, which organiza- inefficiently focused and thus appear clumsy, tional characteristics are most consequen- inadequate, and misinformed. tial, which characteristics take on added significance in various environments, and Research must focus on establishing the which characteristics are redundant or relative cost-effectiveness of various strate- derivative of other characteristics. gies to reduce or eliminate police misconduct. Furthermore, only strategies that are solidly Many formal aspects of the organization— grounded in theory, practice, and empirical such as hiring criteria, recruit training, in- research will provide reliable solutions with service programs, supervision of field officers, predictable costs and benefits. disciplinary mechanisms, operations of inter- nal affairs, specialized units dealing with eth- Influences of situational characteristics ics and integrity, labor unions, and civilian on police use of force and the transac- oversight mechanisms—plausibly are related tional nature of these events are largely to levels of officer misconduct. It makes sense unknown. More research is necessary. that poorly educated, badly trained, loosely supervised, and inadequately disciplined of- Research on police-citizen encounters reveals ficers are likely to be problematic, and that that use of force by police is situational and when such officers are in the majority, the transactional. That is, police respond to 11

Use of Force by Police circumstances as they first encounter them or when there is a hostile audience to the and as they unfold over time. For example, encounter. At this point, however, knowledge Bayley and Garofalo observed that the situa- about the types of police-citizen encounters tions most likely to involve police use of force in which police are likely to use force is are interpersonal disturbance and violent rudimentary. personal crime.24 Beyond this, however, we do not know much about the types of events Police-public encounters are transactional in that enhance the likelihood that police will the sense that all the actors in a situation use force. contribute in some way to its development and outcome. Understanding the transac- Similarly, we have noted that when suspects tional nature of police use of force is impor- attempt to flee or physically resist arrest tant because it emphasizes the role of police police are more likely to use force. We also actions in increasing the chances that force noted that in many cases both police and will be used. suspects use force against each other. However, these findings do not address the From this perspective, it is possible to transactional nature of police-public encoun- minimize the use of force by modifying the ters in that they do not describe the step-by- behavior and tactics of police officers. By step unfolding of events and interactions. understanding the sequences of events that Knowing that police use force if suspects lead police to use force, we can gain a greater physically resist arrest, it matters if police degree of control over those situations and use force without provocation and the sus- possibly redirect the outcome. But we have pect responds by resisting or vice versa. only a basic understanding of the transac- tional nature of use-of-force situations, de- A variety of situational elements plausibly spite the fact that sequences of actions and are related to police use of force. If police are interactions are highly germane to determin- called to a scene where there is fighting, they ing whether use of force was excessive or may have to or believe they have to use force illegal. to subdue the suspects. If they are called to a domestic dispute where emotions are run- Organization of the Report ning high, they may have to or believe they have to use force to gain control of the situa- The next four chapters of this report focus tion. If they are called to intercede with a on major research studies dealing with po- civilian who is recklessly brandishing a lice use of force. They represent significant weapon, they may have to or believe they projects currently under way to understand have to use force to protect themselves and police use of force. others. Use of force in such circumstances may be justifiable, but to the extent that it is Two of the projects are attempts at measur- predictable, we can prepare officers for these ing the incidence of police use of force na- encounters and devise alternative strategies tionwide. BJS has developed a national-level that minimize or eliminate the use of force. data collection effort using a household sur- vey methodology to investigate police-public Some situational factors may increase the interactions, with a component on use-of- chances that force of questionable legitimacy force issues (see chapter 2). IACP is collect- will be used. For example, officers sometimes ing data on police use of force through a use force on the slightest provocation follow- voluntary reporting system (see chapter 3). ing a high-speed car chase, when adrenaline levels are high. They may use force more fre- Two other projects on police use of force in- quently when they are alone, because they volve citywide investigations across several feel more vulnerable or believe that they can locations. Chapter 4 reports on research in get away with it. They may use force more six jurisdictions; the research is important frequently as a way of emphasizing their because it identifies factors associated with authority when suspects are disrespectful use of force and because it addresses difficult 12

