Research has shown that only about 10 percent of excessive force complaints made against police officers by citizens are valid. Additionally, only about one-half of 1 percent of all police-citizen encounters actually involve the use of physical force. Yet due to media focus, police have come under heightened scrutiny. The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Graham v. Connor established one of the major tests of whether an officer has used an appropriate level of force: whether the force used was reasonable in light of the circumstances of the situation. Following an examination of this case and one other U.S. Supreme Court decision involving police use of force, the use-of-force spectrum is described, which provides five graduated levels of force officers can use to compel compliance. The article demonstrates how officers must make instantaneous decisions that often determine the fate of their safety and the safety of citizens and thus, their actions must be judged from their perspective, not from the vantage point of hindsight. Endnotes