PUBLIC HEALTH & PREVENTION Emergency Physicians See Evidence of Excessive Use of Force by Police Reuters Health Information
http://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/585892 Emergency Physicians See Evidence of Excessive Use of Force by Police NEW YORK (Reuters Health) Dec 24 - In a survey of a random sample of US academic emergency physicians, virtually all said they believed that law enforcement officers use excessive force to arrest and detain suspects. The sample included 315 respondents. While 99.8% believed excessive force is used, almost as many (97.8%) reported that they had managed cases that they suspected or that the patient stated had involved excessive use of force by law enforcement officers. Nearly two thirds (65.3%) estimated that they had treated two or more cases of suspected excessive use of force per year among their patients, according to a report of the survey appearing in the January 2009 issue of the Emergency Medicine Journal. Dr. Jared Strote of the University of Washington, Seattle, and a multicenter team also found that emergency physicians at public teaching hospitals were 4.2 times more likely to report managing cases of suspected use of excessive force than those at university or community teaching emergency departments. Blunt trauma inflicted by fists or feet was the most common type of injury cited in cases of suspected use of excessive force (95.2%). "Overly tight" handcuffs were cited in 73.1% of instances. Most emergency physicians (71.2%) admitted that they did not report cases of suspected use of excessive force by law enforcement officers. A large majority (96.5%) reported that they had no departmental policies on reporting their suspicions or they did not know of a policy to guide their actions, and 93.7% said they had received no education or training in dealing with these situations. However, 69.5% of emergency physicians felt that it was within their scope of practice to refer cases of suspected use of excessive force for investigation and 47.9% felt that emergency physicians should be legally required to report cases of suspected use of excessive force by law enforcement officers. These findings, Dr. Strote and colleagues conclude, "suggest that national emergency medicine organizations in the USA should become involved, jointly developing and advocating for guidelines to manage this complex issue." Emerg Med J 2009;26:20-22. Reuters Health Information 2008. © 2008 Reuters Ltd. ------------------------------------ --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "ShadowGovernment" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/ShadowGovernment -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
