An extension to the conventional single rate microflow policer that provides dual rate policing with a minimum of extra resource utilization. Using the extended microflow policer, an aggressive TCP flow ramps up to exceed the policer rate, setting a burst drop flag. Once the flow rate exceeds the burst rate, a single packet is dropped and the burst drop flag is cleared. On seeing the single packet drop, the TCP sender is then expected to reduce its rate. Flows that do not back off will eventually exceed a higher, hard drop threshold and experience packet drop. An aggressive TCP rate thus oscillate around the burst rate, efficiently approaching the hard drop rate without exceeding it. The addition of only a single bit flag avoids the cost of a dual-rate policer and the tail drop behavior induced by a single rate policer.