Generic Solvency Advocate Congress should roll back qualified immunity to increase accountability and change police behavior Wright 15 Sam Wright, public to Fight Police Misconduct? Reform Qualified interest lawyer, “Want [Premier] Immunity” 11-3-15, police officers Instead, have recourse to the broad protections of the judicially established doctrine of qualified immunity. Under this are protected from suit even if violated the law by, say, using excessive they’ve doctrine, state actors force, or performing an unwarranted body cavity search as long as their violation was — not one of established law of which a reasonable officer would be In other “clearly aware.” words, if not already a case where a court has held that an or there’s officer’s identical near-identical conduct rose to the level of a constitutional violation, a good chance there’s that even an obviously malfeasant officer will avoid liability To bring will avoid accountability. — about true accountability and change police behavior, this needs to change. change And should begin with an act of Congress rolling back qualified immunity. Removing the element of qualified immunity would be a good start after all, “clearly established” — it be enough to deviate from a basic standard of care, to engage in conduct that a shouldn’t reasonable officer would know is illegal, without having to show that that conduct’s illegality has already been clearly established in the courts?
Generic Solvency Advocate Congress should roll back qualified immunity to increase accountability and change police behavior Wright 15 Sam Wright, public interest lawyer, “Want to Fight Police Misconduct? Reform Qualified Immunity” 11-3-15, [Premier] Instead, police officers have recourse to the broad protections of the judicially established doctrine of qualified immunity. Under this doctrine, state actors are protected from suit even if they’ve violated the law by, say, using excessive force, or performing an unwarranted body cavity search — as long as their violation was not one of “clearly established law of which a reasonable officer would be aware.” In other words, if there’s not already a case where a court has held that an officer’s identical or near-identical conduct rose to the level of a constitutional violation, there’s a good chance that even an obviously malfeasant officer will avoid liability — will avoid accountability. To bring about true accountability and change police behavior, this needs to change. And change should begin with an act of Congress rolling back qualified immunity. Removing the “clearly established” element of qualified immunity would be a good start — after all, shouldn’t it be enough to deviate from a basic standard of care, to engage in conduct that a reasonable officer would know is illegal, without having to show that that conduct’s illegality has already been clearly established in the courts?
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