Whenever police officers come into contact with citizens there is a chance that the encounter will digress to one in which force is used on a suspect. Fortunately, most police activities do not involve the use of force. But those that do reflect important patterns of interaction between the officer and the citizen. This book examines those patterns. It begins with a brief survey of prior research, and then goes on to present new data and findings. Among the new data are the force factor applied - that is, the level of force used relative to suspect resistance - and data on the sequential order of incidents of force. The authors also examine police use of force from the suspect's perspective. In analyzing this data they put forward a new conceptual framework, the Authority Maintenance Theory, for examining and assessing police use of force.

• An emphasis on the interaction between the officer and the citizen
• An explanation of when and why officers use force and are met with physical resistance by suspects
• An explanation of how to understand police-citizen interactions and especially those that result in the use of force

Introduction: the context of police use of force;
1. Police use of force: the history of research;
2. The crucial element: finding research sites;
3. Findings from Miami-Dade Police Department study;
4. The sequential steps in use of force incidents;
5. MDPD: inconsistencies between officer and suspect accounts of the use of force;
6. Findings from Prince George's County Police Department;
7. Findings and summary;
8. Explaining police use of force: the breakdown of an authority maintenance ritual.