Force Decisions: A Citizen's Guide

by Rory Miller

USA Best Books Award WINNER - 2013ForeWord's Book of the Year Award FINALIST - 2013In a free and peaceful society where so many have been taught that all violence is wrong, citizens are often confused and dismayed when officers use force, even when the force is perfectly lawful and justified.This book allows you to ‘take’ a basic USE OF FORCE class just as if you were a rookie at the police academy. Below are some highlights of what is included in ‘your’ basic use of force 1. TRAINING. I explain policy and laws that officers are taught. We examine use of force, how to define a threat, and the difference between excessive force and unnecessary force. SECTION 2. CHECKS AND BALANCES. This section explains how an officer’s decisions are examined if suspected of being bad decisions.SECTION 3. EXPERIENCE. We explore how officers see the world that they live in. Somewhere in the fog between training and experience, the officer has to make a decision. Sometimes decisions will be made in a fraction of a second and on partial information. Sometimes a decision will change the lives of everyone involved—forever.SECTION 4. ABOUT YOU. Review what you should have learned. Why does community action fail? What is it that can really be done? Know how to behave when faced by an officer. Until this section, I have tried to put you in the headspace of an officer, giving you an overview of his training and a taste of his experiences. Now I will try to let you feel like a suspect. That’s a lot of mind bending for one book. Get plenty of sleep and drink lots of water.

Genres: Martial Arts, Nonfiction

210 pages, Kindle Edition

First published April 1, 2012

About the author

Sergeant Rory Miller is a corrections officer, a martial artist, and an instructor in both of those areas.


Librarian Note: There is more than one author in the GoodReads database with this name. See this thread for more information.

Reviews

[Vance Gatlin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Very good, very detailed. It helps put you inside the mind of a cop and understand the decisions made.
Rory covers the training, and experiences along with the different types of officers, even the bad ones.

[Atom · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a MUST READ for anyone who finds themself criticising the actions of a cop, whether formally or informally. Maybe you're right, maybe you're wrong, but without a basis for understanding why police make the decisions they do, you're basing your position on misinformation and emotion. This book provides a basis for understanding why police make the decisions they do. This is valuable to the average citizen (1) to prevent interactions with police from escalating unnecessarily, and (2) so you have half a friggin clue how to assess incidents that don't go well.

This book is also a MUST READ for any community organisers, activists, and others who often find themselves at odds with police. Again, this information can be used to prevent unnecessary escalation, and if things do go bad you'll have a clue as to if, how, and why the police violated protocols, not just how and why they didn't do what you wanted; understanding the difference is critical to filing effective complaints, when that's necessary.

[Jon Keeling · Rating 5 out of 5]

If you have a serious interest in protecting yourself, you should consider reading this book and everything else Rory Miller has written.

If you teach self-defense professionally, you MUST read everything written by Rory Miller if you care about doing your job the best it can be done. This is not debatable. Every competent self-defense instructor would agree with this statement.

I teach Karate and self-defense internationally and have for several decades. And I talk about Rory Miller often. When people ask me which book I suggest they read, I always say "All of them!"

You can thank me later. ;-)

[Carter · Rating 5 out of 5]

Rory Miller wastes no time delivering "hard truths" in a style that demonstrates a deep understanding of the many complex factors that influence both use of force decisions and public perceptions. He manages to be direct while being empathetic. He acknowledges and validates both sides of a heavy topic while effectively communicating difficult concepts. He provides real-world perspective and real-world advice. This book expertly walks the line between the sworn and the civilian, bridging the gap along the way.

[Mairalynn · Rating 1 out of 5]

This is the most victim blaming shit I've ever read (had to read this for a class)

[Michael Philliber · Rating 5 out of 5]

