In Robinson v. Solano County, the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit had an opportunity to review whether a police officer’s pointing of a handgun at a citizen without actually pulling the trigger may violate the Fourth Amendment [...]

Immersed as I have been in attempting for the past twenty years to construct creative approaches to managing, reducing, and if possible eliminating police liability, I can only say that it is not the novelty of the approaches, but the [...]

Does handcuffing during a “Terry Stop” transform the stop into a full-blown arrest, which requires the officer to have probable cause rather than the lesser requirement of reasonable suspicion? A case from the United States District Court for the District [...]

A major issue in law enforcement today involves the concept of consent searches of motor vehicles. There is little consistency among courts as to when an officer can ask a motorist for consent and the circumstances under which such a [...]

While the force continuum remains constant for controlling and arresting all persons, a number of cases suggest that agencies must conduct training for dealing with the emotionally disturbed and mentally-ill persons in the context of use of force. Many agencies [...]