As Washington and President Trump celebrate National Police Week, a new analysis of over 1 million police calls finds that “use of force” by cops is extremely rare, used just in .78 percent of all arrests.
Five physicians, writing in The Journal of Trauma and Acute Care Surgery, studied cases from three cities during 2011-2012 and found that there were 893 “use of force” cases in 1,041,737 calls, a rate of 0.086 percent. In the 114,064 arrests from those calls, force was used in 1 of 128 cases, or 0.78 percent, with most involving male suspects.
“Police use of force is rare. When force is used officers most commonly rely on unarmed physical force and [stun guns]. Significant injuries are rare,” said the executive summary of the medical study.
“The findings appear to contradict public perceptions about police use of force, which has faced increased scrutiny since the 2014 death of Michael Brown, a black teenager shot by a white officer in Ferguson, Missouri. In recent years, news reports of officers beating unarmed citizens have sparked outrage and questions about how police treat people of color,” said an analysis of the report by the website Journalist’s Resource run by the Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy at Harvard University.
MEDIA ADVISORY: Tuesday May 15th is the 37th Annual National Peace Officers’ Memorial Service. @POTUS @realDonaldTrump will deliver the keynote address as we honor the lives of 199 law enforcement officers who died in the line of duty. #PoliceWeek2018 pic.twitter.com/fP5VYR9z2A
— National FOP (@GLFOP) May 11, 2018
Only one death was linked to the use of force, and most injuries were caused by physical force and stun guns.
However, about 40 percent of those involved in use of force arrests indicated some injuries. The key findings from the Journalist’s Resource analysis of the report, which is behind a paywall:
- When officers used force, they mostly used either physical force or stun guns. Fifty-one percent of the time, police used “unarmed physical force” — a category that includes control holds and joint manipulation as well as kicks, strikes with closed fists, knees or elbows and forcibly throwing someone to the ground. They used stun guns, commonly known by the brand name TASER, 36 percent of the time.
- Just over 6 percent of use of force incidents involved pepper spray. Another 3 percent involved police dogs.
- Firearms were used 0.4 percent of the time, representing a total of six incidents.
- Almost 40 percent of suspects suffered injuries as a result of police use of force. Of these, 37 percent had “mild” injuries — for example, abrasions and minor contusions. About 1 percent had “moderate” injuries such as bone fractures or a collapsed lung. Four people — 0.4 percent of suspects – suffered severe or life-threatening injuries.
- Firearms and police dogs were most likely to cause significant injuries. “While this is also consistent with common sense and previous reports, small sample size/rarity of use limit this to a preliminary conclusion. More detailed data collection at a national level is now being implemented and should confirm and clarify this risk.”
- Of the 355 suspects who were taken to the emergency room for a medical evaluation, 22 percent were hospitalized. Less than a quarter of those hospitalized had injuries related to officers’ use of force.
