NCJ Number
147224
Date Published
1994
Length
9 pages
Annotation
This author maintains that police use of force continuums are typically based upon the personal perspectives of their creators, rather than upon any type of research leading to a coherent policy position.
Abstract
The force continuum is a spectrum of control tactics, beginning with oral communication and ending with deadly force. There are generally five to seven categories of force included in any continuum. Force continuums can create ad hoc policy used to find individual officers and agencies liable for excessive force in a given situation. Ad hoc policy is created when agencies incorporate a continuum into their training material without adapting it to their needs, and when such paradigms are used in litigation involving the use of force. This author describes the Parsons confrontation continuum, the Desmedt model, and the Remsberg model. All force models have several deficiencies: none specifically reference any court decisions or studies to support their theories, they use inconsistent terminology, they treat all impact weapons as being at the same level of force, they eliminate some of the common use of force options, and they are often outdated. 1 table and 10 references