Predicting Use of Non-Lethal Force in a Mid-Size Police Department: A Longitudinal Analysis of the Influence of Subject and Situational Variables

Abstract

Historically, most research investigating use of non-lethal force predictors have found that certain subject characteristics increase the likelihood of non-lethal force occurring in a police–citizen encounter. Original police-reported use of force data ( N=3,673) was gathered over a period of 27 months in a Midwestern jurisdiction employing 50 sworn officers. The present dataset was unique in that it was not dependent upon whether an arrest was made. The present findings generally support the findings of studies conducted in larger urban police departments. For example, use of force is infrequent, suspects are more likely to have force used against them while resisting arrest, use of force is not consistently related to age, the likelihood of use of force increases when the suspect was male. This study failed to find that intoxication is a good predictor of non-lethal force. It was concluded that police use of non-lethal force is applied under similar circumstances regardless of community and department size.