Police use of deadly force in the United States is constitutional only when it is objectively reasonable under the Fourth Amendment, judged by the totality of the circumstances facing the officer. In practice, that means an officer can use lethal force to stop a suspect who poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others — and generally not otherwise. The rule sounds narrow on paper. How courts apply it, and how often officers face consequences when they get it wrong, is where the law gets complicated.
When Deadly Force Is Legally Justified
Two Supreme Court decisions from the 1980s still set the rule.
Tennessee v. Garner (1985) struck down a Tennessee law that let police shoot any fleeing felony suspect. The Court held 6–3 that the Fourth Amendment forbids deadly force against a fleeing suspect unless “it is necessary to prevent the escape and the officer has probable cause to believe that the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others.”1Oyez. Tennessee v. Garner That overturned the old common-law rule that any force was permissible to stop a fleeing felon.2FLETC. Deadly Force: Tennessee v. Garner
Graham v. Connor (1989) supplied the test courts still use. A unanimous Court held that excessive force claims must be analyzed under an “objective reasonableness” standard. What matters is what a reasonable officer on the scene would have done, not whether the officer acted in good faith or with malice, and not what hindsight reveals.3Justia. Graham v. Connor Three factors carry most of the weight:
- The severity of the crime at issue.
- Whether the suspect posed an immediate threat to officers or others.
- Whether the suspect was actively resisting or attempting to flee.
The Court acknowledged that officers often make split-second decisions in situations that are “tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving,” and said the reasonableness inquiry can’t be applied mechanically.4Library of Congress. Graham v. Connor
How Courts Judge Reasonableness in Real Cases
The rule is one thing. The way lower courts and the Supreme Court have applied it over four decades is where the real law lives.
Vehicle Pursuits
Deadly force during car chases has produced some of the most permissive rulings. In Scott v. Harris (2007), a deputy rammed a fleeing driver’s car at 80 to 90 miles per hour, leaving the driver a quadriplegic. The Court held 8–1 that the shooting was reasonable because the driver posed “an actual and imminent threat” to pedestrians and other motorists. It rejected the idea that Garner created a rigid on/off switch for deadly force.5Justia. Scott v. Harris
Seven years later, in Plumhoff v. Rickard (2014), the Court unanimously approved officers firing 15 rounds into a car after the driver had rammed police vehicles and tried to flee while surrounded, calling the driver “intent on resuming” a chase that posed a “deadly threat for others on the road.”6SCOTUSblog. Plumhoff v. Rickard
Qualified Immunity
Even where a shooting looks questionable, officers often avoid civil liability through qualified immunity. The doctrine shields officers unless their conduct violated “clearly established” law — meaning a prior case with materially similar facts had already found such conduct unconstitutional.
Mullenix v. Luna (2015) showed how high that bar sits. A Texas trooper fired at a fleeing, intoxicated driver who had threatened to shoot officers, killing him. The Fifth Circuit denied qualified immunity; the Supreme Court reversed, finding the constitutional question had not been placed “beyond debate.” Qualified immunity, the Court said, protects “all but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law,” and officers aren’t required to exhaust every alternative before using deadly force.7Justia. Mullenix v. Luna
What the Officer Did Beforehand
A recurring question is whether an officer’s earlier mistakes — a warrantless entry, a reckless escalation — can make an otherwise reasonable use of force unconstitutional. The Ninth Circuit’s “provocation rule” said yes. The Supreme Court unanimously rejected that rule in County of Los Angeles v. Mendez (2017), holding that Graham is the “settled and exclusive framework” for excessive force claims and that a separate constitutional violation “cannot transform a later, reasonable use of force into an unreasonable seizure.” Families can still sue for the earlier violation itself; they just can’t use it to bootstrap the force claim.8Cornell Law Institute. County of Los Angeles v. Mendez
The 2025 Shift: Barnes v. Felix
The most consequential recent decision came in May 2025. For years, the Fifth Circuit had used a “moment of the threat” doctrine that evaluated police shootings by looking only at the final seconds before the trigger pull. In Barnes v. Felix, the Supreme Court unanimously threw that approach out.
