Understanding the role of commands in law and policing research

As part of the Institute of Criminology's Lent Term Public Seminar Series, Rachel Harmon spoke on 5th March 2026 on 'Understanding the role of commands in law and policing research'. 

In the United States and elsewhere, the law requires that coercive policing be conducted mostly by commands.  Most stops and arrests must be conducted by command, and most uses of force are forbidden unless commands are first issued and ignored.  Lawful commands also generate the legal duties that distinguish resistance to the police from lawful refusal.  Yet, the ways social scientists study police commands exist in tension with their role in law.  First, researchers often view commands as informal exercises of authority. Under the law, commands communicate formal legal duties.  Second, researchers studying police uses of force view commands as “verbal force,” on a continuum of force alternatives that runs from a strong tone of voice to a bullet. But at common law and today, commands are not on a spectrum with force; they are a necessary precursor to it.  And third, researchers studying police legitimacy treat obedience to commands together with cooperation with requests in assessing public compliance with the police. Under the law, keeping obedience and cooperation distinct is necessary to identify and respect legal rights.  Recent widespread use of body cameras along with new tools for analysing footage offer researchers new opportunities for studying police communication tactics and the role of commands in police encounters. Recognizing the legal status of commands will help suggest new approaches for research on commands that fully reflect their role in policing. 

Rachel Harmon is the Harrison Robertson Professor of Law and directs the Center for Criminal Justice at the University of Virginia. She is author of “The Law of the Police” (2nd ed. 2024), and in 2023-2024, served as a senior policy adviser at the White House. Previously, Harmon spent eight years as a civil rights prosecutor in the U.S. Department of Justice. She is a graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology; she received two master’s degrees with distinction from the London School of Economics as a British Marshall Scholar; and she earned her law degree from Yale Law School. 

Catch up with the recording of the lecture here.