Chapter 1: What We Know About Police Use of Force measurement issues. Focusing on three po- 6. Adams, Kenneth, “Measuring the Preva- lice agencies, chapter 5 discusses research lence of Police Abuse of Force,” in And that centers on the use of force by both police Justice For All: A National Agenda for Un- and suspects; the research is important derstanding and Controlling Police Abuse of because it contributes significantly to under- Force, ed. William A. Geller and Hans Toch, standing the transactional nature of police- Washington, DC: Police Executive Research citizen encounters. Forum, 1995: 61–97. The final chapter outlines suggested direc- 7. Greenfeld, Lawrence A., Patrick A. tions for future research. A selected bibliog- Langan, and Steven K. Smith, Police Use of raphy concludes this report. Force: Collection of National Data, Washing- ton, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau Notes of Justice Statistics and National Institute of Justice, November 1997, NCJ 165040. 1. Bierce, Ambrose, The Devil’s Dictionary, New York: Dover, 1958: 101. 8. Ibid. 2. “Justice Department Consent Decree 9. Pate, Anthony M., and Lorie A. Fridell, Pushes Police to Overhaul Operations,” with Edwin E. Hamilton, Police Use of Force: Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, March 1, 1998, C–1. Official Reports, Citizen Complaints, and Le- gal Consequences, Vols. I and II, Washington, 3. Based on an investigation in 14 cities, DC: The Police Foundation, 1993. Human Rights Watch described the brutality situation as follows: “(p)olice officers engage 10. Greenfeld, Lawrence A., Patrick A. in unjustified shootings, severe beatings, Langan, and Steven K. Smith, Police Use of fatal chokings, and unnecessarily rough Force: Collection of National Data. physical treatment in cities throughout the United States, while their police superiors, 11. Garner, Joel, John Buchanan, Tom city officials and the Justice Department fail Schade, and John Hepburn, Understanding to act decisively to restrain or penalize such Use of Force By and Against the Police, acts or even to record the full magnitude Research in Brief, Washington, DC: U.S. of the problem.” Human Rights Watch, Department of Justice, National Institute Shielded from Justice: Police Brutality and of Justice, November 1996, NCJ 158614. Accountability in the United States, New York: Human Rights Watch, 1998: 1, 27. 12. Bayley, David H., and James Garofalo, “The Management of Violence by Police 4. A previous summary of research on police Patrol Officers”; and Bayley, David H., and use of force can be found in McEwen, Tom, James Garofalo, “Patrol Officer Effectiveness National Data Collection on Police Use of in Managing Conflict During Police-Citizen Force, Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Encounters.” Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics and National Institute of Justice, April 1996, 13. Ibid. NCJ 160113. 14. Worden, Robert, “The ‘Causes’ of Police 5. Bayley, David H., and James Garofalo, Brutality,” in And Justice For All: A National “The Management of Violence by Police Agenda for Understanding and Controlling Patrol Officers,” Criminology, 27(1)(February Police Abuse of Force, 31–60. 1989): 1–27; and Bayley, David H., and James Garofalo, “Patrol Officer Effectiveness 15. Garner, Joel, John Buchanan, Tom in Managing Conflict During Police-Citizen Schade, and John Hepburn, Understanding Encounters,” in Report to the Governor, Use of Force By and Against the Police. Vol. III, Albany: New York State Commission on Criminal Justice and the Use of Force, 16. Reiss, Albert J., Jr., Studies on Crime and 1987: B1–88. Law Enforcement in a Major Metropolitan Area, President’s Commission on Law 13

Use of Force by Police 20. United States Commission on Civil Rights, Who’s Guarding the Guardians? A Enforcement and Administration of Justice, Report on Police Practices, Washington, DC: Field Survey No. 3, Washington, DC: U.S. United States Commission on Civil Rights, Government Printing Office, 1967. 1981: 159. 17. Garner, Joel, John Buchanan, Tom 21. Ibid. Schade, and John Hepburn, Understanding Use of Force By and Against the Police. 22. Toch, Hans, “The ‘Violence-Prone’ Police Officer,” 112. 18. Toch, Hans, “The ‘Violence-Prone’ Police Officer,” in And Justice For All: A National 23. Office of the Inspector General, Los An- Agenda for Understanding and Controlling geles Police Commission, “Status Update: Police Abuse of Force, 99–112. Management of LAPD High-Risk Officers,” Los Angeles: Los Angeles Police Commission, 19. Independent Commission on the Los An- 1997. geles Police Department, Report of the Inde- pendent Commission on the Los Angeles 24. Bayley, David, H., and James Garofalo, Police Department, Los Angeles, CA: Inde- “Patrol Officer Effectiveness in Managing pendent Commission on the Los Angeles Conflict During Police-Citizen Encounters.” Police Department, 1991. 14

