James Fyfe, 63; Specialist in Use of Force by Police Testified in LAPD Cases

James J. Fyfe, a nationally recognized expert on the use of force by police, died of cancer Nov. 12 in Princeton, N.J., said his wife, Candace S. McCoy. He was 63.

Fyfe also developed methods for armed plainclothes officers to identify themselves to avoid being accidentally shot by other officers. He had been the New York Police Department’s top training official since 2002.

“His extraordinary contributions in the field left its mark for the better on the NYPD and the many police departments which sought to emulate it,” New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.

Fyfe testified in several police brutality lawsuits filed against the Los Angeles Police Department and was sharply critical of the officers involved in the 1991 videotaped beating of Rodney G. King.

In 1993, Fyfe co-wrote a noted study of police tactics, “Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force.” The book’s cover features a frame from the video of the King incident.

As a member of the NYPD in the late 1970s, Fyfe devised a policy to help prevent accidental shootings. Recruits who spot people with guns whom they don’t know are trained to shout: “Police. Don’t move.” Plainclothes and off-duty officers are supposed to stop and identify themselves by shouting: “I’m on the job.”

Born in 1942 in New York City, Fyfe earned a bachelor’s degree from the John Jay College of Criminal Justice of the City University of New York. He also received a master’s and a doctorate from the State University of New York at Albany.

Fyfe joined the NYPD as a patrolman in 1963 and retired as a lieutenant after 16 years, later teaching at several universities, researching police practices and serving as an expert trial witness.

In 2002, he received the August Vollmer Award from the American Society of Criminology. It honors a scholar whose work has influenced criminal justice practice. That same year he returned to the NYPD as a deputy commissioner.

In addition to his wife, who is a criminal justice professor, Fyfe is survived by three daughters, his mother, two sisters and three grandchildren.