What is the test for determining whether a police officer has reasonable authority to use force against a plaintiff?

In People v. McBean, 123 A.D.2d 401, 506 N.Y.S.2d 466 (2d Dept.1986) the court stated "in assessing these confrontations, it is absolutely essential that courts reach determinations based not upon some abstract or illusory notion of what police-citizen encounters ought to belike in an idea world but upon an objective evaluation of the realities of the encounter as it occurred." (See Elkins v. Unites States, 364 U.S. 206, 222, 80 S.Ct. 1437, 1446, 4 L.Ed.2d 1669; People v. Rivera, 14 N.Y.2d 441, 446, 252 N.Y.S.2d 458, 201 N.E.2d 32; other citations omitted. 123 A.D.2d at pg. 402, 506 N.Y.S.2d at pg. 467).