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dinkheller2024-07-22 at 5.35.56 PM
One of the more wide-spread examples - the murder of Deputy Kyle Dinkheller. Watch the documentary.
No use of force looks good on camera or when viewed with the 20-20 vision of hindsight. Second guessing after the fact occurs almost every time. Often based on short, grainy, low-quality snippets of video. The poor-quality videos, which often lack context, have swayed public opinion on police use of force. This colors the legitimacy, necessity, reasonableness, and validity of the force used by officers in recent years.
Not Enough?
As I approach my 26th year in police work, I am noticing a phenomenon in police use of force. I like to call it Excessive “Not Enough Force.” This is not a new phenomenon.
The failure to gain control of the suspect and his hands (left) allowed the handgun to be drawn (right). (OKCPD BWC footage)
As more agencies field body-worn and car cameras, we are seeing more videos of police interactions with the public. All too frequently, I see a video of a police encounter with a suspect that ends in the use of force—when it need not have. That event, and many others, could have been resolved much sooner with lower levels of force.
Early Enough?
That initial failure led to the officer being faced with this. Fortunately, the only shots fired were those of the officer (OKCPD BWC footage)
Career cop and long-time trainer Chuck Haggard has said, “Using enough force early enough frequently prevents you from having to use much more force later.”
Outcome
Regularly, these incidents become prolonged and occasionally end in deadly force. It appears possibly due to the officer not using the reasonable and justified appropriate force necessary earlier in the incident. Many times, while seeing these incidents, the officer does not use the appropriate and legally justified force necessary to make the arrest and take the suspect into custody quickly. They then become fatigued, lose their Taser, impact weapon, portable radio, etc., and resort to using their firearm to prevent being killed by the suspect.
A solo deputy is involved in a physical confrontation that escalates to an OIS without other less-lethal tools being attempted (screen capture of a news broadcast using LASD BWC footage)
Or they use no force when appropriate, and similar things occur where the suspect attacks the officer or draws a weapon and is shot by the officer. I have also seen where officers will place themselves in jeopardy to avoid using force on a suspect, and this allows the suspect to access a weapon, a crowd to gather, or the suspect to formulate a plan to run, attack, or resist the officer. Had the officer immediately detained the suspect, would the suspect have been able to access a weapon? Form a plan to resist or attack the officer.
How often have we seen an officer struggling with a suspect for a prolonged period, become fatigued, and then end up getting injured or killed? Or, due to their being exhausted and possibly injured, using their firearm to save themselves. Could this have been avoided by using the proper amount of force earlier? Would the officer have prevailed if they had attempted the arrest earlier, were ready for the suspect to resist, and were prepared for it?
Laws & Policies
After a prolonged struggle where the officer became visibly fatigued, he was forced to shoot the suspect. This happened after the suspect tried to take the officer’s Taser.
I believe this is the result of the more restrictive use of force laws and policies that have been enacted in recent years. Those policies and laws, coupled with inadequate training on them, are leading to significant hesitation on the part of officers. I see officers appear to hesitate in situations when hesitation can get them hurt or killed.
Personal Experience
Ineffective control and handcuffing as shown in this image …
I found myself in a similar situation recently where I was reluctant to use force to detain a suspect based on very brief CAD notes and vague suspect descriptions. I decided to disengage and lock in a victim’s statement and get more officers on the scene prior to attempting to take the suspect into custody. This was a two-part decision. I wanted a rock-solid complainant statement on body camera. Getting more personnel on scene to hopefully prevent injuries to everyone was a priority. Recent changes in state law requiring force to be “necessary” instead of reasonable or justified was on my mind.
Resulted in this and injuries to the officers. (Screen captures from a Chicago PD video)
Impact on the Profession
Are we seeing more officers not using the appropriate level of force when it is legally justified? Are officers being injured or killed because of it?
Athens, GA, officers retreat for over a minute before the man armed with a knife charges police and gets an officer in a headlock. (Screen capture for the agency’s BWC footage)
What examples can you think of? How can you address this with your shift? Trainees? Partners? Reach out to us and let us know.
