44.493
Issues in Criminal Justice and Technology
home > Unit 2: technology in Criminal Justice practice
This week we are looking at the relationship between technology and criminal justice in daily operations.
the Victoria Snelgrove incident and its
implications
- how legal issues dictate technology choices
- tools that police use, why they were developed
- current research strategies
- technology to protect police
- technology to protect public
- forensic science
- communication
Sometimes technology is developed in response to
legal issues.
- Federal law largely determines
an officer's options regarding use of force
- 1989: Supreme Court ruled in
Graham vs. Connor (109 S.Ct. 1986 [1989]) that the officer's
decision regarding the level of force must be judged from the
"perspective of the reasonable officer on the scene..."
within circumstances that are "tense, uncertain, and rapidly
evolving." The court recognized that a police-citizen encounter
can escalate out of control within a matter of seconds. More
important, however, it recognized that the subject determines
the appropriate level of force, not the officer. The officer's
job is to respond. Guiding officers in determining the appropriate
level of force is the use-of-force continuum:
- Level I: compliance. Most police-citizen encounters are positive and cooperative.
- Level II: "passive resistance," subject offers no physical threat toward the officers but is unresponsive.
- Level III: Person actively resists police, indifferent to their attempts at control
- Level IV: threat of bodily harm toward the officers.
- Level V: assaultive, officer can draw a reasonable conclusion that the subject intends to kill him or inflict great bodily harm.
- 1985 :Tennessee vs. Garner (471 US 1 [1985]). Until then: legal in most states to use deadly force for two reasons: when a suspect posed a serious threat to an officer or a citizen; or to stop a fleeing felon.Made use of deadly force against a fleeing suspect unconstitutional.
- 1989: Supreme Court ruled in
Graham vs. Connor (109 S.Ct. 1986 [1989]) that the officer's
decision regarding the level of force must be judged from the
"perspective of the reasonable officer on the scene..."
within circumstances that are "tense, uncertain, and rapidly
evolving." The court recognized that a police-citizen encounter
can escalate out of control within a matter of seconds. More
important, however, it recognized that the subject determines
the appropriate level of force, not the officer. The officer's
job is to respond. Guiding officers in determining the appropriate
level of force is the use-of-force continuum:
- "Tools to counter non-compliance
have come and gone over the years, depending not so much on their
effectiveness as much as the public's reaction to them. Tactics
have been equally important, and in some cases, equally subject
to police and public disfavor. Certainly, the public's expectation
that it be protected from its aggressors must be met, as should
its expectation that all people, including those who would act
against society, be treated humanely. Yet the tools the police
employ, while effective, have been the cause of much criticism,
which is not always undeserved."
- Hogtieing and carotid chokehold
were examples of techniques that were effective, but "incidents
that ended in injury or death created a backlash against their
use."
- hogtieing
commonly used to restrain prisoners who are assaultive and kicking at officers. Subject placed face down on ground, handcuffed. Feet are drawn up toward his hands, and tie or belt made especially for purpose is secured so feet are positioned near hands. Prisoner placed in the backseat of a patrol car for transport.- effective, but some have died while being tied, and others in backseat of patrol car. Only recently, after National Institute of Justice and the International Association of Chiefs of Police undertook the first nationwide study of in-custody deaths were they not considered "accidental." Research showed "positional asphyxia," that can occur after drug or alcohol use by the subject, or some type of corresponding mental instability that caused psychotic behavior; a violent struggle in which the subject's heart and respiratory rate escalate dramatically; compression of the lungs due to an officer's weight during restraint, or the subject's own weight while lying face down during transport. In essence, the subject asphyxiates as a result of physical distress caused by a combination of these factors. As a result, most departments have either banned the practice of hog-tying or limited its use.
- hogtieing
- Carotid chokehold, used by LAPD for many years.
Placed the subject's neck in the crook of the officer's arm and put pressure on carotid artery, restricting blood flow to brain, causing subject to "pass out." People died as a result of the technique, and was eliminated in the 1980s. LAPD's Board of Police Commissioners ordered department to find an alternative:recommended department adopt the baton as a first-response tool.
Opinions vary on chokehold. One researcher said it was effectively used (Meyer, 1991). But Skolnik and Fyfe, (Above the Law), maintain it was "a prime and disastrous example of misguided policy that tacitly encouraged vigilante justice and fostered public hostility toward police."
- Hogtieing and carotid chokehold
were examples of techniques that were effective, but "incidents
that ended in injury or death created a backlash against their
use."
- Tools:
Since beginning of policing, debate about appropriate tools to control lawless, starting with "billy club" used by bobbies in 1820s -- "authorities wanted a weapon that was not immediately intimidating to citizens,." Still use it. In US, most use either plastic one invented in 1958 or "side-handle" version from early '70s.