Police Use of Deadly Force in Tennessee Following Tennessee v. Garner

Pressures to adopt more restrictive use of deadly force policies mounted during the 1960s and 1970s. By the early 1980s the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) was recommending a written policy on the use of force and appeared to be encouraging a more restrictive policy. In 1985, the U. S. Supreme Court imposed a Fourth Amendment reasonableness test on the use of deadly force setting aside the fleeing felon statutes based on common law. The Tennessee legislature responded by passing legislation incorporating the standard. This study indicated that Tennessee police departments serving populations of more than 5,000 have reduced the use of deadly force and adopted more restrictive policies.