Legitimate and Illegitimate Uses of Police Force

Utilizing a contractualist framework for understanding the basis and limits for the use of force by police, this article offers five limiting principles-respect for status as moral agents, proportionality, minimum force necessary, ends likely to be accomplished, and appropriate motivation-and then discusses uses of force that violate or risk violating those principles. These include, but are not limited to, unseemly invasions, strip searches, perp walks, handcuffing practices, post-chase apprehensions, contempt-of-cop arrests, overuse of intermediate force measures, coerced confessions, profiling, stop and frisk practices, and the administration of street justice.