2 Revising and Fielding the Police-Public Contact Survey by Lawrence A. Greenfeld, Patrick A. Langan, and Steven K. Smith T o learn more about police use of force supplements. The NCVS sample consists of Lawrence A. Greenfeld, requires an understanding of the rea- all household members age 12 or older resid- Patrick A. Langan, Ph.D., sons for and the results of police-public ing in more than 40,000 U.S. households; and Steven K. Smith, encounters. As a step toward developing that each household member is interviewed twice Ph.D., are statisticians understanding, the Bureau of Justice Statis- during a calendar year, resulting in about with the Bureau of Justice tics (BJS) fielded a pilot test in 1996 of the 200,000 interviews annually.) Statistics, a component of Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS). Its pri- the Office of Justice Pro- mary purpose was to obtain information to The PPCS pilot test involved interviews with grams within the U.S. help guide future development of a final 6,421 persons during the 1996 trial period. Department of Justice. questionnaire on the topic. This chapter The respondents were asked about their con- briefly reviews the 1996 survey, discusses tacts with police during the 12 months prior improvements incorporated into a second to the interviews. Respondents interviewed pilot survey, and describes other planned in May 1996 were asked about contacts that BJS efforts to learn more about police-public occurred anytime during the period June encounters. 1995 to May 1996; those interviewed in June 1996 were asked about contacts between First Pilot Test of the Survey July 1995 and June 1996; and interviews in Questionnaire July 1996 covered the period from August 1995 to July 1996. On average, the 12-month BJS supplemented the National Crime Vic- reference period included 6 months in 1995 timization Survey (NCVS) with a pilot test of and 6 in 1996. PPCS during May, June, and July 1996. The objective was to collect answers from respon- Administration of PPCS went smoothly. dents to a series of questions about the na- Among persons who had no contact with po- ture and consequences of their face-to-face lice, the interview took 1 minute, on average, interactions with police. to complete. Among those who had police contact, the interview averaged 10 minutes. (NCVS is based on interviews conducted with a nationally representative sample of Findings from the first PPCS were reported U.S. households and has become a highly in 1997 in the BJS–National Institute of Jus- useful platform for testing new question- tice publication Police Use of Force: Collec- naires and periodically implementing special tion of National Data.1 (See sidebar “Selected findings from the Police-Public Contact 15

Use of Force by Police Screen questions are Survey.”) The 1996 PPCS was intended as a appropriateness or inappropriateness of designed to determine pretest of the questionnaire; the survey and police conduct during the contact. quickly at the beginning its findings were not meant to be viewed as of an interview whether a source of indepth or precise statistics on Contact screen questions a respondent needs to be police use of force. Rather, survey findings asked subsequent ques- provided empirical information to help The pretest revealed a number of broad tions. For example, if a guide future development of an improved categories of types of face-to-face contacts respondent had no police questionnaire. that needed encoding on the questionnaire. contact during the speci- A number of respondents reporting contacts fied period, subsequent Second Pilot Test of the Survey indicated that their employment brought questions about the na- Questionnaire them into regular contact with police. This ture, content, and conse- was so for hospital workers, tow-truck driv- quences of police-public During the first half of 1999, BJS focused on ers, and lawyers, among others. In addition, encounters would be improving the content and administration of respondents indicated that they had contacts omitted. the PPCS questionnaire. Three areas of the with police as the result of appearing in instrument were improved: items relating to court as jurors or witnesses. screen questions used to identify whether a contact occurred, the type of contact, and A major area for further development of the circumstances surrounding the contact; the screening elements of PPCS relates to traffic determination of whether force was used or stops. One of the major findings from the threatened, the type of force used or threat- initial PPCS field test was that many of the ened, the circumstances surrounding its use, face-to-face contacts the public has with po- and provocative actions by the respondent; lice are in connection with traffic stops. They and the respondent’s perceptions of the may represent an area of potentially argu- mentative interactions between police and Selected findings from the Police-Public Contact Survey In 1996 the Bureau of Justice Statistics • For nearly half of those with contacts, the conducted a pilot test of the Police-Public encounters were initiated by the