ORIGINAL ARTICLES

Excessive use of force by police: a survey of academic emergency physicians

H R Hutson¹, D Anglin², P Rice³, D N Kyriacou⁴, M Guirguis⁵ and J Strote⁶

¹ Department of Emergency Medicine, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
² Department of Emergency Medicine, Keck School of Medicine, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, California, USA
³ Department of Emergency Medicine, Brigham and Women’s Hospital, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USA
⁴ Department of Emergency Medicine, Northwestern University, Chicago, Illinois, USA
⁵ Kaiser Permanente Fontana, Fontana, California, USA
⁶ Division of Emergency Medicine, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington, USA

Correspondence to:
Dr J Strote, Division of Emergency Medicine University of Washington Medical Center, Box 356123, 1959 NE Pacific Street, Seattle, WA 98195, USA; strote{at}u.washington.edu

Objective: To determine the clinical experience, management and training of emergency physicians in the suspected use of excessive force by law enforcement officers.

Methods: Surveys were mailed to a random sample of academic emergency physicians in the USA.

Results: Of 393 emergency physicians surveyed, 315 (80.2%) responded. Of the respondents, 99.8% (95% CI 98.2% to 100.0%) believed excessive use of force actually occurs and 97.8% (95% CI 95.5% to 99.1%) replied that they had managed patients with suspected excessive use of force. These incidents were not reported by 71.2% (95% CI 65.6% to 76.4%) of respondents, 96.5% (95% CI 93.8% to 98.2%) had no departmental policies and 93.7% (95% CI 90.4% to 96.1%) had not received training in the management of these cases.

Conclusions: Suspected excessive use of force is encountered by academic emergency physicians in the USA. There is only limited training or policies for the management of these cases.

CiteULike    Complore    Connotea    Del.icio.us    Digg    Reddit    Technorati    What's this?

Relevant Article

Primary survey

Darren Walter
Emerg. Med. J. 2009 26: 1. [Extract] [Full Text] [PDF]

eLetters:

Read all eLetters

Respectful disagreement

Thomas Byrnes

EMJ Online, 6 Jan 2009 [Full text]

Emergency Physicians and Police Brutality

John S. Ford

EMJ Online, 5 Feb 2009 [Full text]

Flawed Study

Jerry R Staton

EMJ Online, 22 May 2009 [Full text]

Good Work: Take the Next Step

Richard Paz

EMJ Online, 22 May 2009 [Full text]

Original Authors' Response to Dr. Ford’s e-Letter

Deirdre Anglin, et al.

EMJ Online, 23 Feb 2009 [Full text]