| Online: | |
| Visits: | |
| Stories: |
| Story Views | |
| Now: | |
| Last Hour: | |
| Last 24 Hours: | |
| Total: | |
Unleashing “Market Forces” to Curtail Police Excesses
The following article was submitted to CopBlock.org using our Submit page by Ed.
I am a former police chief, former defense attorney, former police legal advisor, former academy instructor, former criminal magistrate, and former criminal justice instructor (university level). Currently, I am a retired has-been.
Lately, I have been assisting a plaintiff’s attorney in regard to a false arrest case. In the process, I have become more aware than ever before of the degree to which our courts have created (i.e. “found” in history or between the lines, but not in the explicit text of a code section or state constitution) immunities that protect police officers and the agencies that employ them, not only from being held liable for negligence, gross negligence, or any but the most blatant incompetence, but also prevent them from even being sued- meaning that, based on the pleadings and, perhaps, a hearing, a judge can dismiss the case long before a jury would get to hear it, and sometimes even before the plaintiff has had an opportunity to depose witnesses, etc.
As most of us have seen, laws and regulations often have little effect (I cite all the cases when TSA personnel or police officers threaten people who try to video their misconduct, and then rest my case). As inefficient and cumbersome as it is, suits and the threat of suits often works. Tell an officer that if he searches without a warrant, the evidence will be excluded and the case will be dismissed, and he or she may well respond (or at least think), “Why should I care? I get paid the same, either way, and, when it comes time for promotions, my department will count arrests, not dismissals, acquittals, or convictions.”
So, how about those of us who give a damn about such things resisting distractions such as types of uniforms, types of guns (any can kill you, after all), and body cams (“Damn, mine must have stopped working just a few minutes before he tried to grab my sidearm!”), and instead push for changes in the law that will allow people whose rights have been violated (or their heirs!) to pursue civil actions against the wrong doers and the cities and counties who chose to screen out candidates with above average I.Q.s, and who provide training on the basis of cost and pass rates, rather than on imparting and/or testing knowledge and skills.
As a famous (in lawyer circles) Torts professor and author used to say, “Make them PAY!”
Unleashing “Market Forces” to Curtail Police Excesses is a post from Cop Block – Badges Don't Grant Extra Rights
Source: http://www.copblock.org/144395/unleashing-market-forces-to-curtail-police/
