Reference no: EM133798647

Question

The Use of Force law does help officers have a good understanding of what they can and cannot do legally when it comes to encountering certain situations. I think this law is needed for both officers and citizens to know what the legal use of force is so we don't have police officers committing an overuse of force. A reasonable officer would observe the situation to see if there is a deadly weapon or not and try to de-escalate the situation if the de-escalation attempts fail then proceed to use more non-lethal force until lethal force is the final and only option. For a reasonable citizen, if they were held to the same standard as police officers, the correct course of action would be to avoid confrontation and call the police and if there is an active threat then that would call for self-defense either lethal or non-lethal force depending on the threat. I believe that this law is an appropriate standard for law enforcement officers since it takes into account how an officer should act while on duty and when dealing with a suspect. I also believe this law helps create guidelines on what officers should and not do when encountering a possibly harmful suspect and gives them the option of deadly force if the suspect they are trying to apprehend will cause more harm and in turn possibly save more lives in the process.