Most US police departments have strict guidelines on the use of deadly force, and international standards state that force should be used only as a last resort, proportionate to the threat and designed to minimise injury. However, it is clear that these standards are frequently breached and that too often the authorities have turned a blind eye to abuses. Investigations into complaints of police brutality are often subject to delays and there are concerns about the quality and impartiality of internal investigations. Disciplinary action is rare. Sanctions, when they are imposed, are often lenient.
Many police shootings raise serious doubts as to whether the victims posed an immediate threat.
Amnesty International detailed more than 30 cases where NYPD officers had shot or injured suspects, including children, in disputed circumstances in its 1996 report. Nearly all the victims were black, Latino or from other minorities - a pattern seen across the country. Members of racial and ethnic minorities bear the brunt of police brutality in many areas. Black officers themselves have complained of the stereotyping of black men as criminal suspects. Caroline Sue Botticher, an unarmed African American woman, died after police from West Charlotte, North Carolina, fired 22 rounds at the car in which she was a passenger when it failed to stop at a police check-point in April 1997.