Abstract
This research aims to examine two main issues: What is the level of legitimacy attributed to the use of excessive force during civil policing among Border Guard Police officers, compared to ordinary police officers and civilians, and how legitimate is it to involve external supervisory bodies when there is a suspicion of unreasonable or unjustified use of force? Every democratic state faces the need to find a balance between two theoretical and normative models: on the one hand the “Due Process Model” which aims to protect the rights of suspected, accused or convicted individuals and, on the other, the “Crime Control Model”, mainly based on an efficient and economical judicial system, and the need to provide society with a sense of security on a daily basis. The research assumption is that police officers as a whole, and specifically members of the Border Police who handle disturbances of peace as well as legal violations, alongside the necessity to combat security threats, tend to hold closer to the “Crime Control Model” and less to the “Due Process Model”, which the police officers find hinders their ability to effectively manage crime. In order to examine this assumption, an attitude questionnaire was constructed, examining the degree of legitimacy for the use of excessive force on the one hand, and supervision of the use of excessive force in police work on the other. The questionnaire was distributed to 140 Border Guard officers and ordinary police officers serving in the Southern Command of the Israeli Police. In addition, 60 questionnaires were distributed to ordinary civilians. Our findings show a high level of support among police officers and civilians alike for the use of excessive force in civil policing operations. The highest level of legitimacy towards the use of excessive force was found, as expected, among the Border Guard officers. The research concludes that the attitudes of the police officers, especially those of the Border Guard who are fighting a constant battle against security threats alongside the war against crime, greatly restrict the power of external and internal supervision mechanisms to effectively supervise the use of unreasonable force during civilian policing.
Highlights
The concept of policing refers to the formal and informal processes and operations whose purpose is the preservation of order and security in any given society (Reiner [1])
The research concludes that the attitudes of the police officers, especially those of the Border Guard who are fighting a constant battle against security threats alongside the war against crime, greatly restrict the power of external and internal supervision mechanisms to effectively supervise the use of unreasonable force during civilian policing
The greatest support for use of force in the course of civil policing was found among Border Guard police (72%); similar percentages of support were found for field police and civilians
Summary
The concept of policing refers to the formal and informal processes and operations whose purpose is the preservation of order and security in any given society (Reiner [1]). The extensive use of the power of enforcement (including physical force, deprivation of freedom, and infringement of civil rights) to attain a broad range of objectives seems to be the exclusive characteristic of the work of the police (Gimshi [3]; Skolnick & Fayfe, [4]). Over the past three decades, various public commissions have explored the issue of use of force by police. Their findings indicate, among other things, that police activity is dualistic, based on discrepancies between emphasizing the limits of use of force and turning a blind eye and allowing it (The State Comptroller [5]). The report states that most of the cases were closed due to a lack of BLR sufficient evidence as a result of conflicting accounts of the incident by the complainant and the suspect and a lack of objective evidence to support either one of them
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