When Force Is Used
S.C. Code 16-11-450 and S.C. Code 16-9-320 — force at an arrest, and the officer exception
The sections this page reads on force at an arrest say, in short:
- Assaulting, beating or wounding an officer while resisting an arrest by someone known or reasonably known to be an officer is a felony carrying up to ten years.
- The immunity for justified deadly force does not cover force used against an officer performing official duties who identifies himself, or whom the person knows or reasonably should know to be an officer.
- A law enforcement agency may investigate a use of deadly force, but may not arrest for it without probable cause that the force was unlawful.
- A citizen may arrest at night, by efficient means as the darkness and the probability of escape make necessary, a person who has committed a felony, entered a dwelling without permission, broken into an outhouse to plunder, holds stolen property, or flees when hailed under circumstances raising just suspicion.
The state's own sections are not the only measure of police force. Under the Fourth Amendment, the Supreme Court of the United States has held that force used in an arrest, a stop or any other seizure is judged by objective reasonableness, from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene rather than with hindsight, and that deadly force may not be used to stop a fleeing suspect unless the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others. Those holdings are a floor: a state's own constitution and statutes can give more protection than they do, never less.
Departments' own policies on force vary and are not set out in the Code this page reads. Civil claims for force and complaints against an officer are not on it. Whether particular force was lawful is a question for a licensed South Carolina attorney.
Sources for this section (5)
- S.C. Code 16-11-450 — Immunity from criminal prosecution and civil actions
- S.C. Code 16-9-320 — Opposing or resisting law enforcement officer; assaulting officer
- S.C. Code 17-13-20 — Additional circumstances when citizens may arrest; means to be used
- Graham v. Connor, 490 U.S. 386 (1989) — Force during a seizure is judged by objective reasonableness from the officer's perspective at the time
- Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1 (1985) — Deadly force against a fleeing suspect is unreasonable absent probable cause of a significant threat of death or serious injury
Legal information, not legal advice. Verified as of October 2026. Applying it to a particular situation is the work of a licensed South Carolina attorney.