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Police Use Of Force Essay

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The Controversy of Police Use of Force

"Use of force" refers to the "amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject." The Fourth Amendment forbids unreasonable searches and seizures, and various other legal and policy controls govern how and when officers can use force. Most agencies tightly control the use of force, and supervisors or internal affairs units routinely review serious incidents.(1)
In America today, we are faced with this question: Are law enforcement officials using the proper amount of force when dealing with possible suspects and the general population? The answer to that will depend greatly on who you ask. The majority of those who will argue that Officers are using an appropriate amount of force are, in fact, Police Officers themselves. …show more content…

By the late 1800s, police officers were issued firearms to counteract the better equipped criminal. In recent years, there have been resurgences in the importance of non-lethal and less-than-lethal weapons for law enforcement use. However, the devices in use today are worlds away from in terms of technology compared to what their police forefathers used. Generally, the use of force by law enforcement officers is permitted and often necessary under certain circumstances, such as in self-defense or in the defense of another individual or group.
There is no universally agreed upon definition for the use of force. The International Association of Chiefs of Police has described use of force as the "amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject". (1)
Officers receive training from their individual agencies. However, a universal set of rules pertaining to the deployment of the use of force has yet to be

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