Results of structural equation modeling indicate that the political climate and the level of social disorganization in urban areas have a significant and direct impact on the rates of police use of force. Specifically, it was found that the economic conditions in urban areas that increased the out-migration of citizens away from urban centers created the conditions under which police were more likely to use coercive control against citizens. Moreover, police organizational factors also impacted the likelihood of police use of force. It is recommended that police carefully consider standards in hiring and training that cultivate a professional police force. Official data on police use of force were collected in 73 American cities with populations of at least 100,000. The main hypothesis was that differences in rates of police use of force would be explained by the style of policing and by the social, economic, and political characteristics of cities. Theoretically, the study merged racial threat and urban disadvantage perspectives with literature on police organizational structure. Future research should collect more detailed use of force data that includes race of officer and citizen as well as type of training on department policies for each police department. Footnotes, tables, figures, references