Several research analyses have focused on the situational aspects surrounding the lethal use of force by police officers (Fridell, 1989; Fyfe, 1989). Research concerning the non-lethal use of force and the situations leading up to the encounter is rare, perhaps for a number of different reasons: the police-citizen incidents are often transitory and occur out of the public eye (McLaughlin, 1992); violent altercations with citizens are a relatively rare occurrence (Bayley and Garofalo, 1989; Fyfe, 1989); and many violent incidents go unreported by both the officer and the citizen involved.
McLaughlin (1992), in a review of several recent studies that examined use-of-force incidents, reported that many violent encounters in Orlando resulted during attempted arrests of unarmed misdemeanor suspects or of a "non-infamous felony suspect." While McLaughlin did not indicate whether or not these were minority citizens, he did state that blacks were more likely to resist arrest and that white officers were disproportionately involved in the overall number of use-of-force incidents. The Croft Report (Croft, 1985) examined 2,397 reported use of force incidents in Rochester, New York, from 1973 to 1979. This study reported that 80 percent of the incidents occurred in the course of an attempted misdemeanor crime or during a noncriminal situation. Furthermore, 30 percent of the arrests and the force necessary to subdue the citizen could have been avoided if the citizen "had ceased fighting, arguing, being verbally abusive to the officer or had obeyed orders of the officers" (Croft, 1985: 4). This finding was consistent with the findings of Reiss (1968) and Friedrich (1980), who found that suspects who were disrespectful or uncooperative were more likely to be arrested. Disrespect, however minor, for police officers is considered a major issue by many officers. Westley (1970) found that 37 percent of the responding officers indicated that illegal violence was justified if the suspect was disrespectful.
Falsification can also conceal an officer's use of excessive force. A number of officers told us how they and others would insulate themselves from excessive force complaints simply by adding charges of "resisting arrest" to the arrest report -- a practice rarely questioned by supervisors. In the 30th Precinct case, for example, one officer reported how he and another officer chased and finally caught an individual who had run from his car after a traffic stop. While the officer was holding the individual, another officer struck the defendant in the head with his police radio. The officers then agreed upon a false story justifying their stop and search of the car and about the circumstances of the defendant's head injury....
Officers' cynicism about the Department's commitment to corruption control is justified. As testimony at the Commission's public and private hearings made clear, supervising officers tip off subordinates about pending investigations or citizen complaints. On some occasions, desk officers reminded officers to add resisting arrest charges for suspects brought to the stationhouse with too many visible bruises. Obviously, a corrupt officer who sees his superiors condone his wrongdoing necessarily takes the message that being caught in the wrong is worse than doing the wrong itself. Officer Otto testified that although his commanding officer knew about corruption in his precinct, his only message to his officers was not to get caught.
-- The City of New York: Commission Report: Commission to Investigate Allegations of Police Corruption and the Anti-Corruption Procedures of the Police Department, by Milton Mollen
One purpose of our research is to explore the various situational aspects that lead up to violent police-citizen encounters.