Policing group says officers must change how and when they use physical force on US streets

An influential group of law enforcement leaders is pushing police departments across the U.S. to change how officers use force when they subdue people and to improve training so they avoid “consistent blind spots” that have contributed to civilian deaths.

Calling the use of force “a defining issue in policing today,” the Police Executive Research Forum released extensive new guidance it says can reduce the risks of deaths following police restraint. The group credited an ongoing investigation led by The Associated Press for inspiring the reforms.

The AP and its reporting partners created a database of more than 1,000 deaths over a decade after officers used tactics meant to subdue people without killing them — the same category of force that killed George Floyd.

The research forum’s recommendations — spanning better coordination with medical responders, de-escalation tactics and adherence to long-standing safety warnings — apply to all incidents officers handle.

But the group focused on a particular type of case that AP’s investigation repeatedly documented: People in a medical, mental or drug crisis who die after police use physical blows, restraints or weapons like Tasers. The group's report shifts the focus from blaming those with mental illness and addiction for their own deaths.

“These people are not suspects. They are patients,” said Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O’Hara, who two years ago took over a department at the center of calls for change after Floyd was killed there in 2020. “This is not just about making it safer for a patient. It’s about increasing safety for everyone.” O’Hara plans to meet with his staff this week to discuss implementing the recommendations.

Deaths that AP identified happened everywhere, affecting people from all walks of life, though Black people were disproportionately represented. In hundreds of cases, officers weren’t taught or didn’t follow well-known guidelines for safely restraining people. These kinds of mistakes were part of what pushed the research forum to act.

“Every police chief, sheriff, trainer, officer, and any other person involved in these incidents should take the time to read these principles and put them to use,” the recommendations said. “They can save lives.”

The Police Executive Research Forum, based in Washington, D.C., and led by police chiefs and administrators, has written policy guidelines on Tasers and body cameras at the request of the Justice Department. While the group largely represents big city departments, its guidelines help inform policy and training standards in many agencies and its work has been cited in court decisions and federal investigations.

In June, the group convened about 20 experts to start hashing out recommendations following the AP-led investigation, done with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism programs at the University of Maryland and Arizona State University, and FRONTLINE (PBS).

While some states have banned chokeholds and other tactics since Floyd’s death, sweeping changes met resistance. A federal package of reforms named in his honor failed to reach President Joe Biden’s desk.

“In these situations, police need to know what they can do,” said Chuck Wexler, the research forum’s executive director. “Because if it doesn’t go right, the police are going to be held accountable.”

The recommendations sent to hundreds of police leaders Saturday will be used in training programs the research forum operates, Wexler said.

While officers in about 30% of the deaths AP identified from 2012-2021 used force to protect someone, many more incidents weren’t imminently dangerous and often involved people suffering a health emergency. Cases like these frequently turned volatile after officers misinterpreted as defiance someone’s hesitation or inability to follow commands. Escalating to physical force then exacerbated the medical condition.

In one death AP featured, medics and police in Tennessee treated the body movements of a 23-year-old man suffering a seizure as resistance. The mother of Austin Hunter Turner sued police and other responders after learning from body-camera video AP unearthed that her son was subjected to more force than she realized.

People in these “medical behavior emergencies” appear to be at greater risk of dying when police restrain them, the research forum wrote. It urged departments to improve training so officers can better recognize and respond to these situations.

Repeatedly yelling at someone in medical crisis to “calm down” or “relax,” for example, often makes the situation worse, the report said. Police should coordinate with fire, dispatch and medics ahead of time so everyone knows their role.

The research forum reiterated and expanded on long-standing safety warnings on physical holds, specifically saying officers should limit when and how long they pin someone face down in what is known as prone position.

Police have been on notice since the 1990s that leaving someone in prone restraint can dangerously restrict their lungs and heart. AP found police often failed to turn over the person once they were handcuffed. In dozens of cases, officers blew off cries of, “I can’t breathe.”

The research forum said police could save lives by rolling people onto their side as soon as possible, even if they are flailing, and by having at least one officer monitor their health. The group also warned police not to buy misconceptions about prone restraint, including that if someone is talking, they can breathe adequately.

The report addressed another finding from AP’s investigation by recommending that officers should never seek to influence whether medics give someone an injection to calm them down.

The AP found at least 94 people died after they were given sedatives and restrained. In more than 15 of those cases, police requested or suggested that emergency medical workers inject sedatives, such as ketamine or midazolam, to temporarily immobilize someone for transport. Experts told the AP that requests from police can pressure medics to use treatments that may be high risk — especially if a person is held face down — but not medically necessary.

“Get the shot to calm him down!” a California officer told a paramedic in the 2020 death of a 40-year-old man who received midazolam while restrained.

Some departments such as Minneapolis have barred officers from requesting sedation, as does a state law in Colorado. But many others offer little or no guidance to officers, some of whom embrace sedation when they see it work rapidly on combative people.

Medics should make decisions independently of police, “based on the totality of the circumstances,” the report said. It added that medics should feel comfortable intervening when officers are restraining people in dangerous ways.

“We’re not trying to interfere with the job they are doing,” Eric Jaeger, an EMS educator and paramedic who helped develop the guidelines, said of police. “We are trying to do our job, which is to protect the health of the patient.”

This story is part of the ongoing investigation “Lethal Restraint” led by The Associated Press in collaboration with the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism programs and FRONTLINE (PBS). The investigation includes an interactive story, database and the film “Documenting Police Use Of Force.”

