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Legal Issues

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Hand-On-Your-Shoulder Guide Thru The Post-OIS Legal Swamp

Coming through a life-or-death encounter alive may be only the first challenge in claiming victory in a shooting or other major use of force. After the firing stops, a criminal investigation, an IA review, media scrutiny, and likely civil lawsuits can create punishing secondary assaults for surviving officers if not negotiated properly. It’s this potentially...
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Notable Court Cases: OIS Breath Testing & Alleged Excessive Force

Two recently published, force-related court decisions of interest, brought to our attention by Americans for Effective Law Enforcement, the nonprofit organization that monitors judicial actions affecting police and conducts training seminars on legal issues: Case 1: Is an agency legally justified in requiring breath testing after an OIS? Three unions representing NYPD personnel sued in...
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AELE: Beware The Legal Risks of Spreading Gory Scene Photos

You wouldn’t do it, but let’s say an officer of your acquaintance uses his personal cellphone camera to record the gore of a fatal traffic smashup and emails the bloody photos to some buddies and from there they eventually get posted forever on the internet. Any legal problems with that? It’s a good question, given...
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What’s Next After A Shooting? Force Science-Based Trio Share Their Recommendations

After an OIS: What 12 questions should an officer answer at the scene? Besides wound treatment, what critical benefits does he or she gain from prompt transport to a medical facility? What does an agency gain by encouraging an officer to have independent legal counsel before a detailed statement is taken? What question do cops...
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Deep Flaws In Canada’s “Braidwood Inquiry” Give Tasers A Bum Rap, Says FSRC

Certain key recommendations from an eminent jurist that call for stricter limitations on Taser use are based on “outdated and inaccurate medical information,” according to the Force Science Research Center. Incorporated into departmental policies and practices, these proposals are likely to needlessly increase severe injuries and deaths to subjects and officers alike, recognized use-of-force authorities...
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New Study: We’re Getting Better Prepared To Win On The Street And In Court (Part 1)

Part 1 of a 2-part series A high percentage of officers leave law enforcement after they’re involved in a shooting. Suspects who try to kill officers are usually drunk, drugged, or deranged. When multiple cops are in an armed confrontation, they’ll likely experience “contagion fire” and blast off a wild fusillade of rounds. In matters...
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Why Cops Aren’t Always Wrong in “Suspicious” Shootings

A strong message about deadly force encounters that critics of the police, as well as investigators and prosecutors, need to hear is sent in a feature article that appeared this summer [’06] in “The Scene,” the journal of the Assn. for Crime Scene Reconstruction. The article, authored by Drs. Jeffrey Bumgarner, Bill Lewinski, and Bill...
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New Law Shifts Burden of Proving Justification in Officer-Involved Shootings

What is described as a “huge” legislative shift in favor of POs has taken place in Arizona, where the rules about justifying the use of deadly force have been significantly changed. This spring [’06], the governor signed into law Senate Bill 1145 which, in effect, removes the burden of proving justification in an OIS shooting...
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Three Battles: Top Challenges for Deadly Force Trainers

What does it take to train today’s officers to face deadly force successfully? A panel of nearly a dozen experts spent almost 4 hours voicing opinions on that topic at the recent annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators & Trainers Assn. (ILEETA). But the bottom line was neatly capsulized in a matter of...
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How To Assure “Fair, Neutral & Fact-Finding” Officer-Involved Shooting Investigations (Part 2)

Part 2 of a 2-part series A foremost authority on police psychology, Dr. Alexis Artwohl, has designed a protocol checklist that can help assure that an investigation of an officer-involved shooting is fair, neutral and fact-finding in nature. Part 1 of this series [Force Science News Transmission, sent 4/1/06] explored the first dozen of her...
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