The case arose from a 2016 traffic stop. Officer Roberto Felix Jr. pulled over Ashtian Barnes for outstanding toll violations outside Houston. Barnes couldn’t produce a license, the officer smelled marijuana, and when ordered out of the car, Barnes turned the ignition and the vehicle began moving. Felix jumped onto the doorsill, shouted, and fired two shots. Barnes died. From the car’s first motion to its stop: about five seconds. From Felix stepping onto the vehicle to shooting: two seconds.9Supreme Court of the United States. Barnes v. Felix
The Fifth Circuit, examining only those two final seconds, found the shooting justified. Justice Kagan, writing for the Court, called that framing impermissibly narrow. The totality of the circumstances test “has no time limit.” The moment of the shooting is often the most important factor, but courts cannot put on “chronological blinders” that exclude earlier events — the reasons for the stop, the suspect’s behavior, the officer’s own tactical choices — from the analysis.9Supreme Court of the United States. Barnes v. Felix
Justice Kavanaugh, joined by Justices Thomas, Alito, and Barrett, concurred separately to stress the dangers officers face during traffic stops and to argue that when a driver flees, courts must account for what that flight “might indicate or enable.” Legal commentators have warned that the concurrence’s broad language could lead lower courts to treat ordinary noncompliance as the equivalent of a high-speed pursuit.10Harvard Law Review. Barnes v. Felix
The practical effect so far has been limited. On remand, the Fifth Circuit again granted Felix qualified immunity on September 18, 2025, this time applying the full totality test and concluding the shooting was still reasonable in context. The Harvard Law Review observed that the Fifth Circuit drew heavily on Kavanaugh’s concurrence.11FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. Legal Spotlight: Barnes v. Felix Affirmed on Remand
The majority opinion also left one large question open: whether an officer’s own creation of the danger — jumping onto a moving car, for instance — should count against the officer in the reasonableness analysis.9Supreme Court of the United States. Barnes v. Felix Some scholars read the “no time limit” language to invite consideration of officer-created jeopardy.12GW Law Faculty Publications. Barnes v. Felix Law enforcement groups that filed amicus briefs argue the opposite. More litigation on this point is expected.
How Families Hold Officers Accountable
Two paths exist, and neither is easy.
Civil Lawsuits Under Section 1983
The main vehicle for civil claims is 42 U.S.C. § 1983, which lets individuals sue state and local officials who violate constitutional rights while acting “under color of law.” In a deadly force case, the family must show the officer acted with government authority and deprived the victim of a constitutional right, usually the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable seizures.13People’s Law Library. Section 1983 Lawsuits
Successful plaintiffs can recover compensatory damages, punitive damages, and injunctive or declaratory relief.13People’s Law Library. Section 1983 Lawsuits The main obstacle, as cases like Mullenix demonstrate, is qualified immunity. Even arguably unconstitutional conduct can go unpunished if no prior case with closely similar facts put the officer on notice.
Criminal Prosecution
Criminal charges remain rare. Data from the Mapping Police Violence project show that only 1% to 3% of police killings produce charges. The absolute number of charged officers has risen from single digits a decade ago to low double digits, but criminologists caution that the increase is partly explained by multiple officers being charged in the same incident. Prosecutors hesitate to bring cases; juries hesitate to convict.14NPR. Are More Police Officers Facing Prosecution
Some states have tried to lower the bar. Washington removed the requirement that prosecutors prove “actual malice.” California tightened the legal standard for when deadly force is justified. Colorado made it a crime for an officer to fail to intervene when a colleague uses excessive force.14NPR. Are More Police Officers Facing Prosecution
The Tyre Nichols Prosecutions
The closest look at how these prosecutions actually play out comes from the January 2023 beating death of Tyre Nichols in Memphis. Five former officers were charged with second-degree murder in state court and civil rights violations in federal court. Emmitt Martin and Desmond Mills Jr. pleaded guilty to federal charges.15PBS NewsHour. Judge Orders New Trial for Memphis Ex-Officers Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, and Justin Smith went to federal trial in October 2024. Haley was convicted of civil rights violations; all three were convicted of witness tampering. All three were acquitted of the state charges in May 2025.16NBC News. Three Officers Ordered New Trials in Death of Tyre Nichols
In August 2025, a new federal judge ordered new trials for Bean, Haley, and Smith after the original presiding judge, Mark Norris, recused amid allegations of bias stemming from reported statements that the Memphis Police Department was “infiltrated to the top with gang members.” Because Bean and Smith were acquitted on the more serious civil rights counts, those charges cannot be refiled at retrial. None of the five officers have been sentenced as of early 2026.16NBC News. Three Officers Ordered New Trials in Death of Tyre Nichols
What the Numbers Show
