Essay On Police Force

1561 Words7 Pages

The American police force today has one of the toughest jobs in the country. Between the physical demands and mental toughness, they police also have to deal with the continuous negative onslaught from the media. It seems that in today’s world, there has been a war on the police in the United States and has resulted in countless deaths of police officers in the past couple years. The media and members of protest groups claim police brutality and record every single moment of any incident to blame the police for excessive use of force and ruin their careers. However, in many incidents, officers wear body cameras to counter-act the bystanders. Also, in most cases, the use of the body camera proves the officers innocence. This on going issue has divided America into two separate groups. The …show more content…

What exactly is use of force? According to the article, Police use of force. (2015). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1p.1, use of force is “one of three forms of legitimate force recognized by society. The other two are self-defense and use of force to carry out a court order requiring imprisonment.” Force is what police officers are legally allowed to use to apprehend a suspect or gain control of an incident. The article also states when the officer deems it necessary to use force, it has to meet the standard of reasonableness. Then, the ultimate force that an officer can use is deadly force. Deadly force is force that can cause death or great bodily harm but this is restricted to forcible felonies. Additionally, Police use of force. (2015). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1p.1 also says “Forcible HYPERLINK "http://eds.b.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.umuc.edu/eds/detail/detail?sid=1d387d36-8cac-42bf-b7f6-da27b626aae6@sessionmgr113&vid=1&hid=121&db=funk&ss=AN+%22FE019200%22&sl=ll" felonies are offenses that involve doing or threatening to do great bodily harm.” Furthermore, the article says that in the United States, use of force is governed by the use-of-force