Power to use force and firearms of law enforcement officers in criminal law

Modern states have to ensure public order in order for the individuals who make up their society to live together. The state ensures public order through law enforcement forces. Law enforcement is an organisation composed of officers and officials who express their duties within the framework of the powers granted to them in order to prevent the commission of crime in order to ensure public order, as well as to illuminate the crime after the crime has been committed and to catch the criminal. The most important and effective authority of the law enforcement in ensuring the security and peace of society is the authority to use force and firearms. The authority to use force and firearms has been subjected to very strict conditions in many national and international regulations since it is the broadest and most effective authority granted to the law enforcement to ensure public order and to limit the right to life and bodily integrity of individuals intervened with the authority to use force and firearms. In this way, it is aimed to prevent arbitrary use of the authority by determining the field of application of the authority. In this context, the authority to use force and weapons is regulated in detail in Article 16 of the Law on Police Duties and Entitlements (PVSK). Not only the LPDE (PVSK), but also many other laws related to law enforcement include regulations on the authority to use force and firearms. In German law, the authorisation to use force and firearms is referred to as direct coercion (unmittelbaren Zwang) and this authorisation is also regulated by the Law on the Direct Coercion by Federal Law Enforcement Officials in the Exercise of Public Force (UZwG). In addition, direct coercion is regulated in the police laws of the states in a similar manner to the LDC (UZwG). In our study, the legal nature of the authorisation to use force and firearms is revealed by taking into account the jurisprudence of the ECHR, Turkish and German criminal law doctrine and jurisprudence, controversial and problematic situations related to the authorisation are identified and various solutions are presented.