Use of force by the police is applied along a continuum. "Command Presence" is on the bottom and "Deadly Force" is on the top (with several levels in between). Police must apply force that is commeasurate with the threat. Policies dictate that the threat will be handled with the lowest level of force required.

As far as the use of deadly force is concerned, here is an example policy:

"The necessity to use deadly force arises when all other available means of preventing imminent and grave danger to officers or other persons have failed or would be likely to fail. Thus, employing deadly force is permissible when there is no safe alternative to using such force, and without it the officer or others would face imminent and grave danger. An officer is not required to place himself or herself, another officer, a suspect, or the public in unreasonable danger of death or serious physical injury before using deadly force. Officers will fire at a person only in response to an imminent threat of deadly force or serious physical injury against the officer or other individuals."