Case Law Nearly every aspect of law enforcement has a court decision that governs criteria. Most court rulings are the result of civil lawsuit towards a police officer and agency. However, currently, there is no law that mandates law enforcement driver training. When it comes to firearms, negligence by officers has resulted in a multitude of court rulings. Popow v. City of Margate, 1979, is a particularly interesting case that outlines failed firearms training by an agency. In this case, an officer chasing a suspect during a foot pursuit fired at the suspect, striking and killing an innocent bystander (Justia.com, 2017). The court ruled that the agency was “grossly negligent” of “failure to train” (Justia.com, 2017). As a result, nearly every agency requires annual firearms training and has written policy concerning the same. Officers must show proficiency in firearms use every year to maintain their certification. Many states even impose fines on officers for …show more content…
Lewis and Graves v. Thomas are two court rulings related to police pursuits. In both cases, the court ruled that a police officer in pursuit of a fleeing motorist does not intentionally choose to cause harm to a suspect, and resulting injury or death of the suspect is not due to the negligence of the officer and the officer and agency is therefore not liable (Farber, 2007). However, through the multitude of incidents involving police officers in traffic accidents, there is no case law placing liability on a police officer or agency, unless the officer was in violation of departmental policy or grossly negligent, as shown in Haynes v. Hamilton County (Justia.com, 2017). In this case, a sheriff’s deputy pursued a vehicle reaching speeds exceeding 100 miles per hour in dense traffic. The pursuit ended when the suspect vehicle collided with a civilian vehicle, killing three teenagers. The court ruled the failure of the officer to terminate for safety reasons was thereby
The Tennessee v. Garner case impacted law enforcement agencies today by utilizing the Fourth Amendment right of not using deadly force to prevent a suspect from fleeing unless the officer is in imminent danger of their life. Consequently, before this was set into place, an officer had the right to use deadly force on a fleeing suspect by all means.” The first time the Court dealt with the use of force was in Tennessee v. Garner, in Garner, a police officer used deadly force despite being "reasonably sure" that the suspect was an unarmed teenager "of slight build" who was running away from him” (Gross,2016). Whereas, with Graham v. Conner case was surrounded around excessive force which also has an impact on law enforcement agencies in today’s society as well. “All claims that law enforcement officers have used excessive force deadly or not in the course of an arrest, investigatory stop, or other “seizure” of s free citizen should be analyzed under the Fourth Amendment and its “reasonableness” standard” (Doerner,2016).
According to the newspaper the Chicago Tribune there has been 876 homicides since the beginning of January 2014. Making shootings like the one of Laquan McDonald seem irrelevant. The only reason I was able to become aware of this shooting was because the procedures and policies that were being implemented by the police department and city of Chicago were not right. This led a reporter named Brandon Smith who wanted to know the reason why a teen with a knife was gunned down with 16 shots by a police officer who was not alone in this fight. The reporter sued the police department demanding them to release the video of the police cruiser that caught the whole incident on tape. In the video, it shows Laquan walking in the middle of the road, when several police cruisers pull in front of him. As soon as Laquan notices the police officers getting off, he starts moving away from the police cruisers. This is when police officer Van Dyke unloads his weapon and hitting Laquan with 16 shots leaving him for dead on the road. According to the Rules of Conduct by the Chicago PD, found online at the website chiacagopolice.org, it states under Rule 11 “Incompetency or inefficiency in the performance of duty”. This is a rule that should well known to every officer not only in Chicago and it was not followed by officer Van Dyke because the video clearly shows him
A true definition of a police pursuit “occurs when a police officer attempts to stop a vehicle and the driver of the car refuses to obey the officer” (Solgen, 1). At this point, the policeman pursues for the purpose of stopping the vehicle or being able to identify the car. The police officer should most likely be in a patrol car, so that the driver is aware that it is an officer. In a pursuit, the speed may vary. ‘High speeds are potentially more dangerous, but even low or moderate speeds can create substantial risks in congested areas”(Nugent, 1).
When horrific crimes occur in large cities, many of them can be chalked up to gang violence or to the larger population of that specific city. But when horrific crimes happen in small cities like Lincoln, Nebraska, people begin to ask questions like who did this and why. In 1958, a nineteen year old man named Charles Starkweather put the entire state of Nebraska and possibly the entire nation in a state of terror. With his murder spree taking only three days, Starkweather had collected a body count of ten bodies, including two teenagers and a young child. Understanding Starkweather’s past and state of mind begins to answer the second question of why.
