Police Use Excessive Force, ER Doctors

NEW YORK (Reuters Health) – In a survey of a random sample of U.S. emergency physicians, virtually all said they believed that law enforcement officers use excessive force to arrest and detain suspects.

The sample included 315 respondents. While 99.8 percent believed excessive force is used, almost as many (97.8 percent) reported that they had managed cases that they suspected or that the patient stated had involved excessive use of force by law enforcement officers.

Nearly two thirds (65.3 percent) estimated that they had treated two or more cases of suspected excessive use of force per year among their patients, according to a report of the survey published in the January 2009 issue of the Emergency Medicine Journal.

Dr. Jared Strote of the University of Washington, Seattle, and a multicenter team also found that emergency physicians at public teaching hospitals were roughly four times more likely to report managing cases of suspected use of excessive force than those at university or community teaching emergency departments.

Blunt trauma inflicted by fists or feet was the most common type of injury cited in cases of suspected use of excessive force, followed by "overly tight" handcuffs.

Most emergency physicians (71.2 percent) admitted that they did not report cases of suspected use of excessive force by law enforcement officers.

A large majority (96.5 percent) reported that they had no departmental policies on reporting their suspicions or they did not know of a policy to guide their actions, and 93.7 percent said they had received no education or training in dealing with these situations.

However, most emergency physicians (69.5 percent) felt that it was within their scope of practice to refer cases of suspected use of excessive force for investigation and almost half (47.9 percent) felt that emergency physicians should be legally required to report cases of suspected use of excessive force by law enforcement officers.

These findings, Strote and colleagues conclude, "suggest that national emergency medicine organizations in the USA should become involved, jointly developing and advocating for guidelines to manage this complex issue."

SOURCE: Emergency Medicine Journal, January 2009.

Anyone see this yet? I know that the police are a little gung ho, but I didn't realize to what extent. When 99% of those questioned state that they believe that excessive force is being used to detain suspects, that's pretty wide spread.

I think that there should be some responsibility on the physician's part as stated in the end of the article. We know it flies under the radar and most likely no punishment will be given out other than a slap on the wrist, but it might just bring this issue into the light a bit more if physcian's get involved.

Originally posted by Mav3rick
A large majority (96.5 percent) reported that they had no departmental policies on reporting their suspicions or they did not know of a policy to guide their actions, and 93.7 percent said they had received no education or training in dealing with these situations.

First, I would think that their oaths provide the duty involved with reporting these incidents.

Second, this pretty much proves our education system is highly specialized. These are Doctors. They've supposedly had more education than most of us, they've all written virtual books to get their degrees, and a minimum of 25 years to get a phd, but even I can figure out calling a local police station and asking for internal affairs on the second repetition (leaving the first as accidental or individual interpretation).

I wonder what kind of running record I.A. would have of these events had all these doctors done what their oaths demanded and reported each case. This running-record has been lost - its potential energy negated to zero by gross negligence. These supposed Doctors are just as guilty as the cops who perpetrated each case in my opinion, but of course I find it hard to recognize any semblance of surprise in my absorption of this news. Bad news all around and yet another reason to fear the man.