Police use excessive force, ER docs say

Police use excessive force, ER docs say

news.yahoo.com

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.

(visit the link for the full news article)

Well I think we all know this happens with some regularity but I had yet to see statistics about it and thought I would share with the group. I actually thought the number of excessive force cases would be higher. I'm always the first to defend cops but this is kind of bad in my opinion. At the same time, stuff happens and I hardly consider hand cuffs being cinched to tightly excessive force. I know they hurt when they're tight but still.

news.yahoo.com
(visit the link for the full news article)

reply to post by Raustin


If the handcuffs cut off the circulation long enough there can be profound long lasting issues for the suspect. There can also be nerve damage. The question is why hurt them at all if it is not necessary?

The article also seems to imply that ER docs are underreporting these cases. The article didn't specifically state that however. It seemed very constrained in what it said.