Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

Too Much ‘Reasonable’ Deadly Force

A new California law says law enforcement can use deadly force only when “necessary” instead of the previous standard of “reasonable.”

On Monday, Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Assembly Bill 392 that attempts to restrict deadly force to that which is “necessary to defend against an imminent threat of death or serious bodily injury to the officer or to another person.”

California does not have a good record when it comes to deadly force by law enforcement.

A Guardian report in 2015 found that police in Kern County killed the most people per capita than any other county in the United States.

I sure hope going down the path of “necessary” begins to turn those statistics around.

Copyright 2019 KQED