Police Explain Use Of Force At Student Police Academy

By Andrew Gorosko

Through demonstrations and displays, 15 Newtown High School students attending the Student Police Academy last week learned about the “use-of-force continuum,” which police employ to gauge the level of force that is needed while making arrests.

Police Patrol Officer Michael Edis, who is a police department defensive tactics instructor, demonstrated various physical techniques and devices that police use to defend themselves and prevent suspects from escaping. Officer Edis spoke at the March 12 session of the academy held at Town Hall South.

Officer Edis’s talk and demonstrations concerned the use of police nightsticks, handcuffs, shackles, leg irons, pepper spray, and tasers.

A major issue facing police on the job is their personal safety, in what can be a high-risk occupation, Officer Edis explained.

“It’s important that you’re trained and know how to defend yourself,” he said. The officer explained various physical control holds that police use, when needed, to control suspects while they are being arrested. Police assume various physical stances in such situations to maximize their leverage over the suspect.

Also, police are always aware of their bodily position, to prevent a suspect from gaining access to their firearm, Officer Edis explained.

“The [police] use of force is a big legal issue,” he told the academy students. Once a suspect’s resistance to arrest ends, police cannot escalate the level of force that they are using, he explained.

Levels Of Compliance

The “level-of-force continuum” used by police is split into four broad categories.

Level One involves people complying with a police officer’s order, which is projected through the officer’s speech, plus his physical presence in uniform.

Level Two involves a police officer using “soft compression” against a person to persuade the person to comply with an order. Such force may include applying pressure to the subject’s joints, employing tactics such as wrist locks and arm locks.

Level Three involves hard force against a subject, such as nightstick strikes to rugged parts of the body and the use of pepper spray, which is a mucous-membrane irritant.

 Level Four involves deadly force, in which lethal weapons or dangerous instruments are employed. Level Four force includes nightstick strikes to sensitive parts of the body or the use of firearms.

“The situation and the subject will dictate what level [of force] you’re going up to,” Officer Edis said.

 “It’s common sense,” he said. The level of force that police use in a given situation should be appropriate to that specific situation, he said.

The level of force that police use in confrontations may become publicly known, he said, referring to police incidents that have been recorded on videotape by civilians.

The officer pointed out that police decisions on the use of force often are made rapidly. “It’s a split-second decision on what level of force you’re using,” he said.

Police training and the police mindset become important factors in making rapid decisions on the use of force, he said.

After a suspect is arrested and is under police control, police use devices such as handcuffs, leg irons, and shackles to keep the prisoner under control while being transported, Officer Edis said.

 The officer explained the differences, and advantages and disadvantages of various types of handcuffs such as chained handcuffs, hinged handcuffs, and flexible handcuffs. Police are required to double-lock handcuffs on suspects to prevent the handcuffs’ closure around the suspect’s wrist from becoming yet smaller and injurious to the wearer, he said.

Chemical Irritants

Officer Edis described the differences between chemical irritants such as mace, OC spray, and pepper spray, which police may use to inflame suspects’ mucous membranes and neutralize them for arrest.

 Pepper spray, which is the irritant now most commonly used, however, affects different people in different ways, he explained. Some people are very sensitive to pepper spray and are immediately neutralized when sprayed, while others are resistant to its effects, Officer Edis said.

“Everybody’s going to react differently,” he said. Pepper spray tends to be more effective when used in hot weather, when the skin’s open pores more readily absorb the chemical, he said.

When using chemical irritants against suspects, police themselves often feel some of the burning effect of the irritants, he said. While undergoing training, police are deliberately exposed to the chemical irritants to familiarize them with the burning sensation. That exposure physically and psychologically prepares police for their eventual incidental exposure to the spray in an arrest situation.

Nightsticks

Officer Edis and School Resource Officer Jason Frank demonstrated how police use nightsticks to control suspects. Officer Frank coordinates the Student Police Academy.

Two basic types of nightstick are commonly in use. The telescopic PR-24 has a knobbed handle extending from its side to provide police with additional leverage in making body strikes.

A more compact nightstick has a simple telescopic design, which allows the device to rapidly triple in size. A small light may be affixed to the end of device to make it appear to be a simple flashlight, until it may be needed for control work.

In explaining nightstick technique, Officer Edis displayed a color-coded chart of a human figure depicting the relative sensitivity of various areas to nightstick strikes.

Taser

Officer Edis also demonstrated the use of a taser at the Student Police Academy session. A taser is an “electromuscular disruptor,” or a device that discharges electrical shocks to temporarily disable a person.

Unlike a typical stun gun, which must be pressed against a person to discharge an electrical shock to stun them, the taser is used from a distance.

The short-range taser looks like a bulky pistol, with a laser sight affixed. When the taser’s trigger is depressed, air pressure ejects two barbed darts from the device. The ejected darts, which are linked back to the taser by very fine wiring, strike and affix themselves to the person to be neutralized.

After the darts are linked to their human target, electrical charges are sent from the taser to the darts, electrically shocking and temporarily immobilizing the person. The taser is powered by eight AA batteries.

Such a weapon is useful in neutralizing a person who is berserk, or who may be threatening others with a weapon such as a knife, Officer Edis said.

A taser, however, is not considered a primary police weapon, and would be used only when more than one police officer is present.

There are some people who are alive today because police used a taser to neutralize them, rather than using a firearm, Officer Edis said.

The police department has purchased two tasers, but has not put them into use, he said. Officer Edis and Patrol Officer Steve Ketchum are the training officers for the devices.

The Student Police Academy session on the police’s use of force was the sixth of ten sessions in the informational program. Other topics include becoming a police officer, juvenile law, narcotics enforcement, drunken driving law, police dogs, major crime investigations, motor vehicle law, the penal code, and emergency communications.