use of force

[ptl.777]

I work as a street patrolman for a small town department. Our city has a population of approximately 4000. I recently arrested a male subject for carrying a concealed weapon.

I was called to a local bar in reference to a male carrying a handgun in the waist band of his pants. After placing the subject in handcuffs for officer safety, I removed the loaded weapon. Upon telling the subject he was under arrest he became non-compliant.

The subject is approximately 6'2" and weighs around 270 lbs. I am 5'10" and weigh 235 lbs. I found myself having a hard time getting this subject out of the bar and to my patrol car. To gain compliance I delivered a knee strike to the subject in the leg. Now I am being critisized for knee striking a handcuffed subject.
from a legal standpoint was my action justified?

[Niteshift]

I would say yes.

If I'm guessing right, you used your knee to strike the common peroneal(sp?) nerve that runs down the outside of the thigh (roughly where the stripe on your uniform pants goes. This is a very commonly taught strike. It's often very effective too. If you hit it hard enough, you get a sympathetic reaction from the other leg and both legs quit working for a period of time.

I'm not sure about other states, but it's my understanding that Florida has required all defensive tactics be reviewed by a panel of doctors to evaluate their medical implications. The doctors have to sign off on it for the technique to be recognized in standard cirriculum. This strike is still a standard tactic taught.

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Niteshift-
Perseverate In Pugna

[Sgt-E]

I would agree with Niteshift, what you didn

[FLLawdog]

If you remember, right after the Philly incident, there was another use of force caught on tape. Wasn't it Kansas City? Anyway, cop attempts to pull over drunk driver, drunk driver attempts, in vain, to flee, gets caught, then tries to fight two officers. As the camera is rolling, one of the officers is seen delivering a couple well placed blows to the common peronial to gain compliance while handcuffing. It worked...he got cuffed and both officers went home to momma. I haven't seen anything on this, so it's safe to assume that they were absolved.

Just because a person is cuffed, doesn't mean he's gonna go peacefully. ESPECIALLY drunks. NEVER trust one, and NEVER, NEVER underestimate one.

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FLLawdog
"Never try to teach a pig to sing...it wastes your time and it annoys the pig."

[John from Maryland]

The knee strike is an acceptable technique. The longer the struggle in the bar continued, the greater the chance of something going wrong for you.

Apart from the offender's size, several other factors come into play. He was arrested in a bar. There is a significant chance he has friends or accomplices present. Since he was armed, there is a higher liklihood they would themselves be armed. The customers were likely in varying stages of intoxication. The longer the struggle continues, the greater the chance a previously uninvolved drunk will join in (especially if there's a chance to sneak a free shot in on a cop). The offender was arrested for a weapons offense; training dictates that a suspect armed with one weapon should be considered armed with a second until proven otherwise.

The knee strike is a widely-accepted police technique. It is almost always non-injurious. This is certainly the better option than a right cross to the jaw (though that can be justified on occasion as well).

Handcuffed prisoners can be extremely dangerous. In the past few weeks, Officer Robert Stanze of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Mobile Reserve Division (SWAT) was shot and killed by a back-cuffed prisoner seated in the backseat of a cruiser. Several years ago in the DC metro area, a botched search resulted in a DWI suspect pulling a handgun from his shorts. The bad guy was fortunately noticed and lit up. This, of course, has resulted in literally years of demands for re-investigation upon re-investigation by the suspect's family and the NAACP. That's another issue,of course.

I would suggest an abundance of detail in your use of force report in an incident such as this. You and I know what "non-compliant" is and what "having a hard time getting this subject out of the bar" entails. It is important that you mention the resistive tension, the planting of feet, the twisting of his arms, the shouts of the bar crowd, and so forth.

Be safe.

[Topdog]

We changed the name of our, "Use of Force" report to a, "Level of Resistance" report. Words are everything.

[Motivator]

Where can I read about the officer shot while cuffed in the back of the cruiser?

[Rebecca]

http://www.officer.com/ubb/Forum8/HTML/000046.html