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http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01zs25xc211| Title: | Guiding principles on use of force |
| Contributors: | Police Executive Research Forum |
| Keywords: | Police administration—United States Police-community relations—United States Police shootings—United States Police misconduct—United States—Prevention |
| Issue Date: | Mar-2016 |
| Publisher: | Police Executive Research Forum |
| Place of Publication: | Washington, D.C. |
| Description: | This document details 18 months of intensive work on the issue of police use of force and its impact on community-police relationships and on officer safety and public safety. Our work has centered on how the profession can improve in the key areas of use-of-force policies, training, tactics, and equipment. We have focused especially on two types of police encounters: 1. With subjects who have a mental illness, a developmental disability, a condition such as autism, a drug addiction, or another condition that can cause them to behave erratically or threateningly; and 2. With subjects who either are unarmed, or are armed with a knife, a baseball bat, rocks, or other weapons, but not a firearm. It is these situations—not incidents involving criminal offenders brandishing guns—where we see significant potential for reducing use of force, while also increasing officer safety. It is important to note that in nearly all of the use-of-force incidents that have proved controversial, the officers should not be faulted, because their actions reflected the training they received. What PERF and leading police chiefs call for in this report are changes in policies, training, tactics, and equipment that provide officers with better tools for handling difficult situations. And we recommend discontinuing outdated concepts, such as use-of-force continuums, the so-called “21-foot rule,” and the idea that police must “draw a line in the sand” and resolve all situations as quickly as possible. In short, this report attempts to move policing to a higher standard when it comes to how and when officers use force in situations where they and the public are not threatened with firearms. By adopting the Guiding Principles and other approaches presented in this report, police agencies can make policing safer for officers and the public they serve—and, in the process, restore public trust and advance as a profession. |
| URI: | http://arks.princeton.edu/ark:/88435/dsp01zs25xc211 |
| ISBN: | 978-1-934485-33-0 |
| Related resource: | http://www.policeforum.org/assets/30%20guiding%20principles.pdf |
| Appears in Collections: | Monographic reports and papers (Publicly Accessible) |
Files in This Item:
| File | Description | Size | Format | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| guidingprinciples.pdf | 5.28 MB | Adobe PDF | View/Download |
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