Whenever police officers come into contact with citizens there is a chance that the encounter
will digress to one in which force is used on a suspect. Fortunately, most police activities do
not involve the use of force. But those that do reflect important patterns of interaction
between the officer and the citizen. This book examines those patterns. It begins with a brief
survey of prior research, and then goes on to present data and findings. Among the data are
the force factor applied-that is, the level of force used relative to suspect resistance-and data�…

The purpose of this book is to examine the 'extraordinary and rare officer behaviour that
develops during incidents where physical force is used'(p. 2). Four police departments (PDs)
were approached as potential research sites, but this inevitably contentious subject affected
co-operation/participation. The text is centred upon an extensive range of quantitative data
taken from incident reports provided by two PDs. When studied, the Miami-Dade PD
employed c. 3,000 officers and covered a vast area populated by 2.14 m. With 1,264 officers�…