Anjanet Johnson
CJUS 200: Intro to Criminal Justice
Liberty University
February 15, 2021
Police Discretion, Use of Force, and De-escalation
Comparing body camera footage 1 to body camera footage 2, the severity of the crime in
each incident was different as well as the discretionary tactics employed the officers involved.
Body Camera Footage 1 shows the officers engaging with a man who appeared to be agitated by
them. The officer speaking to him was speaking to him very calmly, in a low-tone, and not being
aggressive or assertive in any way. The officer was trying to get the man to understand what he
did wrong and the man did not want to hear anything he had to say. Once the man was asked to
put his hands behind his back for his language, he tried to resist arrest. The man also tried to run
from officers while laughing. Therefore, that escalated the situation and caused the officers to use
force. However, the other officer appeared to be in agitated as well when the video began. He
appears to be explaining to the 1st officer how the gentleman they had just spoken to hadn’t
learned his lesson after he was just warned about jaywalking. It didn’t appear to make it any
better when the man they approached was hostile, resisted arrest and ran from them, which
appeared to make the officer even more upset. The officers in Body Camera Footage 1 could
have better discretionary practices and used less force on the man they engaged with.
Body Camera Footage 2 shows a black male who appeared to be trying to provoke the
officers to shoot him by wielding a knife in his hands and asking the officers “why y’all don’t do
your job?” or “Why won’t y’all just shoot me? I don’t want to live no more”. However, he never
charged at officers, tried to run from officers, or made a threat directly towards them. The officer
speaking to him let him know the officers on the scene did not want to hurt or harm him in any
way and that they just wanted him to drop the knife and talk to him. At the end of the video you
can see the man handing the knife to the officer, and putting his hands behind his back to be
cuffed. The officers in Body Camera Footage 2 could have used force if they wanted to because
of the nature of the situation, instead the discretionary tactics they used by following the man and
talking him down to make sure he didn’t hurt himself or anybody else was good. Body Camera
Footage 2 had the better discretionary approach especially dealing with the fragile mental state of
the man wielding the knife. John 13:34-35 says “A new command I give you: Love one another.
As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my
disciples, if you love one another” (New International Version). Which is what the officer
wearing the body camera did, love that gentleman as God loves us. He identified with that man
to let him know that he was not alone at that time.
In Body Camera Footage 1, it appeared that the suspect in that incident didn’t pose a
threat to the officers, themselves, or the public. The suspect was actively resisting arrest and
trying to evade arrest by flight by snatching away from the officers and attempting to run away
from them. The suspect in Body Camera Footage 2 definitely posed a threat to himself, the
public, and the officers. He made several statements about being a threat to others, wielding a
knife, and saying he no longer wants to live. The suspect originally made statements that made it
clear that he was trying to commit copicide, which is a form of suicide via provoking police to
fatally shoot them.
I think the two incidents ended differently for a variety of reasons however, I think the
main reason is that the officers had different policing styles. Not every officer or agency has the
same policing style. Some officers favor citizens and their rights more than law enforcement or
their superiors. For others it can be the total opposite, some favor citizens more, some may favor
law enforcement more. The style of policing I believe comes from the agency and the specific
officer(s). I believe the officers in Body Camera Footage 1 had more of a Law enforcer policing
style. Law enforcer policing styles are more distrustful of citizens and believe they are somewhat
uncooperative. They relate more favorably to sergeants, than senior personnel. They place a
premium on due process safeguards and are positively oriented towards aggressive patrol tactics.
They hold the strongest crime-fighting attitudes, moderately accept order maintenance functions,
but show displeasure with community policing functions (Bohm & Haley, 2021). Which is why
that arrest ended violently. However, in Body Camera Footage 2, they seemed to go about
handling that situation which could’ve ended fatally for that suspect. According to Bohm &
Haley (2021), Peacekeeper Officers are not distrustful and their attitudes towards and their
attitudes towards citizens are more favorable than unfavorable. They view aggressive patrolling
tactics negatively but have positive views towards selective enforcement. They strongly favor
respecting citizens’ due process rights. They have a positive attitude towards law enforcement
but do not have overly favorable towards order maintenance and community policing. I believe
the police officers in that footage handled that situation in a manner of a peacekeeper policing
style to maintain their safety, the safety of the suspect, and the community.
Non-coercive measures such as conversational requests and directives are better than
coercive measures because directives in a conversational request is a lot less harsh than coercive
directives and requests. The amount of verbal abuse, frustration and callousness varies widely by
demographic characteristics of the officer (Bohm & Haley, 2021). For example, in Body Camera
Footage 2, the suspect was probably more inclined to remain calm and not get upset because the
officer speaking to him seemed to be a person of color. Also, he didn’t have a lot of officers
yelling instructions at him and telling him that if he didn’t something would happen. However, in
Body Camera Footage 1, the officers in the footage were Caucasian and once the officer got fed
up with the suspect, he immediately started giving directives and telling him what to do. Once
that happened the suspect immediately got on the defense and tried to get out of the situation by
yanking away and running. Conversational requests or directives are better because they allow
the suspect to feel like the officer is actually communicating with him as a person and not as a
criminal.
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