fbpx
Legal Implications

Tag

Suicidal Subject is Slashing Himself with Knife: Time to Shoot?

Earlier this fall in Force Science News #374, we reported on the legal subtleties of responding to suicidal-subject calls and quoted Advanced Force Science Specialist Mike Ranalli as cautioning against taking impulsive aggressive action toward a subject “who isn’t committing a serious crime and isn’t an active threat to anyone other than himself.” Now comes a case...
Read More

LAWYER PANEL: What Changing The Use Of Force Standard Would Mean To Cops

The persistent urge by police critics to tighten restrictions on the use of force surfaced again this month after a controversial shooting in Sacramento, California. A state legislator told a press conference that she will introduce a bill to change the legal standard for law enforcement in California from using “objectively reasonable force” to “necessary...
Read More

Veteran Attorney Cites “10 Ways to Lose Police Lawsuits”

“I wish every cop could get sued in federal court before you hit the street, because you would change the way you do things.” That’s police attorney Bruce Praet speaking, a former LEO, a defender of officers and agencies in legal actions for more than three decades, and co-founder of Lexipol, the prominent policy advisory...
Read More

“Bullet-Proofing” Your Statements: 6 Keys To Interrogation Preparedness

As a former head of Internal Affairs sections for a major US police department and now an FOP-approved officers’ defense attorney, George Bush II speaks with considerable authority when he says, “Most officers do not have a clue about the scope of their rights when they themselves are the target of an investigation.” That subject...
Read More

10 Limitations Of Body Cams You Need To Know For Your Protection

The idea is building that once every cop is equipped with a body camera, the controversy will be taken out of police shootings and other uses of force because “what really happened” will be captured on video for all to see. Well, to borrow the title from an old Gershwin tune, “It Ain’t Necessarily So.”...
Read More

Does Tasing Cause “Mental Impairment” With Legal Ramifications?

When a suspect tried to rabbit on foot from a drug interdiction stop in Louisiana and then refused to follow commands after officers caught him, he was zapped with a TASER three times before being successfully handcuffed–once via a probe to the arm and twice in drive-stun mode to the leg, for a total of...
Read More

Does Just Threatening To Use A Taser Constitute Force?

A new force-related issue is beginning to surface in state and federal court proceedings: Whether merely threatening to use an electronic control weapon (ECW)–including pointing it, sparking it, and aiming its laser beam–constitutes a use of force under the law. “The caselaw on the subject is still relatively limited, but the question of when and...
Read More

New Study Measures Impact Of Body Cams On Complaints, Force Use

Fewer citizen complaints, fewer uses of force. According to a yearlong field study by a police department in southern California, those are the dual benefits of having patrol officers wear body cameras that record their public interactions. Indeed, the experiment has yielded such an “amazing” outcome that Chief William Farrar of the Rialto PD told...
Read More

Special Protocol For EXDs Response Is Valuable Liability Shield

With the symptoms and dangers of excited delirium now well-publicized and solidly confirmed by numerous research studies, agencies that fail to have a response protocol in place are inviting needless liability problems, according to a day-long presentation recently at a training seminar sponsored by the Illinois Tactical Officers Assn. “Usually administrators start to take notice...
Read More

AELE Analysis: When Force Against The Mentally Disturbed Is Justified

The scenario is one that’s often in the headlines and ultimately in the courts: A distraught and frightened family calls for help in controlling a mentally disturbed or suicidal relative. When cops respond, the confrontation escalates and the subject ends up injured or dead from police use of force. The family claims the force was...
Read More
1 2 3