According to the National Institute of Justice (2016), police officers "should use only the amount of force necessary to mitigate an incident, make an arrest, or protect themselves or others from harm" (para. 5). How does a police officer determine the "right" amount of force to use? When is use of force considered unlawful? identify a specific incident involving the of use of force and determine whether it was lawful. In doing so, you will consider the outcomes of two landmark U.S. Supreme Court Cases:Tennessee v Garner(1985) andGraham v Connor(1989).

National Institute of Justice. (2016). Police use of force. Retrieved fromhttps://www.nij.gov/topics/law-enforcement/officer-safety/use-of-force/pages/welcome.aspxLinks to an external site.

Resources

Be sure to review the Learning Resources before completing this activity. Click the module resources link to access the resources.

MODULE RESOURCES

To Prepare:

• Read about Tennessee v Garner(1985) andGraham v Connor(1989) provided in this module's Learning Resources.
• Also, review these Learning Resources:
  • National Institute of Justice, "The Use-of-Force Continuum"
  • Community Oriented Policing Services, "Use of Force"
• Locate a video link on the Internet that involves police use of force. The video should be less than 5 minutes long. Ensure that it has transcripts so it's accessible to all your colleagues.
• Post the link to the video with your initial discussion response.

By Day 3 of Week 3

Post at in which you:

• Provide an overview of the occurrence of use of force described in the video
• Describe which police department was involved
• Explain why the police were in contact with the person(s) that they used force against
• Include any other information you feel is pertinent to the case
• Determine whether the police use of force in the video is lawful, based on the related case law and information you learned regarding the use of force continuum. Explain why or why not.