Officers are known as public servants, they are held at higher standards than everyday citizens. According to Wyatt-Nichol & Franks(2009) when officers behave unethically, it is a violation of public trust and damages the image of law enforcement everywhere (p. 40). Officer should receive in-death training of cases that make headlines within the newspapers or media. For example, the Freddie Gray or Eric Garner case could be used in scenarios with the steps taken to avoid any ethical dilemmas they could possibly run into. Updated training should be conducted every 6 months for ethics alone in addition to the yearly training that’s already in place. The civilian review board can recommend more training of officers that engage in unethical behavior or misconduct. Intense training, followed through with morals is important factors to avoiding the civilian review board and their process in reviewing investigations against officers. When all training officers receive has been overlooked and failed to comply. Police officers should be held accountable for their actions, through training officers learn to understand their position and need within the community. Although training is offered yearly and on an as need basics, officers are held to a high standard within their community. Some tend to lose sight of their mission of daily duties which are to maintain order and
In this essay, I will be examining how the court system can fail to deliver justice for particular cases and people’s circumstances, as well as looking at alternatives to court, like circle sentencing, restorative sentencing and alternatives for children to the formal court system, as outlined in the Young Offenders Act 1997 (NSW). Crime is defined in the Oxford Dictionary as an action or omission which constitutes an offence and is punishable by law. On the other side of this is justice; the quality of being fair and reasonable.
Over the years, this country has witnessed many cases of police brutality. It has become a controversial topic among communities that have seen police brutality take place in front of their homes. Officers are faced with many threatening situations everyday forcing them to make split second decisions and to expect the worst and hope for the best. Police officers are given the power to take any citizens rights away and even their lives. With that kind of power comes responsibility, that’s one major concern with the amount of discretion officers have is when to use force or when to use lethal force. The use of excessive force may or not be a large predicament but should be viewed by both the police and the community.
The articles, the right to effective education and the right to effective behavioral treatment, are two articles that educators, behavior analyst, and other professionals who are responsible for the education of children with disabilities should be familiar with. These articles can be used as a guideline to make sure learners rights are being met, and if relevant, are acting in accordance with BACB guidelines. The purpose of this assignment is to analyze the aforementioned articles, and draw connections to a present learner and their educational experience.
In the mandatory training for police officers, there should be different mock scenarios where police officers take action as if it was a real crime and get assessed and evaluated on their behavior. Although it is difficult, police officers need to be trained to shoot to wound the arms or legs instead of shooting directly in the chest.
For example, according to Dara lind “Officer’s aren’t supposed to shoot to kill. They’re supposed to do whatever is necessary to disable the threat”(Lind). Whenever an officer gets caught up in a difficult situation where deadly force is needed for the most part officers do shoot to kill because they feel like there life is in danger themselves. Yes like they said they are supposed to do whatever is necessary so therefore if shooting to kill someone is necessary to them then for police officers it is the right thing to do. But in reality in some occasions deadly force by a cop resulting in someone’s death is not needed and there should be other alternatives to handle difficult problems like that. In addition, “Usually, the point from where the officer believes he has to use deadly force to the point where he uses deadly force -- where he pulls
Another argument is that police kill 330 innocent people every year. These are skilled and trained individuals with handguns. So you can imagine the assumptions made for citizens who have no adequate training. It is your responsibility to get this training. Here are some courses that are offered to help you have adequate training. You can take a hunters safety course. The NRA offers safety and training courses. Some junior colleges offer handgun training. You can also learn about it in the military. Most states will not allow licensing of a handgun without one of the courses.
The first requirement is learning the customs and courtesies of different ethnic groups. For example, in a Hispanic household you always talk to the man of the house, never presenting your position to the kid or mother. This would prevent police officers from unknowingly offending a family. The second requirement would be improving on immediate action drills in environments with innocent bystanders. The immediate action drills will teach police officers how to deal with criminals who open fire on them unexpectedly. They will be taught the significance of cover and concealment, properly using escalation of force, and identifying the target before returning accurate fire. The Police Force is in dark times. People are looking to spill the blood of police because of the unjustified police shoots. These immediate action drills will help them be prepared for active shooters. The third requirement is teaching police officers how to be an effective Quick Reaction Force (QRF). This will be for the police officers conducting mobile patrols in the area. If foot patrols take contact it is up for QRF to get to the site, cordon off the area, and assist with the active shooter or help any casualty. Once these training requirements are met we can then implement community
There is also another side to police pursuits with its own troubling statistics. We know that when a pursuit begins it usually ends up causing accidents, injuries, and can some times even be fatal. Critics claim that most of these pursuits are unjustified. Some people say that the suspects flee because they don’t have insurance or their license is revoked. They also say most of them are young and act on impulse and make a bad decision to run. Sometimes it ends up killing innocent people that are in the wrong place at the wrong time.
The lack of training police officers is causing unnecessary incidents, is it true? Does the lack of Critical thinking, values, Ethics and Understanding the role as a police officer contribute to hire number of incidents? There is a chance that answer to this questions might always be divided, why? Well because officers will tend to defend their side and how the view the problem and the public will also defend their side and how they view the problem, for example most officers would probably say that people do not comply with their orders or the public might outcry because of the use of excessive force, it is most certain that there will never be an agreement on who is wright or wrong. Regardless of the outcome of who is wright
The rule of law, simply put, is a principle that no one is above the law. This means that there should be no leniency for a person because of peerage, sex, religion or financial standing. England and Wales do not have a written constitution therefore the Rule of Law, which along with the parliamentary Sovereignty was regarded by legal analyst A.C Dicey, as the pillars of the UK Constitution. The Rule of Law was said to be adopted as the “unwritten constitution of Great Britain”.