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Help Tackle Law in Use of Force Expert Witness

A use of force expert witness is a professional, typically a former or current law enforcement officer with significant training and experience, who is qualified to offer an impartial opinion in a legal case. Their role is to analyze the facts of an incident and explain to a judge and jury whether the officer’s use of force was objectively reasonable and in line with generally accepted police practices and standards. They function as an educational resource for the court, not as an advocate for either side.

A use of force expert is most commonly needed in civil rights lawsuits where a plaintiff alleges that a law enforcement officer used excessive force. They are also critical in criminal cases where an officer has been charged with a crime, such as assault or homicide, for their on-duty actions. Additionally, their expertise is often utilized in internal administrative investigations or disciplinary hearings within a police agency to determine if an officer’s conduct violated departmental policy and training protocols.

The “reasonableness” standard is the objective legal benchmark for assessing an officer’s use of force. The central question is whether a prudent and well-trained officer, facing the same rapidly evolving circumstances and possessing the same information, would have made a similar choice. This evaluation is not made with the clarity of hindsight and considers key factors such as the seriousness of the offense, the level of threat posed by the subject, and the degree of their active resistance or attempt to flee.

When forming an opinion, a use of force expert conducts a thorough analysis of all available evidence related to the incident. This typically includes reviewing police reports, witness statements, video from body cameras and surveillance systems, forensic and medical evidence, and the involved officer’s training history. They also scrutinize the specific use of force policies of the law enforcement agency to compare the officer’s actions against the department’s own rules and generally accepted police practices.

The legal difference is based on the likelihood of causing death or serious bodily injury. Non-deadly force is a level of force that is not reasonably expected to cause such harm and is used to control a subject or effect an arrest. Deadly force is any force that is intended or known to create a substantial risk of causing death or serious physical injury, with the use of a firearm being the most common example. Its use is legally justified only under the most extreme circumstances of self-defense or defense of others.