Police Use of Force and Injury: Multilevel Predictors of Physical Harm to Subjects and Officers

Abstract

The police must on occasion use physical force and weapons in order to apprehend and control subjects and fulfil the police function. It is inevitable that some of these interactions will result in injuries to both subjects and officers, with a range of both tangible and intangible harms and costs. It is therefore important to study injuries related to the use of force with an eye toward identifying opportunities to minimize injury and reduce the harms and costs. Injuries to both subjects and officers were examined in a sample of more than 10,000 use of force incidents drawn from 81 agencies located in 8 states. In addition to describing injury rates across a broad spectrum of situational and agency characteristics, we present multilevel logistic regression models predicting subject and officer injury. Among key findings, we report that the likelihood of injury for both subjects and officers is lower when force incidents end quickly and with the minimal necessary superior level of force relative to subject resistance, and higher for both subjects and officers when subjects flee. At the agency level, we find that the likelihood of injury varies by agency size and type. Finally, we explored possible higher-level variation and found that agencies in the sample from Midwestern states (primarily Wisconsin) have substantially lower injury rates that appear to be associated with their less frequent use of weapons and greater reliance on low-level physical force tactics, as compared to agencies in the sample from Western and other states.

Examining the Risk of Recurring Use of Force Incidents Among Newly Hired Police Officers

“…Additionally, officers' perception that the citizen was mentally unstable is not a significant predictor of use of force, which is supported by previous literature (Johnson, 2011;Terrill & Mastrofski, 2002). While citizen injury is not significant, this was expected based on prior research, as most force injuries are relatively minor (Bozeman et al, 2018;Hickman et al, 2021;Strote et al, 2010;Strote & Hickman, 2018.…”

Police victimized by firearms during mass shootings (1966–2019).

“…This study focused on the offender and situational characteristics that impacted PVF. However, previous policing studies have also examined the characteristics of officers incurring fatalities and injuries in the line of duty (Crifasi et al, 2016; Hickman et al, 2020). Future studies should consider if officer characteristics such as experience and training impact PVF.…”

“…Importantly for this study, policing research has also examined offender characteristics and situational factors influencing police injury and firearm violence directed at police. Studies of offender characteristics find male offenders pose a greater risk of officer injury or serious violent resistance than female offenders (Bierie et al, 2016; Hickman et al, 2020). Younger offenders often pose a greater risk of officers during minor offenses; however, during more serious and lethal offenses, studies find police risk of death increases with offender age (Bierie, 2017; Bierie et al, 2016).…”

Prevalence and correlates of spitting on police officers: New risks in the COVID era

“…The sample is non-probability based but does incorporate a diverse range of agency types and sizes, jurisdiction sizes, and geographic variation. Similar to prior research with this data, [8] agency records in this study spanned varying time periods (from 2009 to 2018) and include from one to six years of data, with the vast majority coming from the period 2014–2018. All data available at the time of data collection were utilized.…”