In Search of an Objective Risk Continuity Assessment: Developing an Objective Assessment for Police Deadly Force Encounters

Abstract

The use of deadly force by American law enforcement officers is inherently paradoxical. It is both highly regulated and highly discretionary. Law enforcement officers’ use of deadly force is governed by two pivotal Supreme Court decisions: Tennessee v. Garner and Graham v. Connor . However, despite legal requirements that police use of deadly force be judged on the “totality of the circumstances with a standard of objective reasonableness,” the methods of examining law enforcement use of deadly force do not appear to comply with these guidelines. This study designed a proprietary index containing factors that may increase or decrease a law enforcement officer’s risk of serious injury or death. None of the demographic categories of offenders were statistically linked to situations that created a greater than normal risk to law enforcement officers. Therefore, the observed differences in the use of deadly force must be attributed to nonobjective factors.