Broadly speaking, the use of force by law enforcement officers becomes necessary and is permitted under specific circumstances, such as in self-defense or in defense of another individual or group.
There is no single, universally agreed-upon definition of use of force. The International Association of Chiefs of Police has described use of force as the amount of effort required by police to compel compliance by an unwilling subject.
You can view annual data regarding use of force using our summary reports.