public. Contact Survey. Although not intended as For just under one-third of persons with a source of detailed or precise statistics on contacts, police initiated them. police use of force, the pilot survey did pro- vide preliminary estimates of the preva- • Age is an important factor in both the lence of the public’s contact with police, frequency and type of police contacts including contacts during which police experienced. Young people were the used force. Among the survey’s findings least likely to initiate contact with police are the following: (their contacts most often were police initiated), while persons age 60 or older • An estimated 44.6 million persons (one in were the most likely to initiate contacts five U.S. residents age 12 or older) had with officers. face-to-face contacts with police officers during the prior 12 months. Men, whites, • About 1 percent of people reporting con- and people in their twenties were the tacts with police indicated that officers most likely to have those contacts. used force or threatened force. In the ma- jority of those instances, respondents said • An estimated 33 percent of residents who that their own actions, such as threatening had contact with police had either asked police or resisting arrest, may have pro- for assistance from officers or provided it voked officers. to them. About 32 percent of those who had contact with police had reported a crime, either as a victim or witness. 16

the public and result in use-of-force inci- Chapter 2: Revising and Fielding the Police-Public Contact Survey dents. This is likely to be true especially if such stops are thought to be motivated by Determining whether force was used factors not strictly related to law enforce- ment purposes. Recent studies in New The 1996 PPCS asked respondents to indi- Jersey and Maryland suggest that black cate whether force was threatened, used, or motorists may be more likely than others to not used during contacts. BJS replaced this be stopped by police.2 and substituted a list of police behaviors that might have occurred, including threatening The PPCS questionnaire has been revised or restraining respondents during encoun- to capture more detailed information about ters. Handcuffing, considered a standard po- traffic stops, including more about the na- lice practice, is listed within the enumerated ture and frequency of traffic stops involving group of police behaviors and will not be persons of different races. To gather more treated in the questionnaire separately from information on the nature and conse- other behaviors that might have occurred quences of traffic stops, BJS has added a during contacts. group of questions to the PPCS. Of particu- lar interest will be an effort to determine Paralleling these queries about police behav- from respondents what they believe to be ior during contacts are questions about the the basis for stops, the reason given by the respondents’ behavior during encounters to officers for stops, and the content of the learn about provocative actions that may interaction during stops, such as tickets have occurred. Such questions will apply to issued, warnings, verbal questioning, all respondents, not merely to those indicat- searches, and arrests. Information gathered ing force had been used. from the survey can be used to build on prior research regarding the treatment of Experience with a pat-down or frisking was different categories of the populace by the asked only of those respondents who indi- criminal justice system. cated that in contacts with the police, they believed that they were suspects in a crime. Those traffic stops resulting in handcuffing, This was too limiting, and BJS has expanded threats, or use of force will also be identified. the use of this item to all respondents. For such incidents, new items have been added to the survey to ascertain potentially Similarly, questions relating to subsequent provocative behaviors or drug or alcohol use criminal charges resulting from contacts by respondents. were limited to respondents who believed that the contacts occurred because police Several other modifications to the question- considered them suspects in a crime. BJS naire were needed. For example, existing will ask such questions of all respondents. questions about respondents’ traffic-related contacts with police were modified to deter- Respondents’ characterizations of incidents mine whether such respondents had been passengers or drivers. In addition, screen The 1996 PPCS asked respondents to questions were added to determine explicitly characterize whether they believed police who initiated contact between respondents behavior was proper or improper during and police officers. The 1996 questionnaire use-of-force incidents. Such a question will provided information only on the type of be asked of all respondents who have police contact; who initiated it had to be inferred contact. (e.g., “Received a traffic or parking violation” implies the officer initiated the contact). In addition, the 1996 PPCS did not ask those who experienced use of force whether they perceived police behavior to have been exces- sive for the circumstances; BJS has added such an item to the next version of the survey. 17