The Associated Press receives support from the Public Welfare Foundation for reporting focused on criminal justice. This story also was supported by Columbia University’s Ira A. Lipman Center for Journalism and Civil and Human Rights in conjunction with Arnold Ventures. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

Contact AP’s global investigative team at Investigative@ap.org or https://www.ap.org/tips

FILE - In this image from Knox County Sheriff's Office body-camera video, cuffs on the wrists and ankles are used to restrain Johnathan Binkley in Knoxville, Tenn., on July 28, 2019. He rolled around for three more minutes, as deputies watched. One thrust a knee into his back, forcing him to be still, and he became unresponsive within a minute. (Knox County Sheriff's Office via AP, File)

FILE - A representative for Axon Enterprise Inc. demonstrates the company's TASER 7 in Washington on Thursday, May 12, 2022. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin, File)

FILE - In this image from Bristol Police Department body-camera video, police restrain Austin Hunter Turner, facedown, at his girlfriend's apartment in Bristol, Tenn., on Aug. 29, 2017. The 23-year old suffering a seizure died after medics and then police in Tennessee considered his body movements to be resistance. (Bristol Police Department via AP, File)

FILE - Minneapolis Police Chief Brian O'Hara, left, shakes hands with Michael Wilson on the three-year anniversary of George Floyd's death at George Floyd Square, Thursday, May 25, 2023, in Minneapolis. (AP Photo/Abbie Parr, File)

ABUJA, Nigeria (AP) — The United States airstrikes that targeted Islamic State militants in northwestern Nigeria on Thursday marked a major escalation in an offensive that Nigeria's overstretched military has struggled with for years.

U.S. President Donald Trump said on social media that the “powerful and deadly” strikes were carried out against Islamic State militants “targeting and viciously killing, primarily, innocent Christians.” Residents and security analysts have said Nigeria’s security crisis affects both Christians, predominant in the south, and Muslims, who are the majority in the north.

Nigeria, which is battling multiple armed groups, said the U.S. strikes were part of an exchange of intelligence and strategic coordination between the two countries.

The Associated Press could not confirm the extent of the strikes' impact. U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, in a post on X about the airstrikes, said: “More to come...”

The armed groups in Africa’s most populous country include at least two affiliated with the Islamic State — an offshoot of the Boko Haram extremist group known as the Islamic State West Africa Province in the northeast, and the lesser-known Islamic State Sahel Province (ISSP) known locally as Lakurawa and prominent in the northwest.

Although officials did not say exactly which group was targeted, security analysts said the target, if indeed against Islamic State militants, was likely members of Lakurawa, which became more lethal in border states like Sokoto and Kebbi in the last year, often targeting remote communities and security forces.

The Nigerian military has said in the past that the group has roots in neighboring Niger and that it became more active in Nigeria's border communities following a 2023 military coup. That coup resulted in fractured relations between Nigeria and Niger, and affected their multinational military operations along the porous border.

Multiple analysts have said Lakurawa has been active in northwest Nigeria since around 2017 when it was invited by traditional authorities in Sokoto to protect their communities from bandit groups.

The militants, however, "overstayed their welcome, clashing with some of the community leaders ... and enforcing a harsh interpretation of sharia law that alienated much of the rural population,” according to James Barnett, an Africa researcher with the Washington-based Hudson Institute.

“Communities now openly say that Lakurawa are more oppressive and dangerous than the bandits they claim to protect them from," according to Malik Samuel, a Nigerian security researcher with Good Governance Africa.

Lakurawa controls territories in Sokoto and Kebbi states, and has become known for killings, kidnapping, rape and armed robbery, Samuel said.

But some of the attacks blamed on Lakurawa are by the Islamic State Sahel Province, which has expanded from Niger’s Dosso region to northwestern Nigeria, according to the U.S.-based Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project.

“ISSP has maintained a low profile, operating covertly to infiltrate and entrench itself along the Niger-Nigeria border, and is now also expanding its operations toward the Beninese border,” the project said in a recent report.

The security woes are more of a governance problem than a military one.

Motives for attacks differ but the gangs are often driven by the near absence of a state and security presence in conflict hot spots, making recruitment easy. Those hot spots, data show, have some of the country's highest levels of poverty, hunger and lack of jobs.

Nigeria’s Minister of Defense Christopher Musa once said in his past capacity as the defense chief that military action is only 30% of what is needed to fix the country's security crisis, while the remaining 70% depends on good governance.

“The absence of the state in remote communities is making it easy for non-state actors to come in and present themselves to the people as the best alternative government,” said Samuel.

Thursday's U.S. strikes were seen as crucial help for Nigeria’s security forces, which are often overstretched and outgunned as they fight multiple security crises across different regions.

In states like Sokoto, the military often carries out airstrikes targeting militant hideouts and Nigeria has embarked on mass recruitment of security forces.

But analysts say military operations targeting the gangs are not usually sustained and the militants easily move on motorcycles to new locations through vast forests that connect several states in the north.

They also often use hostages — including schoolchildren — as cover, making airstrikes difficult.

President Donald Trump arrives on Air Force One at Palm Beach International Airport, Saturday, Dec. 20, 2025, in West Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

President Donald Trump speaks at his Mar-a-Lago club, Monday, Dec. 22, 2025, in Palm Beach, Fla. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)