Chokeholds. TASERs. Bullets. Death. In normal interactions with others on the street, it’s pretty clear that there are next-to-no situations where it is legally permissible to enact violence. Those boundaries quickly become blurred, though, when the person using physical force is a law enforcement officer.

In those cases, interpretations of what is “necessary” and “reasonable” can vary. As the public has seen repeatedly, it’s possible for unwarranted deaths to happen at the hands of the law without any consequences, and the data on just how often this happens is spotty at best.

Individual police department policies on the use of force are one of the standards by which officers are judged for these acts. MuckRock wants to help you access how these look for your local police.

On June 5, MuckRock began an Assignment to help our audience begin to better understand how use of force policies and data are being tracked by their local law enforcement agencies. We’ve had nearly 100 submissions from all over the country.

You can “Follow” particular public records requests to receive updates on messages and records as they arrive. Just sign up for a MuckRock account, navigate to the request of interest, and hit the “Follow” button at the top of the page.

Is there an agency you’d like us to ask? Just add it to the Assignment, and we’ll submit a request for more information on your behalf.

Image via Wikimedia Commons and is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0