Memphis Police Department is Actively Seeking the Community’s Opinion on Reasonable Use of Force via
The Memphis Police Department is working with Response to Resistance to ensure they are protecting the citizens of Memphis with reasonable use of force techniques. This groundbreaking and forward thinking approach of garnering civilian perspective puts the Department at the national forefront of improving police and community relations. Members of the Memphis community may take the survey at www.responsetoresistance.com.
In October of 2016, all MPD officers took the survey and it is now available to the community. The Response to Resistance Survey was created to support the public safety community and aid their efforts to safeguard the citizens they are sworn to serve and protect. The Survey takes about 8 minutes and presents five different scenarios regarding reaction and response to resistance ranging from simply failing to obey an officer’s instruction to use of a knife or firearm against the officer. The results for both law enforcement and civilians will be analyzed and compared to ensure the use of force techniques adopted by the Department match the way in which the community wants to be protected. Participants simply take the survey and enter the Agency Code “MEMCIV17”.
Currently, there are over 60,000 law enforcement, corrections and civilian surveys completed across the US. The database is growing daily as more individuals and police agencies take the RTR survey at www.responsetoresistance.com. National responses show there is very little disagreement or variance between what citizens and trained officers believe are “objectively reasonable” responses when viewing the exact same scenario regardless of race, age or gender. In other words, people instinctively know what is reasonable when they see it. In fact, current survey data reveals less than a 1% variance regarding responses that are considered reasonable when an officer is confronted by a suspect using hands, fists, feet, knives or a firearm to seriously injure or kill.
“Providing this survey to the citizens of Memphis is a proactive measure to allow civilians an opportunity to experience first-hand what our officers face on a daily basis. It further allows us, as a law enforcement agency to understand what the public perceives to be reasonable force used by an officer,” said Director Michael Rallings.
The Department’s survey results have revealed their overall belief system regarding use of force. By entering the Agency Code “MEMCIV17”, found at the end of the survey, your community results will be compared and your Department can identify specific areas where training may need clarity or improvement. For complete transparency, the results will be shared with Memphis citizens who have taken the exact same survey. The survey provides tremendous benefits to the department and community at large from a social responsibility, legal and risk management perspective.
Take the survey at www.responsetoresistance.com and enter the Agency Code “MEMCIV17”.
The deadline to complete this survey is March 17,
2017.