Generally, police officers may use whatever force is necessary to defend themselves or enforce the law. In many cases, a jury must decide if an officer’s use of force was justified or excessive. To consider the case, a judge usually instructs a jury to consider whether force was reasonable based on the officer’s knowledge at the time and under the circumstances. An officer’s use of force is so dependent on the unique circumstances of the case that the courts defer to the jury to make the decision.
Fortunately, the burden of proof relies on a “preponderance of the evidence,” a threshold much lower than that of a criminal case. In other words, a person accusing an officer of police brutality must show that it was “more likely than not” that excessive force occurred.