Rethinking the Rules of Engagement: Moving Beyond Graham v. Connor The legal baseline for police use of force in the … More
Author: David Couper
Moving Past Graham v. Connor: Who is Raising the Bar?
The Stanford Law School Model Use of Force Policy explicitly addresses the core limitation of Graham v. Connor (1989): that Graham establishes only the constitutional baseline of “objective reasonableness“—a … More
What Has Happened to Once Good Police Departments?
The Gap Between Policy and Practice in American Policing A working paper The Paradox A department can do almost everything … More
Learning Hard Lessons
Gaining Deeper Perspectives on Culture, Systems, and Change The first of my “Hard Lessons” occurred during the Deming-influenced quality improvement … More
The Fatal Flaw in Modern Police Reform
Why Graham Keeps American Police Stuck! Across the country, progressive municipal police departments pride themselves on progressive transformation. They invest … More
How Police in America Got Hijacked
From Guardians to Warriors: How 9/11 Changed American Policing — and Why It Hasn’t Stopped I took my first oath … More
Building an Effective Strategy and Coalition
IF EUROPE’S POLICE CAN, WHY CAN’T WE? A Systems-Thinking Case for Improving Police Use of Deadly Force [Executive Summary: Constitutional baselines … More
“I Was Only Following Orders”: The Most Dangerous Words in a Democracy
In a recent talk, “I Was Only Following Orders: The Line Between Duty and Conscience,” I challenged the dangerous notion … More
We’re a 2026 Top Cop Blog!
I am pleased to share some wonderful news with you. Recently, this blog has been selected as one of the … More
The Active Fight is Over. Moving to Reserve Duty
Active Reserve Duty I have fought a long, hard fight for nearly three-quarters of a century. It is now time … More
