Thank Me With TEA!

Use of Force

Resources

Important

  • Four Components of Risk Assessment – Officer perceptions, tactical considerations, subject behavior, and situational factors form the four core elements of a risk assessment under the Incident Management Intervention Model.
  • One-Factor Police Legitimacy Scale – A research tool where multiple facets of public perception correlate into a single underlying construct, providing simplicity, consistency across studies, and utility as manipulation checks.
  • Police Legitimacy and Officer Safety Link – The direct correlation between public trust and officer safety, where decreases in police legitimacy correspond to increases in violence and officer-involved shootings.
  • Real-Time Operational Data vs. Reporting Delays – The distinction between live incoming information streams (such as dispatch CAD data and GPS tracking) and delayed operational documentation, including use-of-force reports that have up to 48-hour filing windows.
  • Inter-Rater Reliability in Behavioral Coding – The process of establishing coding alignment and using independent third-party tiebreakers to reliably analyze highly subjective officer behaviors like de-escalation.
  • Section 8(2)(j) of the Privacy Act – A legislative mechanism allowing government institutions to disclose personal operational information for approved research purposes subject to strict security undertakings.
  • Contemporaneous Note-Taking – The legal requirement for officers to document incident details immediately, which courts weigh heavily for accuracy when officers testify long after an event.
  • 2D Body-Worn Camera Limitations – The clinical, two-dimensional nature of body camera footage, which fails to capture an officer’s physiological stress, tactile tension, cognitive tunnel vision, or preceding situational awareness.
  • Militarized Gear and Approachability Trade-Off – The operational dynamic where tactical ERT gear and carbine rifles increase perceived officer strength and safety but severely reduce public approachability and community trust.
  • Impact of Officer Swearing on Perceived Force – The empirical finding that officer profanity during an enforcement encounter causes the exact same application of physical force to be judged by the public as significantly less reasonable.

Core concepts

  • Incident Management Intervention Model (IMIM): A national risk assessment framework used by Canadian police agencies to evaluate officer perceptions, situational factors, subject behavior, and tactical considerations.
  • Perception vs. Experiential Gap: The observed sociological phenomenon where marginalized communities express lower overall institutional trust in police despite reporting predominantly positive direct personal encounters.
  • Operational Data Standardization Challenges: The research difficulty caused by differing reporting thresholds, record-keeping software (e.g., BC vs. national systems), and administrative priorities across municipal, provincial, and federal police forces.
  • Access to Information (ATI) / Freedom of Information (FOI) Requests: Formal administrative mechanisms costing a flat $5 application fee that enable academics and the public to request official police records and operational logs.
  • Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) in Police Research: Formal bilateral agreements establishing security clearances, data protection guardrails, and pre-publication review rights for academic partnerships.
  • Vascular Neck Restraint (Carotid Control) Threshold: An RCMP use-of-force policy classifying carotid control at the highest risk threshold (threat of death or grievous bodily harm), identical to firearm discharge.
  • Open Science Protocols: Practices such as hypothesis pre-registration and dataset sharing designed to eliminate publication bias, prevent data manipulation, and enable independent study replication.
  • Mixed-Methods Research Design: An approach combining quantitative statistical data with qualitative context to triangulate findings and capture nuanced operational realities.

Theories and Frameworks

  • Incident Management Intervention Model (IMIM): A circular framework guiding officer risk assessment based on officer perceptions, subject behavior, situational factors, and tactical considerations.
  • One-Factor Police Legitimacy Model: A scale measuring public perception where multiple sub-dimensions of trust, authority, and confidence correlate into a single underlying legitimacy factor.
  • Peel’s Nine Principles of Policing: A foundational 1829 framework asserting that police authority rests on public consent, transparency, and the maintenance of public trust.
  • Color Psychology in Uniform Design: A psychological framework examining how dark blue and high-visibility uniform colors convey professionalism, authority, and public safety deterrence.

Notable Individuals

  • Dr. Bill Bozeman: Medical researcher who conducted an operational safety study on carotid control neck restraints, finding zero moderate or severe injuries across thousands of uses.
  • Rhonda Blackmore: Assistant Commissioner and Commanding Officer of Saskatchewan RCMP who led the response during the James Smith Cree Nation mass stabbing incident.
  • Kevin Walby: Criminologist and prolific Access to Information requester whose SWAT team deployment study was re-analyzed by researchers to correct administrative data coding errors.
  • Craig Bennell: Forensic psychology researcher at Carleton University who collaborates with police agencies on dress, deportment, and use-of-force research.
  • Kevin Brasso: Former police executive who participated in organizational dress and deportment study reviews.
  • Bob Paulson: Former RCMP Commissioner who approved national organizational research initiatives.