As sophomore Robby Knelson watched a video depicting Elon Police stunning John Wayne Paylor, then 53 and a former Elon resident, an appalling sensation filled him.

Knelson, a criminal justice minor who aspires to enter law enforcement on a state or federal level someday, has seen footage of this type before, such as the student at the Kerry speech, where it seemed the use of force was unnecessary at the time.

But the video of Paylor hit close to home, since it happened just miles away.

Zapped twice by police in June of last year after police claimed he was resisting arrest for traffic violations from the previous day, Paylor was later found guilty for reckless driving, but not for resisting arrest.

The reason may be that the jury was able to witness the incident first-hand, since a video camera was mounted on the Elon Police car and caught the incident on tape. After four police officers knocked on Paylor’s door with an arrest warrant, Paylor emerged confused (since he has cousins also by the name John Paylor) clad only in boxers and a tank top. Officer Harold Dunn whipped out his stun gun when he claimed to see Paylor clench and raise a fist, and the footage rolled to show him being zapped, tumbling down the stairs of his mobile home, and then being stunned again 20 seconds later, as he lie thrashing on the ground. (See sidebar for more information.)

Such visions are ones that Knelson feels he cannot categorize as police control, but as excessive force.

“The standards for law enforcement officers aren’t high enough right now in general and obviously those officers were out of line and should be reprimanded for what they did,” he said.

But it is also a vision that plays into a much larger issue, one that is stirring up concern because of the introduction of alternative defense weapons and technology, and seems to be growing around the nation.

It is the question and ability of drawing the line between control and brutality.

Elon Assistant Police Chief Sam Russell said for his officers there are not predetermined lines of force; it is up to the officer’s discretion about how to remain in control in the situation.

“Generally, the level-of-force used to respond is proportionate to the level of force used against you,” Russell said.

There have only been three or four deployments of stun guns in the past few years, since the department operates off of verbal commands, the ideal place for every arrest to maintain, he said.

“Unfortunately, in our line of work at some point you have to use some kind of force to take control of an individual,” he said.

Because of this, and personal officer digression, excessive force can arise.

Burlington Chief of Police Michael Williams said officers have strict guidelines to follow, including when to imply specific methods such as pepper spray, stun guns or guns. Their foremost goal is to keep the lowest level of force.

His crew follows the Supreme Court ruling of Graham v. Connor, which supplied a test centered around objectivity for officers to know when to implement specific weaponry.

The ruling states that if another officer, with similar training and experience, is faced with the same circumstances, information, conditions and time, could that other officer have perceived things the same way and felt that amount of force was necessary?

“Not would but could. If they answer yes, then according to the Supreme Court, the force used was objectively reasonable,” Williams said. “It’s easy to look at something afterward and say should have done this, but quite often you only have split seconds to make decisions.”

Williams is hoping that alternative methods will continue to reduce occurrences in which officers have to go to a higher level of force to make an arrest.

According to Taser International Inc.’s 2006 Injury Reduction States Public Information report, there were reduced field injury results in 12 states for 2006, including North Carolina. The report revealed that a North Carolina Taser-dominant force, Charlotte-Mecklenburg, had “19 cases in which officers face subjects with weapons and were able to get them under control using Taser ECDs instead of escalating to deadly force.”

In 2004, the numer of officers injured was down from 59 percent in previous years, and the number of suspects injured was down 79 percent.

However, people like Scott Trent, an organizer for the national anti-police brutality group Oct. 22 Coalition, said there should be less emphasis on racing to pull the trigger overall.

He has seen an increase in killings by police, something he believes is a national trend since everyone has been on-edge since Sept. 11.

“There has been a really chilling effect with people afraid to speak out and a political climate that you’re either with us or with the terrorists,” he said. “People are less confident about speaking out and criticizing these things.”

The Burlington branch of the Oct. 22 Coalition is composed of individuals who work with no office, staff or budget, but dedicate themselves to bringing together and comforting families and victims of excessive police force and to raise criticism.

Trent believes that along with the introduction of alternative methods also came the permit to use very little digression with it.

“It can end up being another way to even torture people, since lots of abuse is abuse, no matter what you use to do it with,” he said.

Trent has worked with legal experts who have designed curriculums for police departments across the nation that focuses on cutting down lethal force. But he said their work has failed time and time again.

“Departments are notoriously resistance to change,” he said. “[There’s been] very limited success to take up the curriculum since they’re not interested in changing things.”

He said that even though the police play a repressive role in society, it is up to the community to draw the line between control and brutality.

“You only hear about [brutality] because someone is willing to speak up or got caught on video tape,” he said. “But where change is going to come from is community.” (See sidebar for more information.)

While situations such as these don’t impact Knelson’s choice to enter the field, he does learn the valuable lessons of education and management from it.

“It’s perfectly appropriate to have and use Tasers as an alternative so they don’t have to use a firearm since they are in situations where risk is involved,” Knelson said. “But in the case of [Paylor], he was not an immediate threat.”

Special Features Editor: Andie Diemer - 10/31/07