“Police use physical force to the extent necessary to secure observance of the law or to restore order only when the exercise of persuasion, advice and warning is found to be insufficient.” So almost 200 years ago, Sir Robert Peel was giving us advice on the use of force and the escalation of force. Use force when Persuasion is insufficient, ask the person to comply, start with a low level and move to greater force only when needed.
Advice is given that tells the suspect what they should be doing in the specific circumstances.
Finally, before the use of force issue a warning to the suspect. You will be arrested or shot or sprayed with pepper spray if you don’t stop that. Just as we do today, we would rather use verbal commands than escalate to actual physical force. We have more force options than Sir Robert and his Coppers ever dreamed of using. The Taser, and pepper spray and other less lethal weapons are a major improvement over the truncheon. But the impact weapon is still an important part of our arsenal. Sometimes beating someone is the only reasonable way to gain compliance.
Sir Robert also talks about using only the physical force that is necessary to resort order, so even when force is used there are limits to it. We beat someone with the baton until they comply with our instructions, not simply until they are unconscious. We use force to accomplish a goal of capturing lawbreakers or restoring civil order from unrest, that’s what the SGT Says.