Less Lethal Weapon Effectiveness, Use of Force, and Suspect & Officer Injuries

Law enforcement officers are legally justified to utilize force in many situations to bring suspects to justice, protect others, and for personal defense. However, police training on the use of force has no single consistent method in the United States to demonstrate the best response to subject resistance levels, even though many states and individual agencies have adopted very creative use-of-force matrices and continuums. For researchers, additional problems abound in the compilation and interpretation of the data available on police use of force. Criminal justice research has persistently demonstrated that a small percentage of police encounters with the public involve use of force. While extreme uses of force often garners media attention, lesser levels of force are used regularly by police without public notice. Research in the areas of use of force, and subsequent suspect injuries, has focused on the level of force used by the police officer and the suspect, excessive force, and officer misconduct.