In a recent decision, federal appellate justices gave special weight to dash-cam recordings in determining whether officers accused of excessive force are entitled to immunity from a civil rights lawsuit. The case involved two Michigan sheriff’s deputies who were denied a summary judgment exonerating them of wrongdoing by a district court judge who ruled that...Read More
A new use-of-force survey reveals that the use of batons as control or striking weapons is fading out, ground fighting warrants greater emphasis in training, and despite the hyperbolic media coverage of late most arrests are effected with verbal communication alone, with deadly force by police an extreme rarity. These and other findings about the...Read More
Stripped to its bare bones, the incident had the ingredients of another racial firestorm: A white cop with a prior shooting on his record repeatedly fires at and kills a young black male, a former college football player, in full view of a crowd dispersing from a wedding at an African-American church on the Martin...Read More
A lawsuit filed recently in the 9th federal circuit hinges on ADA considerations that may resonate with many agencies. In this case (LaDue v. City of Talent, et al.), a subject with a history of schizophrenia smoked a “synthetic cannabinoid” product and then later died in the throes of excited delirium during a confrontation with...Read More
Do LEOs have to make special accommodations when confronting violent, life-threatening mentally ill suspects in order to avoid violating the federal Americans with Disabilities Act? That question is scheduled for a decision in the coming weeks by the U.S. Supreme Court. And if the answer is yes, warns an attorney team involved in the case,...Read More
The issue of prone positioning of resistant suspects, which we reported on in a previous article, is back in the news–this time with a US appellate court weighing in with comments on what officers are expected to know about the subject. The case, Bolick v. City of East Grand Rapids (MI), is a civil rights...Read More
Part of a periodic series Sgt. Thomas Ovens, an officer in the state of Washington, had scarcely hung up his diploma from the Force Science Certification Course when, in quick succession, he was called on to help defend two major lawsuits against police. In one case, officers with a large department in Eastern Washington shot...Read More
A new Supreme Court decision has been added to the ongoing controversy in law enforcement circles about whether officers should be permitted by policy to shoot at moving vehicles. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that officers were justified in firing fatal rounds at a driver to end a dangerous high-speed chase. Further, the...Read More
In a previous Force Science News [4/8/14], we reported a new study by Dr. Darrell Ross, indicating that restraining a violently resisting suspect in the prone position produces “no fatal adverse effects, even when TASER shocks, weight on the subject’s back, and hobbling are employed by officers to gain control.” Ross urged that for the...Read More
An officer who shot a suspect who had him trapped inside a car that was gathering speed discovered that his inability to accurately estimate measurements afterward became an issue when the case got to an appellate court. The bizarre situation began about 0200 one Friday when two Anaheim (CA) PD officers narrowly missed colliding with...Read More