Use of Force by Police Survey Administration for Second samples of those confined in local jails and Pilot Test prisoners held by State and Federal authori- ties. BJS anticipates introducing new survey BJS and the U.S. Bureau of the Census items that will gather information about began the 1999 pilot test using the revised respondents’ interactions with police during PPCS in July. The fieldwork will continue the arrest preceding their incarceration. through December 1999. This will result in The new items will provide, for the first time, a national sample of respondents about 10 information on the content of those contacts times the size of the first pilot test. Prior to between police and criminals, including the upcoming test, BJS redesigned the ques- the methods by which they were appre- tions as noted above, circulated them for hended, use of force during such events, and comment, and secured Office of Manage- provocative behaviors by known offenders. ment and Budget clearance for the use of the supplement for the full NCVS Notes national sample. 1. Greenfeld, Lawrence A., Patrick A. In addition, BJS and the Bureau of the Langan, and Steven K. Smith, Police Use of Census conducted extensive testing of the Force: Collection of National Data, Washing- revised instrument with volunteer respon- ton, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau dents in the Census Bureau’s Cognitive of Justice Statistics and National Institute of Research Laboratory. Justice, November 1997, NCJ 165040. Additional Efforts to Learn About 2. See Lamberth, John, “Driving While Police-Public Encounters Black: A Statistician Proves That Prejudice Still Rules the Road,” Washington Post, During the next 3 to 5 years, BJS will be August 16, 1998, C1. undertaking the regular periodic surveys conducted among nationally representative 18

3 IACP National Database Project on Police Use of Force by Mark A. Henriquez Individual police agencies, law enforcement Basic Concepts Underlying the Project Mark A. Henriquez is organizations, and some States have long Project Coordinator for considered collection of use-of-force data as a Essential to creating IACP’s police use-of-force the IACP National Police means to better serve their communities and database was the belief that data contribu- Use-of-Force Database to better distinguish between misperception tions should be voluntary and anonymous. Project. and reality of police use-of-force issues. Re- Also of basic importance was that the defini- flecting this, Congress enacted legislation in tion of “police use of force” should reflect opera- 1994 that, among other things, directed the tional realities of modern, street-level law U.S. Attorney General to collect data on police enforcement. use of excessive force. Voluntary and anonymous reports In 1995 the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) and the National Institute of Justice Police use of force is an extremely sensitive (NIJ)—components of the Office of Justice issue, in part because agencies and the pub- Programs (OJP) within the U.S. Department lic alike harbor preconceptions and because of Justice (DOJ)—proposed to cofund devel- data and resulting reports could be used or opment of a national use-of-force database interpreted either accurately or inaccurately. by the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP). One purpose of such a data- For example, the legislation directing the U.S. base would be quantification of the extent Attorney General to “acquire data about the and types of force used by police. use of excessive force by law enforcement of- ficers” also makes deprivation of civil rights Following approval of first-year funding, initial unlawful as evidenced by “pattern or practice” project activities began in September 1996. Early and allows the Attorney General, through in 1997, NIJ and BJS cofunded the project for civil action, to “obtain appropriate equitable another year. Since early 1998, IACP has been and declaratory relief to eliminate pattern or responsible for all project funding. practice.” Thus, if use-of-force data provided to IACP from the field—whether standing The balance of this chapter discusses basic alone or accompanied by analysis—were concepts underlying IACP’s use-of-force data- associated with individual departments, base project, highlights selected preliminary litigation could result. findings derived from the database, and dis- cusses the future of the project. The chapter’s Under those circumstances, the law enforce- addendum provides details about key ele- ment community would have faced the ments involved in database development. dilemma of being very reluctant to provide 19

