NCJ Number
113896
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 55 Issue: 10 Dated: (October 1988) Pages: 33-37
Date Published
1988
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Police agencies should take several types of measures to prevent public controversies and crises over incidents involving deadly force and should take several proactive steps to ensure that deadly force is used appropriately, professionally, and consistently within the framework provided by the law, policy, and ethics.
Abstract
To improve public perceptions of trust, police agencies should make every effort to work with the community regularly to develop meaningful associations that help establish trust. If the community does not trust the police, every incident will be viewed as controversial; if it does trust the police, every incident will be viewed as proper. If the incident is not proper, the agency must say that and explain why. The agency must gather all the facts and analyze them thoroughly to develop a complete picture of what happened. Both positive and negative information should be gathered, and ambiguous statements should be avoided. To prevent the inappropriate use of deadly force, police agencies should hire the best possible people, provide good training and supervision, provide regular inservice training, and regularly establish officers' qualifications with firearms. They should also maintain good relations with the community, conduct continuing research, and emphasize the importance of deescalating confrontations.