Use of Force from the Street to the Courtroom

The use of force is and has always been a controversial subject not only for the public but for police officers as well. There are many officers that don't understand when and where they can use force and be within department guidelines as well as federal and state laws. Unfortunately, officers will use some type of force at some point in their careers, but will then find it difficult to articulate exactly what occurred during the incident. The officer’s agency may be subject to a civil lawsuit, and the officer could be subject to criminal charges.

This course was designed to answer some of those questions that are missing from most force reports. The officers attending this course will have a much fuller understanding of how to explain the conditions surrounding the use of force and will learn valuable courtroom testimony skills that will assist them to be a better witness in court. This is not a lecture-only course, but rather a scenario-based video dialogue course involving the dynamics and clarification of the use of force. There will also be information presented on internal affairs and officer-involved shootings.  This course is a patrol-ready course that can immediately benefit you when thinking about articulating your next use of force encounter. This is not a report writing course where we write any type of use of force reports, but rather an interactive program that affords you a new profound understanding of use of force documentation. We discuss the current problems in law enforcement that lead to hesitation by officers in the field. This course has been taught at conferences and continues to be highly reviewed by the people that attend. This training is recommended not only for patrol officers but supervisors and command staff. We suggest reserving your spot today because this course will fill up fast!

The course covered content:

Reasonable Force vs Excessive Force
Court case review
Details missing in most reports
Types of resistance
Levels of officer control
Responses by officers both mentally and physically
Group discussion and scenario-based class participation
Common terms used in reports
How to document use of force
Suggestions for officer-involved
Shootings
Hollywood v. Reality
Courtroom testimony

Cancellation Policy

The course cancellation policy requires a minimum of a 15-day prior notice from the course start date when a student will not be attending the course. The notification to not attend will be made by email through our website, and if they identify no replacement student, cancellations with less than a 15-day notice will cause a department credit that can be used towards another future training event within one year from the original course date. We will charge no-shows without email notification the full course fee, even if the payment has not already been made. We offer a one-year future course credit as well for any no show that is charged a full course fee. This policy is in effect as of June 23, 2021, and you as a representative of your agency agree to abide by this policy by registering for any course. Please contact us by email or phone if you have questions about this cancellation policy. This policy is in place because of students that register for courses and take training slots without attending training, which removes the opportunity for another officer to attend. We pay the instructors teaching these programs based on the number of officers scheduled to attend the event, and we base our travel cost including instructor pay on registration fees. This policy is considered a binding contract between BSTS LLC and the student or student agency or company.