NCJ Number
144560
Date Published
1994
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This paper examines the nature of police criminal and civil liabilities and suggests ways for individual officers and agencies to avoid liability.
Abstract
The author first provides an overview of the array of laws that may be used against police officers for alleged misconduct in the course of their work. He then discusses the two types of cases often brought against police officers: State tort and Section 1983 actions. Supervisory liability is discussed, and police lawsuits against their detractors are addressed. The chapter concludes with suggestions on how legal liabilities might be minimized or avoided by police. A tort is defined as a wrong in which the action of one person causes injury to the person or property of another, in violation of a legal duty imposed by law. There are four requirements for liability under State tort: a duty by the officer or department to act with care toward the plaintiff, a breach of that duty, injury to the plaintiff as a result of that breach, and the defendant's act must have been the proximate cause of the injury. Occasions of police misconduct that may bring tort actions are false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, use of excessive force, and wrongful death. By far, the most widely used provision of law in the whole arsenal of legal liability statutes is 42 U.S. Code Section 1983. The four basic elements of a Section 1983 suit are that the defendant be a natural person or a local government, that the defendant be acting under "color of State law," that the violation be of a constitutional or a federally protected right, and that the violation must reach constitutional level. Police supervisors may be liable for negligence in the areas of failure to train, hiring, assignment, failure to supervise, failure to direct, entrustment, and retention. Some general advice for avoiding liability includes acting within the scope of duties, acting in a professional and responsible manner at all times, knowing and following departmental rules and regulations as well as State laws, keeping accurate written records, and tailoring policies, procedures, and actions to trends in criminal and civil liability cases that have involved police. 6 study questions