Informative Speech Outline

Specific Goal: My audience will learn about police brutality, as well as measures that can be
taken to prevent it.
Application: The audience may be more able to recognize police brutality in real life, which will
not only cause them to be more aware, but also perhaps want to work for a way to help prevent
it.
Ethos: Primary Ethos: While I have no personal experience with police brutality, it is an issue I
feel very passionate about.
Secondary Ethos: I will cite ten references out loud in my speech.
Pathos: By quickly referencing to some of the victims of police brutality my audience may have
heard about in the media, I hope to not only create recognition for my audience, but also relate
a feeling of outrage and injustice when recalling the specifics of these events.
Logos: I will use statistics of police brutality in America, as well as cases where preventative
measures have been applied how they succeeded.
Audience Assessment: My audience may know about certain cases of police brutality as heard
in the news, but they may not know how frequently occurring police brutality is or know any
solutions to prevent it.
Adaption to Audience: I will use statistics as well as reference incidents, which give a story
and a face to a statistic as well as explain further how these cases were acts of police brutality,
instead of a mishap.
Pattern of Organization: Problem-Solution
Introduction
I.

Hook: During 2015, collected data found that encounters between police officers and
suspects, which end in the death of either the officer, or suspect, 97% of the time it
was the suspect who was killed (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015).

II.

Thesis: By recognizing police brutality in America and implementing solutions to

prevent it, our nation can work towards bringing an end to the injustice people face
daily.

III.

Preview:
A. First, I will define what police brutality is.
B. Second, I will explain the results of police brutality.
C. Third, I will go over ways police brutality could be minimized.

Transition: Now that Ive introduced the main topics, lets explain what exactly police brutality
is.
Body
I.

Police brutality is when officers use excessive force, verbal assault, or

psychological intimidation towards civilians (Walker, 2011).
A. Excessive force is when an officer uses more force than necessary and
unnecessary force is force used when the subject is not resisting arrest
(Police use of force, 2016).
B. Police brutality can be things such as pepper stray, Tasers, batons, or
guns.

C. It can also be in the form of false arrests and racial profiling.

Transition: Now that we know what police brutality is, well look at the results which
come from it.
II.
Police brutality creates a climate of hostility in which communities who feel
unsafe, threatened, and not protected by their own government, will result to
taking matters into their own hands (The Editorial Board, 2014).
A. For minorities, the police have become a source of fear (Eligon, 2015).
i. Racial profiling can cause symptoms of mental distress, anxiety,
as well as interpersonal sensitivity (Pieterse, 2016).
B. In police brutality trials, judges often instruct juries to accept police
officers testimony without considering much of the evidence (People v.
Roche, 1945).
i. During the grand jury trial in the case regarding Michael Brown
who was unarmed and killed, both the Ferguson police
department (A Wall Street Journal Roundup, 2014) as well as the
officer facing charges, Darren Wilson testified (Patrick and Bell,
2015).
ii. Police testimonies in police brutality trials can be risky as jurors
may feel inclined to accept the officers testimony based on the
officers professional status (Briscoe v. LaHue, 1983).
iii. Police officers rely on expert testimony, which sometimes
overemphasizes the potential threat to officer safety in order to
support the officers claim that force was reasonable (Apuzzo,
2015).
C. Police departments are not required to report the deaths caused by police
officers which means the data submitted is unreliable (Comey, 2015).
i. There were 2,103 unreported law enforcement homicides from the
years 2003-2009 and 2011 (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2015).
ii. According to FBI databases, less than 3% of police departments
have voluntarily turned over data about fatal police shootings in
the past (FBI, 2011).
Transition: While police brutality affects various communities across the country, there
are still ways it can help be prevented.
III.

If police brutality were just a matter of a few bad apples, it would be a lot easier
to solve. But it isnt. Protecting bad cops is built into the fabric of police culture,
and is a structural issue that has to be corrected with structural solutions. (Starr,
2015).
A. During police brutality trials there should be a mandatory jury instruction.
i. California (People v. Vuyacich, 1922) and New York (Muldoon,
2014) have statutes regarding the testimony of a uniformed officer.
ii. These states both are attempting to eliminate any bias the jurors
may have in regards to police testimonies.
B. Police officers should wear body cameras where police interactions can
be sent to local headquarters and stored incase it is needed as evidence.
i. When wearing body cameras officers are more likely to be aware
of their actions, and think twice.

ii. With a recording as evidence, not only will it hold officers

accountable if they lie about interactions, but also can prove there
was no use of excessive force.
1. A study in Orlando showed that civilian complaints against
officers declined greatly when the officers were wearing
body cameras, as well as less civilian and officer injuries
(Jennings, Lynch, and Fridell, 2015).
iii. The recordings of police interactions can also be used as training
tools as real life examples of how to act, or how not to act.
C. There needs to be more specific guidance for law enforcement on when
deadly force is an issue or not.
i. The factors determining if excessive force is reasonable are the
nature of the crime, the safety of both the officer and defendant,
and whether the defendant was resisting arrest (People v.
Atkinson, 2013).
ii. Other factors used in the Supreme Court are if there was a need
for the application of force, what the relationship was between that
need and the amount of force used, the extent of the injury, and
whether the force was applied to maintain safety or done for the
purpose of causing harm (Johnson vs. Glick, 1973).
iii. If there were less vague rules, more officers would be disciplined
for their acts of police brutality.
Transition: Even though police brutality can result in tragedy, lives lost, and anger on
both sides, there are still ways we can work together to create a safe environment for
everyone.
IV.

V.

Conclusion
If everyone is entitled to equal justice under the law, then we should not tolerate
a criminal justice system that values the lives of police officers more than the
lives of suspects (Gross, 2016).
A. It is important to be able to identify police brutality when it happens
whether in the news or in your own neighborhood.
B. Police brutality creates a society full of mistrust, which will make legal
enforcements difficult as well as compromising community safety.
C. When police departments and court systems make changes to overcome
police brutality, as a nation we can overcome the tension building
between law enforcement and the civilians.
You can truly grieve for every officer whos been lost in the line of duty in this
country, and still be troubled by cases of police overreach; those two ideas are
not mutually exclusive. You can have great regard for law enforcement and still
want them to be held to high standards (Stewart).

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