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Researh Service
Police Use of Force: Overview and
Considerations for Congress
July 10, 2020
Recent events have focused congressional attention on the policing practices of federal, state, and local
law enforcement officers. One area of particular focus has been police use of force against criminal
suspects. Currently, the federal government collects some data on state and local police use of force, but
substantive standards on law enforcement use of force in general do not exist in federal statute. Rather,
the applicable legal standards for permissible use of force are a function of the Fourth Amendment's
prohibition on unreasonable ... seizures. Violations of constitutional excessive force standards can be
enforced through various federal criminal and civil provisions and are often incorporated into (and in
some cases elaborated on by) jurisdiction- or agency-specific use-of-force policies and state statutes.
Scholars and commentators have debated for years how meaningful current standards are in cabining law
enforcement use of force. Amid recent reform efforts, a legislative proposal passed by the House-the
George Floyd Justice in Policing Act of 2020 (Justice in Policing Act)-would make changes to current
use-of-force doctrine. A separate proposal in the Senate, the Just and Unifying Solutions to Invigorate
Communities Everywhere Act of 2020 (JUSTICE Act), would supplement existing standards in narrower
circumstances. This Sidebar provides an overview of Fourth Amendment use-of-force doctrine, briefly
surveys some of the standards and variations in current use-of-force policies, and examines how the
Justice in Policing Act and the JUSTICE Act would alter police use of force.
Overview of Fourth Amendment Use-of-Force Doctrine
The Fourth Amendment provides, in relevant part, that the right of the people to be secure in their
persons, houses, papers, and effects, from unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated[.]
The provision is most well-known for its application in the context of searches of the home or person of a
criminal suspect, with a long line of Supreme Court precedents establishing that a warrant based on
probable cause is required for a search to be deemed reasonable (and thus constitutional) unless certain
exceptions apply. However, the Court has also recognized that a law enforcement officer's application of
force to effect a stop or arrest of a criminal suspect can constitute a seizure of the person within the
meaning of the constitutional provision. Accordingly, a claim that a law enforcement officer has used
excessive force in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other 'seizure' of a free citizen is
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
LSB10516
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