Use of Force by Police use-of-force data, yet realizing that funda- through the software, the team identified a mental elements of modern police service are “street continuum” of force, which consists of pursuit of truth and subordination to the the types of force used by officers on a day- will of the communities that agencies are to-day basis to bring subjects under control. sworn to serve. Therefore, IACP decided that The IACP database consists of data on re- provision of such data would be both volun- ported use of force stemming from police tary and anonymous to promote accurate responses to calls for service, whether or not reporting and overcome potential reluctance those responses resulted in arrests.1 Catego- of agencies to participate. ries of force include the following: Reflecting operational realities q Physical force (use of fists, hands, feet, etc.). When examined from the perspective of q Chemical force (the discharge of Mace, day-to-day law enforcement activities, many pepper spray, and similar agents). previous use-of-force definitions were consid- ered not sufficiently workable or functional q Electronic force (the discharge of Tasers, to be applied nationwide to all jurisdictions stun guns, or other electronic weapons). and department types for the purposes of the IACP project. Thus, IACP designed the q Impact force (use of batons and the like). project from the outset to reflect operational realities of modern, street-level law enforce- q Lethal force (firearm discharge of any ment, including the very meaning of “police kind). use of force,” defined as the amount of force required by police to compel compliance by Additionally, IACP software enables depart- an unwilling subject. ments to track various subcategories of force, such as dog bites, edged weapons, vehicles, The project team developed a unique soft- and nail guns. However, the project team ware package to track the basic types of excluded certain measures of force because force used by officers and suspects in typical they were considered to fly in the face of re- encounters. On the basis of data submitted ality and practicality. (See sidebar “Measures of force excluded from the database.”) Measures of force excluded from the database IACP’s project team decided to exclude • Routine or voluntary handcuffing of pris- from the database certain measures of oners for transport or during field ques- force that the team considered were too tioning or investigation. broad to allow agency reporting in an ac- curate and timely fashion or beyond what • Display or presentation of an officer’s police typically perceive or record as appli- weapon. cations of force: Although any of the above measures could • Presence of a police officer at the be and are included in some academic stud- scene. ies of police use of force, IACP excluded them from its database to allow creation of a • Presence of a K–9 at the scene. concise, universally accepted, and practi- cally achievable information base on police • Presence of chemical or electronic use of force in the United States. Inclusion of less-than-lethal devices at the scene. the elements listed above would have overly complicated the project and substantially • Verbal commands by an officer. reduced local agency participation. 20

Chapter 3: IACP National Database Project on Police Use of Force Agencies contributing to the use-of-force database IACP has obtained a substantial level of Although not nationally representative at use-of-force data from participating agen- this early stage of project development, the cies. Hundreds of others are establishing received data provide indicators regarding deadlines for submitting data either to their police use of force against subjects and State chiefs’ organizations or to IACP subject use of force against officers. As of directly: this writing, agencies representing popula- tions ranging from 1,000 to more than 1 • About 4,000 agencies have requested million have contributed data on thousands the requisite software. of incidents. Reported use-of-force inci- dents applicable to 1996 and 1997 total • An estimated 1,000 agencies are using 24,383 and 24,033, respectively (based on the software to capture use-of-force data. data submitted through September 1998). • Some 150 agencies are expected to con- tribute data for the 1998–99 data year. Selected Preliminary Use-of-Force and 27 for 1997 on 2,310 police use-of-force For a more detailed Findings incidents indicate that the vast majority of account of use-of-force such incidents occurred in arrest-related project findings, see Inter- Although the database is in the early stages situations. For the 1996–97 period, those national Association of of development, the level of interest and agencies also reported the following: Chiefs of Police, Police support from local police agencies is encour- Use of Force in America: aging. (See sidebar “Agencies contributing to q Of 2,264 use-of-force confrontations for Research in Progress the use-of-force database.”) Nonetheless, the which the race of officers and subjects was Report on the IACP Na- data are not yet nationally representative. known, 909 were intraracial (officer and tional Database Project, Conclusions about national use-of-force subject of the same race) and 1,335 were Alexandria, Virginia: trends, therefore, should not be attempted interracial. International Association at this time. of Chiefs of Police, April q About 10 percent of 2,479 officers using 1998. But preliminary findings based on the data force sustained injuries. Less than 1 per- may provide useful insights, however tenta- cent of the injuries were major; none re- tive, into current police and subject use-of- sulted in