Page 17 - February 2016

PERF’s ‘guiding principals’ seem set by public opinion

The pendulum is swinging fast and it will take Based upon my examination and review of PERF’s 30

down anyone standing in its way. Use of force guiding principles, I find their claims hard to digest, to say the
well as field work conducted in the New York City Police ê

force. Graham is a precedential and important case that aids
Department, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. PERF further

claims that their entire approach is actually designed to
LODGE 7 LEGAL CORNER
DANIEL HERBERT

policies for law enforcement throughout the
least. Within the first few pages I discovered plenty of material
nation are undergoing an unprecedented trans-
j that gave me cause for concern. Consider PERF’s second policy
formation. Many departments have created poli-
principle, titled, “Departments should adopt policies that hold

cies which are drastically more restrictive than
themselves to a higher standard than the legal requirements of
what the U.S. Supreme Court has held to be rea-

Graham v. Connor.” It states that an agency’s use of force policy
sonable.
The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF),
should go beyond the legal standard of “objective reasonable-
is a non-profit organization that focuses on
Connor. PERF claims this landmark decision should be seen
police research and policy organization. On Jan. 29, 2016, PERF

as “necessary but not sufficient.” PERF goes on to state that
issued 30 so-called guiding principles for improving use-of-

many departments have already adopted rules that are more
force training and policies within law enforcement. PERF
restrictive of legal precedents, such as policies that prohibit
states that their paper was based on years of work that involved
officers from shooting at or from moving vehicles.
hundreds of police officials, several national conferences, as
Graham v. Connor, decided by the U.S. Supreme Court in

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1989, is currently the seminal case regarding an officer’s use of

ness” outlined in the U.S. Supreme Court decision Graham v.
increase officers’ safety.
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CHICAGO LODGE 7 ■ MARCH 2016 17 1