A Legal and Forensic Medicine Approach to Police Physical Intervention Techniques in High-Risk Situations

Vera-Jiménez, José C.; Lorente, José A.; González-Herrera, Lucas; Álvarez, José A.; Ferreiro-González, Marta; Ayuso, Jesús

doi:10.3390/ijerph17082809

Submit to this Journal Review for this Journal Edit a Special Issue

Article Menu

...

Open AccessArticle

A Legal and Forensic Medicine Approach to Police Physical Intervention Techniques in High-Risk Situations

José C. Vera-Jiménez

^1,*

José A. Lorente

Lucas González-Herrera

²,

José A. Álvarez

³,

Marta Ferreiro-González

⁴

and

Jesús Ayuso

Municipal Police of Cadiz, Police Technology Area, Public Safety School of Council of Cadiz, 11010 Cadiz, Spain

Department of Legal Medicine, Toxicology and Physical Anthropology; University of Granada, 18016 Granada, Spain

Department of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, INBIO, University of Cadiz, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain

⁴

Department of Analytical Chemistry, Faculty of Sciences, IVAGRO, University of Cadiz, 11510 Puerto Real, Spain

Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.

Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17(8), 2809; https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082809

Received: 7 April 2020 / Revised: 15 April 2020 / Accepted: 17 April 2020 / Published: 19 April 2020

(This article belongs to the Special Issue Police Officers, Firefighters and/or Militaries High-Risk Job Occupations: Assessment of the Different Threats and Preventive Measures)

View Full-Text Download PDF

Browse Figures

Citation Export

Abstract

Background: The physical intervention techniques (PITs) typically used by the police in troublesome situations are examined in terms of injuring potential depending on whether they target a body zone of high, medium or low vulnerability. Based on legal and forensic considerations, and principles of congruence, opportunity and proportionality, a need exists to favor opponent locking and arrest techniques targeting non-vulnerable zones to minimize the risk of severe damage. Methods: A search of the training manuals for the different kind of law of enforcement officers was carried out. Revision of injuries was available from electronic databases of academic o medical journals. Results: Three different locking and arrest PITs based on operational tactical procedures (OTP) that avoid zones of high or medium vulnerability are proposed. The new techniques use blocking, diverting and grabbing of the upper and lower limbs, followed by dislocation and locking of the same targets. Conclusions: The damaging potential of such PITs was assessed in terms of anatomical region and most were found to have a high risk of severe damage. The alternative PITs proposed here, which rely on OTP, improve in legal and forensic medical terms on existing choices and dramatically reduce the risk of injuring arrestees. View Full-Text

Keywords: police force; operational tactical procedures; physical threats; arrest and self-defense skills; prevention of leaf injuries; legal and forensic medicine

▼ Show Figures

Figure 1

This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited

Share and Cite

MDPI and ACS Style

Vera-Jiménez, J.C.; Lorente, J.A.; González-Herrera, L.; Álvarez, J.A.; Ferreiro-González, M.; Ayuso, J. A Legal and Forensic Medicine Approach to Police Physical Intervention Techniques in High-Risk Situations. Int. J. Environ. Res. Public Health 2020, 17, 2809. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082809

AMA Style

Vera-Jiménez JC, Lorente JA, González-Herrera L, Álvarez JA, Ferreiro-González M, Ayuso J. A Legal and Forensic Medicine Approach to Police Physical Intervention Techniques in High-Risk Situations. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 2020; 17(8):2809. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082809

Chicago/Turabian Style

Vera-Jiménez, José C., José A. Lorente, Lucas González-Herrera, José A. Álvarez, Marta Ferreiro-González, and Jesús Ayuso. 2020. "A Legal and Forensic Medicine Approach to Police Physical Intervention Techniques in High-Risk Situations" International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health 17, no. 8: 2809. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph17082809

Find Other Styles

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Metrics

Abstract views Pdf views Html views

Article Menu

A Legal and Forensic Medicine Approach to Police Physical Intervention Techniques in High-Risk Situations

Abstract

Share and Cite

Article Metrics

Article Access Statistics

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Further Information

Guidelines

MDPI Initiatives

Follow MDPI