New Jersey Use of Force Policy



New Jersey Use of Force Policy

Introduction

This paper intends to discuss the New Jersey Use of Force Policy. The paper will provide an overview of the policies and practices within the New Jersey Attorney General's use of Force Policy. An evaluation of the policy will be provided with an emphasis on the legal sufficiency for the policy and procedures. Moreover, the strengths and weakness of the policies and procedures will be identified. The purpose of this paper is twofold, firstly it will analyze the current policies and procedures of New Jersey Attorney General's use of Force Policy and secondly, to provide suggestions for improvement in practices. Lastly, the paper will provide certain examples and associate issues of less than lethal technologies.

Discussion

Attorney General's use of Force Policy was initially started in April 1985 whereas it was revised in June 2000. The Advisory Committee for New Jersey use of Force provided the revisions in the policy through its hard efforts and judgments. The realization of advisory committee of the fact that law alone could not reach the objective of guiding the use of force by the police appropriately provided the consensus about the critical improvement. The revised policy grants special authorities to utilize the force as and when necessary to reach the lawful ends.

The New Jersey Attorney General's use of Force Policy restricts the enforcement officers to fully comply with the laws of State of new Jersey. The laws of State provide a clear guidance on the utilization of force in order to enforce the law properly. Further, the policy emphasizes that the officers must take basic and important steps towards preventing the illegal and inappropriate use of force by other officers. Every officer is allowed and pursued to take prompt actions when he realizes that the other officer is somehow not fulfilling the provisions of state law. Any officer who tries to violate the state law is assumed to be punished (www.njdcj.org).

The policy calls that the officers must be able to justify their use of force. The policy states that the utilization of force must not be undertaken as a routine practice. The legal sufficiency of the policy and procedures is clearly evident from the fact that the policy makes every officer restricted of utilizing all other appropriate means in order to deal with the criminals before moving on the use of force. The policy further declares that the police within the state of New Jersey will only utilize force which they can justify and defend reasonably.

An important example of the implementation of this policy can be observed from the fact that all the officers are required by law to report all such situations where they can trace the illegal utilization of force by anyone. The policy tends to be fair and equitable. If a junior officer witnesses an illegal utilization of force by any senior officer, he has the right to report this illegal act. All the officers are appreciated to take ...