CASE STUDY OF TENNESSEE VS. GARNER 7
officers or other civilians, the utilization of deadly force must not be employed. However, in
situations where the officer has a probable cause in believing that the felon in any way creates
any potential risk of harm it is reasonable constitutionally to stop escape through employment of
lethal force” (Flanders & Welling, 2016).
To break this further, if at any instance the fleeing suspect attempts to use any weaponry
to threaten the officer or any civilian involved, or , if the officer has reasons to think that the
suspect has taken part in a specific crime involving infliction or any susceptible infliction of
physical injury, then the officer may employ lethal force if required to avert run away of the
suspect ( Marshall, 1989).For that reason, although the Supreme Court’s ruling based on the
constitution, it made the work of the police officer’s more difficult than it was before. This was
mainly attributed to the fact that the officers were know to employ their own judgment in
determining the instances to employ lethal force on a fleeing suspect which can be distorted at
times. However, in majority of the situations, the officers should always be against employing
the deadly force on the fleeing suspects, as in the Court’s Opinion.
The other operational policy that was affected was the Courts. The ruling affected the
Criminal Justice System as any instance where an officer employed lethal force against any
suspect, and as a result charges brought up on that officer, courts became the entities in solving
that particular case. Based on the facts brought out in the case, making decision in supporting the
accused officer became very difficult to the courts. For instance, in December 2016, Michael
Slager, an officer deadly shot Walter Scott in the back as he attempted to flee away was
convicted of charges of civil rights and police misconduct. He was sentenced to twenty years in
prison (Smith, 2017). Also in May, 2017, an officer Betty Shelby was found having not being
guilty of first degree manslaughter having shot Terence Crutcher fatally, an unarmed suspect in