The Police Executive Research Forum (PERF) has a conflict of interest and should not be providing recommendations on use of force training for officers. PERF sells its own brand of police training called ICAT: https://lnkd.in/d_dCwafm and its report recommendations are designed to sell more ICAT training. The PERF marketing model is to bring together a group of their members and supporters for a discussion forum and then publish a report afterwards that recommends purchasing the services that PERF provides. PERF did the same thing in 2016 when it published its Guiding Principles on Use of Force: https://lnkd.in/dkfgz5_E
Some of the agencies that adopted these "Guiding Principles" are now under DOJ investigation or federal consent decrees for having a pattern or practice of unconstitutional uses of force.
For this new report, PERF did not do any of its own research. Instead, PERF relied on the Associated Press and other media organizations to do their research for them. As a result, PERF's recommendations are the product of a "garbage in - garbage out" data analysis. PERF simply took the research findings of media reporters and repackaged them to sell more of PERF's services.
There is also nothing new in the PERF report and these same ideas and recommendations have been around for more than 20 years. The PERF report is careful not to mention any controversial issues like vascular neck restraints (VNR). Our peer-reviewed research has shown that VNR is an effective use of force technique that has a minimal risk of injury to officers and subjects when properly applied: https://lnkd.in/gksk9uqE
However, after the death of George Floyd, which was not caused by VNR, many states and law enforcement agencies banned the use of the technique. Our data shows that prohibiting the use of VNR has resulted in an increase in the use of less lethal and lethal weapons with a corresponding increase in serious injuries. There is no evidence that banning VNR has saved a single life.
If PERF is serious about improving policing practices using data-driven methodologies to create evidence-based best practices, then I would like to invite PERF to collaborate on some research projects using the comprehensive use of force database that we have created.
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