2010 Pennsylvania Code
Title 18 - CRIMES AND OFFENSES
Chapter 5 - General Principles of Justification
508 - Use of force in law enforcement.

     § 508.  Use of force in law enforcement.
        (a)  Peace officer's use of force in making arrest.--
            (1)  A peace officer, or any person whom he has summoned
        or directed to assist him, need not retreat or desist from
        efforts to make a lawful arrest because of resistance or
        threatened resistance to the arrest. He is justified in the
        use of any force which he believes to be necessary to effect
        the arrest and of any force which he believes to be necessary
        to defend himself or another from bodily harm while making
        the arrest. However, he is justified in using deadly force
        only when he believes that such force is necessary to prevent
        death or serious bodily injury to himself or such other
        person, or when he believes both that:
                (i)  such force is necessary to prevent the arrest
            from being defeated by resistance or escape; and
                (ii)  the person to be arrested has committed or
            attempted a forcible felony or is attempting to escape
            and possesses a deadly weapon, or otherwise indicates
            that he will endanger human life or inflict serious
            bodily injury unless arrested without delay.
            (2)  A peace officer making an arrest pursuant to an
        invalid warrant is justified in the use of any force which he
        would be justified in using if the warrant were valid, unless
        he knows that the warrant is invalid.
        (b)  Private person's use of force in making arrest.--
            (1)  A private person who makes, or assists another
        private person in making a lawful arrest is justified in the
        use of any force which he would be justified in using if he
        were summoned or directed by a peace officer to make such
        arrest, except that he is justified in the use of deadly
        force only when he believes that such force is necessary to
        prevent death or serious bodily injury to himself or another.
            (2)  A private person who is summoned or directed by a
        peace officer to assist in making an arrest which is
        unlawful, is justified in the use of any force which he would
        be justified in using if the arrest were lawful, unless he
        knows that the arrest is unlawful.
            (3)  A private person who assists another private person
        in effecting an unlawful arrest, or who, not being summoned,
        assists a peace officer in effecting an unlawful arrest, is
        justified in using any force which he would be justified in
        using if the arrest were lawful, if:
                (i)  he believes the arrest is lawful; and
                (ii)  the arrest would be lawful if the facts were as
            he believes them to be.
        (c)  Use of force regarding escape.--
            (1)  A peace officer, corrections officer or other person
        who has an arrested or convicted person in his custody is
        justified in the use of such force to prevent the escape of
        the person from custody as the officer or other person would
        be justified in using under subsection (a) if the officer or
        other person were arresting the person.
            (2)  A peace officer or corrections officer is justified
        in the use of such force, including deadly force, which the
        officer believes to be necessary to prevent the escape from a
        correctional institution of a person whom the officer
        believes to be lawfully detained in such institution under
        sentence for an offense or awaiting trial or commitment for
        an offense.
            (3)  A corrections officer is justified in the use of
        such force, which the officer believes to be necessary to
        defend himself or another from bodily harm during the pursuit
        of the escaped person. However, the officer is justified in
        using deadly force only when the officer believes that such
        force is necessary to prevent death or serious bodily injury
        to himself or another or when the officer believes that:
                (i)  such force is necessary to prevent the
            apprehension from being defeated by resistance; and
                (ii)  the escaped person has been convicted of
            committing or attempting to commit a forcible felony,
            possesses a deadly weapon or otherwise indicates that he
            will endanger human life or inflict serious bodily injury
            unless apprehended without delay.
        (d)  Use of force to prevent suicide or the commission of
     crime.--
            (1)  The use of force upon or toward the person of
        another is justifiable when the actor believes that such
        force is immediately necessary to prevent such other person
        from committing suicide, inflicting serious bodily injury
        upon himself, committing or consummating the commission of a
        crime involving or threatening bodily injury, damage to or
        loss of property or a breach of the peace, except that:
                (i)  Any limitations imposed by the other provisions
            of this chapter on the justifiable use of force in self-
            protection, for the protection of others, the protection
            of property, the effectuation of an arrest or the
            prevention of an escape from custody shall apply
            notwithstanding the criminality of the conduct against
            which such force is used.
                (ii)  The use of deadly force is not in any event
            justifiable under this subsection unless:
                    (A)  the actor believes that there is a
                substantial risk that the person whom he seeks to
                prevent from committing a crime will cause death or
                serious bodily injury to another unless the
                commission or the consummation of the crime is
                prevented and that the use of such force presents no
                substantial risk of injury to innocent persons; or
                    (B)  the actor believes that the use of such
                force is necessary to suppress a riot or mutiny after
                the rioters or mutineers have been ordered to
                disperse and warned, in any particular manner that
                the law may require, that such force will be used if
                they do not obey.
            (2)  The justification afforded by this subsection
        extends to the use of confinement as preventive force only if
        the actor takes all reasonable measures to terminate the
        confinement as soon as he knows that he safely can, unless
        the person confined has been arrested on a charge of crime.
     (July 17, 2007, P.L.139, No.41, eff. 60 days)

        2007 Amendment.  Act 41 amended subsec. (c).