Every year, thousands of people are killed by the police around the world. In the United States, for example, more than 3,000 civilians were killed by the police between 2015 and 2018. These deadly encounters have led to public outcries among citizens and increased tensions between the police, who say the killings were justified, and citizens, who say the killings were unwarranted.
A recent example is the police killing of George Floyd Âin Minneapolis, Minnesota, an incident that led to a public outcry not only in the United States but also in numerous other countries around the world, including European countries as thousands of people protested in solidarity over Floyd’s death at the hands of the police. Such violent encounters have undermined police-community relations as well as police legitimacy and raised concerns about the legitimacy of the use of deadly force.
Police legitimacy refers to citizens’ judgments about police in that police actions are right, appropriate, and just. Legitimacy is important because if citizens believe that police actions are legitimate, they are more likely to comply with police directives and the law and support the police overall. If citizens do not view police actions as legitimate, then they are less likely to comply with the police and the law, which may result in the escalation of tensions and confrontations between the police and citizens.
Police actions must be legitimate because legitimacy encourages citizen compliance and increases citizen cooperation and support. It is evident that successful and effective policing relies on citizen support for the police. Compliance, cooperation, and support are dependent on citizens’perceptions of police legitimacy. Thus, all police actions should be viewed as legitimate in the eyes of citizens.
Policing could be defined as use of force. Police, the gatekeepers of justice, are vested with the authority to use force when necessary to perform their job. The continuum of use of force involves police presence, verbal commands, physical restraints, impact weapons (e.g., batons), chemical sprays, conducted energy devices (e.g., Tasers), and deadly force. Police should use only the amount of force necessary to gain control of the situation and carry out their duties. Use of force must be reasonable, necessary, justified, and lawful.
Three types of use-of-force create and raise problems in the eyes of citizens: unnecessary force, excessive force, and deadly force. Unnecessary use of force is the force used to obtain citizen compliance when no force is needed (e.g., hitting a person even though the person is cooperating). Excessive use of force refers to an amount of force that exceeds the necessary amount of force needed to obtain citizen compliance (e.g., hitting a person more than once when only one strike would suffice). Deadly force is force that results in a person’s death.
Unnecessary and excessive use of force are unlawful and subject to disciplinary and judicial investigations. Because both types of force are unlawful, their use undermines police legitimacy because police lawfulness is linked with police legitimacy. That is, unlawful police are not viewed by citizens as legitimate. Use of force that is legitimate is supported by citizens, whereas illegitimate use of force is not.
Of the continuum of use of force, deadly force is the most serious of the three types and warrants special consideration because it results in the death of a civilian. Police may have to use deadly force under life-threatening circumstances (e.g., to protect themselves and citizens not involved in the police-suspect encounter). The use of force under such circumstances is likely to be considered legal and legitimate. However, not all instances of the use of deadly are viewed as legitimate by citizens. In order for the use of deadly force to be considered legitimate in the eyes of citizen, citizens need to believe that (1) the police have the right to use deadly force, (2) the use of deadly force was necessary, (3) the use of deadly force was the last resort, (4) proportionality exists between the level of resistance by the suspect and the level of force used by the police, and (5) the crime (e.g., murder)was serious in nature.
The fourth and fifth criterion warrant further discussion. During a police-citizen encounter, the citizen is regarded as a suspect. The police officer does not know whether the citizen has committed a crime; rather, the officer only suspects that the person has committed or may have committed an illegal behavior. What follows is the collection of evidence, the preparation of report and file on the encounter, and the submission of the report and file to the local prosecutor. The prosecutor then decides whether to charge the person with a crime, a trial jury determines whether the defendant is guilty or not guilty, and the judge sentences the defendant if the defendant was found guilty. What is important to note is that the court determines whether the person is guilty or not guilty and that the punishment for a defendant who was found to be guilty will not be death—except for certain extremely serious crimes. Even when the death penalty is given to a defendant who has been found guilty, different procedures must be completed to administer the use of the death penalty in that case. Otherwise, the person will not be executed. In the world, most of the countries (72% of 195 countries) that are United Nations members do not even have a death penalty as a punishment or do not use it.
When the police use deadly force, the suspect is more likely to die, which raises the question: How legitimate is police use of deadly force? For example, in the case of George Floyd, police arrested him on the grounds that he used a counterfeit $20 bill to buy cigarettes. Although Floyd was not resisting after he was arrested, police used excessive force that led to Floyd’s death. In essence, $20 caused Floyd to lose his life—an outcome that is not just.
Except for a life-threatening attack on the police or a citizen, the police should not be allowed to use deadly force. Even in these circumstances, police should use deadly force not to kill the suspect but to subdue the individual. The main job of the police is to protect and serve people—not to kill them.
Like all police actions, the use of force should be morally justified and appropriate to the circumstances. Otherwise, citizens most likely will question the legitimacy of the police, no longer trust the officers they encounter, and be less willing to comply or cooperate with police directives or instructions and support the police in general.