death. About 38 percent of the force issues. The IACP calculation of the subjects were injured as the result of po- use-of-force rate is based on dispatched calls lice use of force, including approximately for service. For example, based on 1995 data 1.5 percent with major injuries. (Data reported by 110 agencies, the police use-of- spanning the 1995–97 period indicate force rate was 4.19 per 10,000 responded-to that of 75,082 use-of-force incidents, calls for service, or 0.0419 percent. Jurisdic- 3,274, or about 4 percent, resulted in tion size for 78 of those agencies was 35,000 officer injuries, all but 39 minor.) population or less; for 4 departments, 500,000 population or more. q Of 3,972 reported incidents involving use of force, 20 resulted in complaints by Data reported for 1995–97 indicate that of subjects. 62,411 use-of-force incidents during the pe- riod, about 87 percent involved officers using Future of the Database physical force.2 Officers used chemical force in 7 percent of the incidents, firearms in From the inception of the database project about 5 percent. in 1996, it has had—and is expected to continue to have—a three-tiered impact on Data received by IACP through September police use-of-force policies and practices in 1998 from 26 agencies reporting for 1996 the United States. At the national level, the 21

Use of Force by Police IACP annual report Police Use of Force in 7 pilot States, database software is now in America provides summary and incident in- place in more than 1,000 agencies nationwide formation to police leaders, the public, and and in the last quarter of 1998, Illinois and the media. At the State level, State associa- Rhode Island joined the project, followed by tions of chiefs of police increasingly use the Maryland and Missouri in early 1999. Newly project to provide leadership to their con- recruited States may contribute data from as stituent law enforcement agencies. Finally, far back as 1991. IACP believes that the ben- local police agencies use IACP-provided soft- efits of its use-of-force database project will ware to capture use-of-force information per- continue to increase as the number of contrib- taining to their own departments and use it uting departments approaches national for such purposes as the following: representation. q To promote improved policies, training, Notes and procedures governing departmentwide use of force. 1. Data submitted to IACP by any given agency may also reflect use-of-force inci- q To reduce potential department liability dents resulting from responses to other arising from frivolous or unfounded legal than calls for service—for example, from actions related to use of force. officer-initiated contacts with the public. q To contribute data to statewide use-of- 2. The data for 1996 and 1997 reflect agency force data repositories, where applicable, use-of-force reports received through Sep- and to the IACP database. tember 1998 and, therefore, are not yet com- plete. Although the IACP database project The IACP database is a dynamic one. The started in 1996, some agencies supplied data number of departments providing new or up- for 1995. dated data increases almost on a daily basis. For example, from a modest beginning of Addendum: Key Elements in Building der Patrol (Immigration and Naturalization the IACP Use-of-Force Database Service). This group, from the outset, has provided advice on local concerns, State as- To ensure the success of the database project, sociation perspectives, and logistical issues. IACP created two advisory panels to support This group also provides midyear and end- initial project activities. The first was an ad year input on project direction and selected hoc committee of police and justice leaders milestones. brought together at IACP headquarters to react to the project’s scope and give general The SACOP role policy input and advice. This group consisted of DOJ representatives, State police, county The State Associations of Chiefs of Police sheriffs, local law enforcement officers and (SACOP) Division of IACP laid the founda- other criminal justice professionals. Consensus tion for this program from its inception. In on key issues, such as definitions and data particular, the Virginia Association of Chiefs elements, was achieved during the project’s of Police had already instituted a statewide start-up phase. use-of-force reporting program that served as the model for IACP’s national effort. The A second and continuing advisory committee strength and reach of SACOP organizations consists of representatives from each of within most of the States provided a flexible seven pilot State associations, discussed be- framework for developing and expanding the low, and a representative from the U.S. Bor- project. 22

