Landon Elsemere Press

About the Book

Society and police have varied perspectives on the role of police, particularly the use of force. This book compiles over 30 years of investigations, research, and actual use of force experienced by the author as an investigator, researcher, university professor, and law enforcement officer.

Dr. Aaron Westrick states that understanding of violent encounters involving police is unobtainable unless officers’ interpretations of force encounters are understood through systematic social and investigative analysis.

This book is organized from a macro to micro level of analysis. Law enforcement officers are members of a larger body (law enforcement agency) which can have various levels (e.g., local, state, federal) that are interconnected either loosely or directly to larger institution (the State). The introduction of internal and external threats to the State provided for a crucial assessment of how it engages in self-preservation and expansion of its powers. Internal threats such as the rise of domestic radical right wing militias, and external threats such as the emergence of international terrorism, have introduced new challenges to how policing is conducted in America.

The advent of new powers (legislatively and structural) such as the USA Patriot Act, the amalgamation of 22 federal agencies into one umbrella of Homeland Security, and aggressive domestic surveillance programs have reconfigured the role and structure of the State. By way of extension of the State, law enforcement has been afforded new powers, additional resources, and greater immunity.

The book then goes on to provide a sample of police officers who have been violently assaulted with firearms (shot on body armor) and an overview of specific force cases investigated by the author. The author attempted to capture the essence of the officers’ experience through their explanations of the violence they encountered. A social phenomenological approach was utilized to examine the officers’ situational perceptions immediately prior to the encounter, the social action that took place during the encounter and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder after the encounter.

This book explores the perceptions, social actions, investigation process, ballistics and post-traumatic psycho-physiological symptoms of officers. Analysis is conducted of (typified police) shootings through 30 years of education and experience.