Pennsylvania Police Directives

Police departments often offer directives to their officers, which serve as rules the officers should follow. If an officer has violated their own department’s directive, showing that to a jury can be an effective means of cross examination. PDAP is working to collect directives from across the state to make them available to you, here. Some police directives are available online for anyone to see and some offices only make their use of force policies publicly available. We will continue to build out these resources as we get them.

Chapter 5 of the Pennsylvania Crimes Code details use of force, 18 Pa. C.S. 508, peace officer’s use of force in making an arrest:

“He is justified in the use of any force he believes to be necessary to effect the arrest and of any force which he believes to be necessary to defend himself or another from bodily harm while making the arrest.”