Special tactical police’ experience and perception of their use of force: Evidence from the Chinese SWAT police

Abstract

Despite an increasing amount of literature on police use of force, special tactical police—the specialists in the infliction of force within police forces—remains understudied, especially outside of the English-speaking world. Based on 23 semi-structured interviews and 22 days of ethnographic observation, this exploratory study aims to understand how special tactical police officers in China experience and perceive their own use of force. What are the common situations giving rise to their use of force and how do they process the moral repugnance of having to inflict force on people? Amongst others, this study found that moral ambivalence is not uncommon, especially among those routinely deployed to crowd-control situations. Two ‘coping’ mechanisms were identified via which experienced officers managed to integrate conflicting moral perspectives: by holding up faith in the decision-making at higher levels and the ‘larger collective good’ served by their use of force, or by dismissing their personal perspectives as irrelevant and ‘disengaged’ from the moral deliberation process. Implications were discussed.