In the face of so much print and electronic media coverage on actions of police officers, it appears that law enforcers are always overstepping the line. The almost automatic assumption is that cops abuse power at almost every step. They’re assumed guilty until proven innocent, and the supposition is that they will not be proven innocent because they pulled a trigger, tasered someone, shed blood, or broke bone. In fact, in the court system a police officer’s testimony is no longer accepted as having more weight of truthfulness than the person being tried. As an aside, my own personal principle, that an officer’s testimony is to be accepted as true unless proven false, has gotten me kicked out of numerous jury selections. Into this socially charged atmosphere comes a 206 page paperback book that has the potential to bring sounder thinking to the front, “Force Decisions: A Citizen’s Guide: Understanding How Police Determine Appropriate Use of Force”. Rory Miller, a veteran corrections officer with years of police experience under his belt, has composed a well written document that walks the non-Law Enforcement reader through the different levels of the use of force. With loads of stories illustrating his points, carefully composed chapters, and thorough explanations, Miller presents solid material that enlightens and helps the reader understand better the dynamics of resistance, violence and outcomes.
“Force Decisions” breaks down into four sections that guide the reader, step by step, to the place of making better informed decisions about a police officer’s actions. The first section describes the training an officer receives in the Academy. Most of the material appears to be Miller’s own lesson plans on “Use of Force and Decision Making, Police Defensive Tactics, and Confrontational Situation” that he has taught several times. It is engaging, energetic, and educational. The author’s premise in offering this information is that all “officers have been civilians; but few civilians have been officers. The civilians need information” (143). By the time a reader completes this section, they will never be able to read or see a news story about a Law Enforcement Officer’s actions in the way they did before.
The second, relatively shorter portion describes the checks and balances that are in place in case a use of force is suspected of being bad. The author guides the citizen through the process of how a case is decided; whether the officer is exonerated or the complaint is observed to be unfounded, unsustained, or sustained. In both section one and two, the bottom line is the crucial grid for both action and analysis: “You are expected and required to use the minimum level of force that you reasonably believe will safely resolve the situation” (4, 71).
The third, and largest segment of “Force Decisions,” is all about experience; how it changes, conditions and sharpens an officer’s perceptions and decisions. This particular part flows with abundant stories to illustrate the point, and the point is basically to drive home what was learned in the first two sections. Though this piece gels together nicely, it covers a whole host of new subject matter, like the contrast between the way a citizen things and a criminal thinks; the different types of officers; how knowing what to do does not always translate into doing; being confronted by those in an altered state of mind; and feelings of betrayal. The last bit of book limps its way to the end, primarily summarizing what has been taught and how it can be used.
“Force Decisions” is an important book intended to help the average Joe or Jane Citizen to understand how and why officers use force, and why they have no choice or only bade choices in many of the decisions made (161). I think that most readers, even those who routinely presume that an officer is guilty of abuse of power, will have their eyes opened, their perceptions widened and their prejudices minimized. I strongly recommend this book.
Thanks to YMAA Publication Center, Inc. for the free copy of the book used for this review.

[Richard · Rating 1 out of 5]

Update 6/7/2020:
Given the past week in the United States, where hundreds of videos have shown police officers assaulting people without cause, including pushing a 75 year old man to the ground and cracking his skull in Buffalo (and subsequently, 57 of his colleagues resigning in solidarity with the assault), my attitude on this book has changed. I used to think that this was a condescending "civilians don't understand what it's like out there" work, and I don't anymore.

This is a work of propaganda that lies about police behavior. In the past week Rory - who in this book claimed that every use of force he's seen by cops has been justified - has not condemned this wave of police violence.

This book is entirely without value, and Rory should be ashamed.

Original comments:
Some beliefs Rory Miller advances in this book:

- Unlike every other professional work culture, law enforcement has no shadow sides or destructive norms, just varying degrees of competence
- Conversely, all protesters break the law and many of them carry around battery acid to blind cops (?)
- Calling anything short of "machine-gunning down" unarmed civilians an improper handling of a protest makes you an idiot
- Everyone "profiles" (uses a collection of vaguely defined, fluid intuitions) so racial profiling (using a clearly defined, concrete heuristic) is totes cool ya snowflake
- Every video he has seen of police using force on civilians has been justified, even though he admits that he wouldn't use force like most he has seen, because like, how can you know what being adrenalized does to your brain, man?
- Mandatory minimums for crack are totally cool because here's a single metric saying they indirectly cause more fatalities, don't think about how, by that same metric, marijuana/entheogens shouldn't carry any penalty, he's not here to have his arguments examined for consistency

[Marci · Rating 4 out of 5]

I wasn't sure how I was going to feel about this book when I started it. I was not Miller's target audience here (being already trained to largely agree with him and to accept that his perspective is correct-for-him on the rest) and I wasn't sure that it wasn't going to feel like it was covering the same old material.

Instead, I found it to be just enough of a different perspective from what I usually expect, and what I usually have, to be really interesting. I don't know if it would be convincing to anyone else (again, I admit my bias here), but I'd recommend it for anyone who wants to consider the topic.

[Steve Scott · Rating 5 out of 5]

Miller's book deals with the challenges officers face when confronting a suspect. Miller served for years as a corrections officer and also is an experienced martial artist. He provides valuable insights into the challenges those officers face.

Ostensibly written for the citizen, Miller spends much of his time addressing officers…but the switch of perspective doesn't detract from the work.

For anyone truly interested in the debates over police brutality--regardless of their stance on the issue--this is an important book to add to one's reading list.

[Tony · Rating 4 out of 5]

An informative look at police mindset, training, and motivations in using violence, how it is different for civilians (who don't have a "duty to act"), and the habitual criminal who may see being jailed as a way to rest up and relieve tension.

[Psychonaut · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5