There is no comprehensive federal count of people killed by police. Local departments aren’t required to report fatal shootings, and the FBI’s voluntary use-of-force collection program, launched in 2019, has struggled with low participation.17FBI. National Use-of-Force Data Collection The Washington Post’s “Fatal Force” database, which tracked every fatal police shooting from 2015 through 2024, stopped updating on January 1, 2025. During its decade of operation, it consistently documented more than twice as many annual fatal shootings as federal records did.18The Washington Post. Fatal Force Database
The National Law Enforcement Accountability Database, a federal registry of officer misconduct created by Biden-era executive order in 2022, was shut down on January 20, 2025, after President Trump revoked the underlying order. It had been operational for just over a year and produced a single annual report.19The Washington Post. Trump Justice Department Deleted Police Misconduct Database
The most current national figures come from Campaign Zero’s Mapping Police Violence project. Its February 2026 report found that law enforcement killed 1,314 people in 2025 — an average of 3.6 per day. That is a 5% decrease from 2024 and the first year-over-year decline since 2019. Racial disparities persist. Black Americans were killed at 2.6 times the rate of white Americans. Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders were killed at 5.5 times the rate; American Indian and Alaska Native people at 3 times the rate.20Campaign Zero. Mapping Police Violence: For the First Time in Six Years, Police Violence Declined in 2025 New Mexico had the highest per capita rate; Rhode Island recorded none.21Stateline. Fatal Police Violence May Have Declined for the First Time in Years
Where Reform Stands
State Laws After George Floyd
The murder of George Floyd in 2020 triggered the largest wave of state policing reforms in decades. The Brennan Center for Justice counts at least 30 states and Washington, D.C., that enacted statewide policing legislation; 25 states and D.C. addressed use of force, duty to intervene, or misconduct reporting.22Brennan Center for Justice. State Policing Reforms Since George Floyd’s Murder
Among the significant changes:
- Several states clarified that deadly force is justified only as a last resort. Colorado banned its use to apprehend suspects of minor or nonviolent offenses. Five states restricted shooting at fleeing vehicles.
- Nine states and D.C. enacted complete bans on chokeholds and neck restraints, with eight more restricting their use to situations where deadly force is otherwise legally justified.
- Twelve states and D.C. established a legal duty for officers to intervene when a colleague uses excessive or illegal force, with penalties ranging from decertification to criminal liability.
- At least 14 states strengthened processes to prevent officers fired for misconduct from being hired at other departments. Massachusetts and Hawaii created their first centralized decertification bodies.
Effectiveness varies widely by jurisdiction.22Brennan Center for Justice. State Policing Reforms Since George Floyd’s Murder
Federal Policy
The Department of Justice updated its own use-of-force policy in 2022, the first revision since 2004. The policy authorizes deadly force only when an officer reasonably believes the subject “poses an imminent danger of death or serious physical injury.” It prohibits deadly force solely to prevent escape, bans firing at moving vehicles in most circumstances, prohibits warning shots outside prisons, and bans chokeholds and carotid restraints unless the standard for deadly force is met.23U.S. Department of Justice. Department of Justice Policy on Use of Force It also requires de-escalation attempts when feasible, imposes a duty to intervene, and mandates annual training.24U.S. Department of Justice. Updated Use-of-Force Policy
The Law Enforcement De-escalation Training Act, signed in 2022, authorized federal funding for de-escalation training programs.25The American Presidency Project. Statement of Administration Policy on S. 4003 Implementation has been slow; the DOJ was still developing a national model curriculum and certification standards as of the most recent fiscal cycle.26COPS Office. De-Escalation Training Act Research on whether such training reduces force is mixed. A study of Louisville Metro Police found reductions in uses of force and in both citizen and officer injuries after adoption of the Integrating Communications, Assessment, and Tactics program.27IACP. De-Escalation and Use of Force A 2024 evaluation of New Jersey’s statewide Use of Force Reduction Initiative, however, found no consistent decline. Total use of force actually rose about 9.5% from 2021 to 2024, though researchers noted this tracked a broader increase in police interactions and serious offenses.28National Policing Institute. Evaluating the Implementation and Impact of Statewide Use of Force Reform
Qualified Immunity
Federal efforts to modify or abolish qualified immunity have stalled repeatedly. The 119th Congress has seen at least three relevant bills: the Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 2026 in the Senate (S. 3625) and House (H.R. 7046), and the Qualified Immunity Act of 2025 (S. 122).29U.S. Congress. S.3625 – Qualified Immunity Abolition Act of 202630U.S. Congress. S.122 – Qualified Immunity Act of 2025 None has advanced to a vote. The doctrine remains the single largest practical barrier to civil accountability for police shootings, and the fight over whether to keep it, narrow it, or abolish it is where much of the next decade of deadly force law will be decided.