Civil Liability Between 1980 and 2005, federal court decisions involving lawsuits against the police nearly tripled More than 30,000 civil actions annually From 1990 to 1999 Los Angeles paid in excess of $67.8 million in judgments and settlements in 80 lawsuits

Liability Contd’ Cost of an average jury award of liability against a municipality is about $2 million Proponents of civil liabilities argue that lawsuits keep the police accountable, give meaning to citizens’ rights, foster better police training, and force police agencies to correct deficiencies

Categories of Torts 1.Negligence Officer’s conduct creates a danger to others Degrees of negligence –Simple »Involves a reasonable act performed by a reasonable officer in the scope of employment but performed without due care –Gross »An unreasonable act –Willful or criminal »Involves an intentional act rather than negligence

2.Intentional torts Occur when an officer engages in a voluntary act that had a substantial likelihood of resulting in injury to another Assault and battery, false arrest and imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and abuse of process

3.Constitutional torts –Involve officers’ duty to recognize and uphold constitutional rights

Common Torts Against Police –False arrest, false imprisonment, police misconduct –False arrest is the arrest of a person without probable cause –False imprisonment is the intentional illegal detention of a person

Section 1983 U. S. Code Title 42, Section 1983 Originally enacted as Ku Klux Klan Act of 1871 Monroe v. Pape (1961) Surge in Section 1983 suits from 1967 through Some attorneys believe their clients receive more competent judges and juries in federal court than in state court

2.Federal prosecutors may be more aggressive in arguing to jurors from multicounty area 3.Federal rules of pleading and evidence are uniform, procedures of discovery are more liberal States are granted absolute immunity Judges, prosecutors, legislators, and federal officials have absolute immunity

Police officers are granted qualified immunity –As long as they acted in good faith and their conduct was reasonable 1991 – Rodney King $3.8 million 1995 – Ruby Ridge, Idaho Almost $4 million 1995 – Ramona Africa $1.5 million Amadou Diallo $3 million Abner Louima $8.8 million All used U. S. Code Title 42, Section 1983

Criminal Prosecution Title 18, Section 242 of the U. S. Code –Criminal offense for any person acting willfully “under color of law” to deprive any person of the rights and privileges guaranteed under the Constitution and laws of the United States –Applies not only to police but other public officials

Terrorism Four major aspects involved in dealing with terrorist organizations 1.Gathering raw intelligence on the organization’s structure, its members, and its plans 2.Determining what measures can be taken to counter or thwart terrorist activities 3.Assessing how the damage caused by terrorists can be minimized through rapid response and containment 4.Apprehending and convicting individual terrorists and dismantling their organization

Military support of law enforcement National Incident Management System –Provide a consistent nationwide approach for governments to work together Multiagency Coordination Systems –Combination of facilities, equipment, personnel, procedures, and communications –May contain emergency response centers (EOCs) –Incident command post (ICP)

Street Gangs U. S. Justice Department estimates: –There are more that 16,000 gangs and over 500,000 gang members –47.8% are African-American –42.7% are Hispanic –5.2% Asians

Research indicates: –The most typical age range has been approximately 14 to 24 –Some as young as 10 years of age –Several generations in the same family who are gang members Some gangs share with the terrorists the inclination toward the use of violence to achieve political and economic ends There might be physical links between street gangs Gang members and terrorists might be drawn from similar ranks of disaffected youth