In collaboration with SACOP leadership, Chapter 3: IACP National Database Project on Police Use of Force IACP initially identified seven pilot State associations that would help coordinate the content”), it soon became clear that an auto- contribution of information for the national mated data collection system was required. database effort: Arkansas, New Jersey, New The ideal system would need to: York, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, and West Virginia. DOJ also arranged early Fed- q Be compatible across the widest possible eral support by designating the U.S. Border spectrum of computers used in depart- Patrol to contribute data. ments nationwide. Each pilot State association identified five q Employ a graphical user interface that local police departments to contribute data to would facilitate self-instruction by the the project. To accomplish the data collection user. and transfer, IACP developed a new software application specifically for this purpose. q Handle the relationship between inci- dents involving a single officer and mul- A three-tiered approach to data collection tiple subjects, multiple officers and a single subject, and any other possible Data flow was designed from the outset to combination. emanate from local departments, through the respective SACOP offices, and then to Staff decided on a system that could meet IACP. The identities of all participating these needs and was scalable in that it could departments are masked by use of a self- support the inevitable evolution of revisions, installing agency reporting code, which is customizations, additions, and expansions automatically appended to all local agency inherent in software projects of this type. data records. This code is the only means by which individual data records can be distin- Because data flowed from local agencies to guished from one contributing source to an- SACOP regional data repositories and from other. The SACOP organizations have the there to IACP, two versions of the software capability to generate regional use-of-force were produced. The first, the local agency ver- data based on the anonymous records sion, was intended to automate data capture reported to them by departments in their at the local department level. This software States. was equipped with a simplified data export function by which the user could write the Larger departments, which maintain elec- captured use-of-force data to a floppy disk by tronic repositories of their own use-of-force simply clicking an on-screen button. data, have the option of reporting their data (in any data format) directly to IACP in cases The second version of the software was in- where the appropriate SACOP office is not tended for use by the SACOP data reposito- participating in the project. Even in these ries. The SACOP version of the software instances, the identity of the contributing remains identical to the local agency version agency is protected by an agency reporting in terms of the number and type of data ele- code in the same manner that the identity of ments captured. However, the SACOP ver- a department is protected when contributing sion is provided with an import capability by data through its State organization. which data on disks originating from local agencies can easily be incorporated into the Software design and training regional database. Data from each of the re- gional databases are periodically exported to Based on the large number of data elements floppy disk and sent to IACP for inclusion in relevant to this study (see sidebar “Database its database. Several software improvements have been made. 23

Use of Force by Police derlying the project. At the conclusion of the training, students, all of whom were sworn Training for IACP database administrators law enforcement personnel from participat- was provided in a formal class setting by ing local police departments, were presented IACP in August 1997. The 8-hour class pro- with certificates identifying them as IACP vided hands-on technical training in setting use-of-force database administrators. up, operating, and troubleshooting the use- of-force software and in the philosophy un- Database content • Number of third parties involved. • Age of officer(s)/subject(s). Guided by the broad framework of use-of- • Type of assignment. force issues and by IACP’s experience with • Duty status. other sensitive police policy issues, the • Education of officer(s)/subject(s). project team decided upon the following • Race/ethnicity of officer(s)/subject(s). elements for inclusion in the use-of-force • Type of force used by officer(s)/subject(s). database: • Officer/subject injury. Department characteristics: Complaint characteristics: • Report year. • Complaint time. • Jurisdiction size. • Complaint date. • Department type. • Complaint year. • Calls for service. • Number of officers involved. • Ethnicity demographics. • Number of subjects involved. • Number of use-of-force incidents by type. • Number of third parties involved. • Number of force-related complaints. • Age of officer(s)/subject(s). • Complaint resolution. • Type of assignment, duty status. • Types of less-than-lethal weapons • Education of officer(s)/subject(s). • Race/ethnicity of officer(s)/subject(s). authorized. • Type of force used by officer(s)/subject(s). • Use-of-force training and policies in place. • Officer/subject injury. • Administrative policies for use-of-force • Previous complaints against officer. • Complaint disposition. complaint. Incident characteristics: • Incident time. • Incident date. • Incident year. • Number of officers involved. • Number of subjects involved. 24