Term Paper on "Abuse of Power"

Term Paper 5 pages (1392 words) Sources: 4 Style: APA

[EXCERPT] . . . .

Criminal Justice - Abuse of Power

ABUSE of POWER ISSUES in POLICING

Law enforcement entities have legal authority to issue commands that must be obeyed by citizens, to exercise control over individuals, to take them into their custody, and to arrest them. Those authorities are implemented by individual police officers and agents pursuant to criteria established at law governing their use of physical force to gain compliance or to overcome resistance to effect their arrests. In principle, those criteria and the laws defining them originate in constitutional law, congressional action, and, especially, the long history of U.S. Supreme Court case law on matters of police authority and criminal procedure requirements.

Police officers are the primary agents of governmental authority at the point where criminal suspects and other persons subjected to the initial exercise of any state police authority to confine them by arrest. Like other human beings, police officer make honest mistakes in the field, and their personal characteristics and subjective beliefs sometimes affect their actions. They also share with other human beings certain natural biases, as well as automatic and involuntary psychological responses to emotional situations, to resistance to their lawful exercise of authority, and to threats to their personal safety (Geeting 2005).

Similarly, individual police agencies may differ substantially from others in their institutional philosophy and their quality of leadership and training. Consequently, police practice in the field represents constant opportunity for potential misuse of lawful police powers, and for abuse of persons physically, verbally, psychologically, and with respect to their constitutional civil rights. Physical Abuse:

Physical abuse in law enforcement arises most commonly in the context of police street patrol and in the process of subduing criminal suspects and executing arrests (Montgomery 2005). Police officers may lawfully detain subjects whom they reasonably suspect of criminal activity, but they may not implement physical force that is excessive or unreasonable under the circumstances (McCauley 2005). They are required, both at law and by agency policies, to apply different levels of physical control or physical force in a specific hierarchical order, often referred to as the "use-of-force continuum" (McCauley 2005).

Generally, the use-of-force continuum consists of five levels: (1) Verbal persuasion, such as to communicate a lawful request; (2) Light Physical Contact (or "soft hands") such as to guide individuals along an intended path or away from restricted areas; (3) Compliance and Control, such as employed to restrain a subject under investigation or arrest, and compression techniques to control combative individuals through joint locks and leverage maneuvers as necessary to achieve compliance; (4) Self-Defense Strikes, such as necessary to defend against non-deadly physical attacks on the officer; and (5) Deadly Force, such as necessary for the officer to protect against serious bodily injury or threats to life and limb against himself, other law enforcement personnel, or members of the general public (Montgomery 2005).

That continuum authorizes the escalation of force level according to a strict order dictated as the appropriate response to various situations. Likewise, police officers may not implement physical force in an abusive manner, such as by applying a higher level of force than reasonably necessary to achieve their lawful objectives; nor may they misuse the lawful authority to use physical force for the unlawful purpose of administering punishment or retribution for a subject's conduct (Montgomery 2005). Deviating from the order of use-of-force escalation authorized by law and agency policy, and administering "street justice" through the unlawful use of force constitute abuse of police power under color of lawful authority and, where the allegations thereof are substantiated, may support criminal charges against the individual officer as well as civil litigation against the municipality, the police agency, and the involved officer individually.

Verbal and Psychological Abuse:

Verbal and psychological abuse in law enforcement arises most commonly in the context of police contact with individuals subject to lawful police investigations on the street, and in the process of police response to situation requiring their presence to control crowds and to restore public order after disruption. Because exchanges between those subjected to police intervention sometimes become antagonistic, they present potential opportunities for police conduct that constitutes verbal or psychological abuse.

In principle, it is easy to understand… READ MORE

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