This week you are presented with the body camera footage
from two police officers in two unrelated incidents. Watch and listen to the
officers in each incident. Be mindful of possible tactical skills and
de-escalation skills that were employed or not exercised. Both incidents ended
very differently.
Body Camera Footage 1
https://www.citizen-times.com/videos/news/local/2018/03/01/apd-chase-beat-man-they-say-jaywalked/110950514/
Body Camera Footage 2
http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/maryland/crime/95090133-132.html
Before you write your essay, consider the following definitions
and research findings:
Police discretion
is the flexibility police officers have in deciding between multiple courses of
action to resolve a situation in the course of performing their duties.
Research identifies several factors that determine whether law enforcement
officers decide to enforce or not enforce laws: (1) the officers personal
feelings regarding the severity of an offense and the potential risk it poses
to the public; (2) the specifics of a situation; and (3) supervisor expectations
of how officers will carry out their job functions (Ishoy, 2016). Other studies
find that if an offender is a resident in the community where the offense
occurs, an officer is 18% less likely to arrest the offender, especially if the
offender is under the age of 21 or over the age of 51 (McCamman & Mowen, 2017).
Use of force is
the amount of police effort necessary to get a resistant suspect to comply.
Below read the case Graham v. Connor
(1989). The United States Supreme Court determined that the Fourth Amendments
objective reasonableness standard should be the measure used in alleged
excessive use of force cases.
GRAHAM v.
CONNOR, (1989) [http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/490/386.html]
All claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force –
deadly or not – in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other
“seizure” of a free citizen are properly analyzed under the Fourth
Amendment’s “objective reasonableness” standard, rather than under a
substantive due process standard.
Points of interest from this case:
a.
If use of force is being questioned, it has to be based on a specific
constitutional right infringement. You
have to judge this claim of constitutional right infringement by the specific
constitutional standard which governs that right. What specific constitutional
right is being infringed upon?
b.
Claims that law enforcement officials have used excessive force in
the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of a
free citizen are most properly characterized as invoking the protections of the
Fourth Amendment, which guarantees citizens the right “to be secure in
their persons . . . against unreasonable seizures,” and must be judged by
reference to the Fourth Amendment’s “reasonableness” standard.
c.
The Fourth Amendment must be the guide to judge
law enforcement excessive force incidents in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other
“seizure” of a free citizen.
De-escalation is
when officers reduce the intensity of a potentially violent situation. It is
the actions of the suspect (their level of cooperation or resistance) that
impacts the discretionary powers of the police in deciding how to de-escalate
the situation, if possible.
Based on the
above information, respond to the following questions:
1. When comparing Body Camera Footage
1 to Body Camera Footage 2, how does the severity of the crime in each incident
compare with the discretionary tactics employed by the officers involved? What
biblical principles can you apply to the better approach?
2. Discuss whether the suspect in each
incident posed an immediate threat to the safety of the officers, himself, or
the public. Consider if each suspect was actively resisting arrest or
attempting to evade arrest by flight?
3. When
comparing the two incidents, why do you think one ended more appropriately than
the other?
4. Why
are non-coercive measures such as conversational requests and directives better
than coercive measures?
Requirements: In
your essay, support your views with the required readings and study materials
for this week, or other scholarly sources to support your statements. Four
in-text citations are required for this assignment. Your paper must be
formatted using 12 pt. Times New Roman font, with a 400-word minimum/425-word
maximum double-spaced. (Do
not include a Title page or Reference page).
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