NCJ Number
131719
Journal
Police Chief Volume: 58 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1991) Pages: 53-54,56-59
Date Published
1991
Length
6 pages
Annotation
Because suicide is a major cause of detention deaths, legal responsibilities associated with detainee custody should be of concern to the law enforcement community.
Abstract
State actions against police officers involving detainee suicide take the form of wrongful death or negligence claims based on State tort law. Negligence tort is different from other tort actions in that it requires a lesser degree of foreseeability of danger. In negligence tort, the mental state of the police officer is not an issue because even inadvertent behavior resulting in a suicide can lead to liability. The standard usually applied in negligence tort is whether the police officer's act or failure to act created an unreasonable risk to a detainee. Proving negligence, however, is more difficult than showing inadvertent behavior and injury. Four elements must be established in a negligence lawsuit: legal duty, breach of duty, proximate cause of injury, and actual injury. Many factors indicate possible breach of police duty, including failure to provide safe facilities for detainees, negligent supervision, failure to remove suicide-facilitating materials, failure to provide medical care after a suicide attempt, and failure to follow agency rules. Cited cases involving detainee suicide indicate that detention and the foreseeability of suicide elevate the police duty of care to a special duty. Standards applicable to detainee suicides have been promulgated by the National Commission of Correctional Health Standards, the American Correctional Association, and the Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. Further, statutes in some States require law enforcement agents to provide constant supervision of detainees who exhibit emotional or physical conditions that could result in harm to themselves or others.