ARTICLE 10.1177/1098611102250491POLICE QUARTERLY (Vol. 6, No. 2, June 2003) Terrill et al. / APPLICATION OF THE FORCE FACTOR A MANAGEMENT TOOL FOR EVALUATING POLICE USE OF FORCE: AN APPLICATION OF THE FORCE FACTOR WILLIAM TERRILL Northeastern University GEOFFREY P. ALPERT University of South Carolina ROGER G. DUNHAM University of Miami MICHAEL R. SMITH Virginia Commonwealth University Collecting and using data on police use of force is a complex issue. The pro- cess the authors suggest applies the force factor methodology to understand- ing police use of force relative to suspect resistance in interactive and sequential encounters. Agencies that adopt the force factor approach will learn about their officers, supervisors, and encounters with the public they serve. Although this process is fairly complex and may be difficult to imple- ment, it will provide important information to agencies and the public. Keywords: police force; force continuum; resistance force comparative scale; citizen resistance; excessive force The Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994 (Section 210402) requires the U.S. Attorney General to collect police use-of-force data annually from police departments. Although this law has led to an This research was supported by Grant No. 98-IJ-CX-0018 by the National Institute of Justice grant, Office of Justice Programs, U.S. Department of Justice. Points of view in this document are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U. S. Department of Justice. POLICE QUARTERLY Vol. 6 No. 2, June 2003 150–171 DOI: 10.1177/1098611102250491 © 2003 Sage Publications