Every country or state has a set of rules and regulations that act as a guide for deciding what is right or wrong. Some actions, however, are a quagmire as they can either be right or wrong depending on the situation at hand. The morality/ ethical nature of other actions also depends on an individual’s point of view. One common thing, however, is that in all the countries of the world, the body that concerns itself with the responsibility of enforcing the governing laws is the police (Kenneth, 2011). In some cases, however, innocent people may end up sustaining injuries caused by the police in the process of discharging their duty. Situations such as vehicular pursuits may result in police liability, under the doctrines of care and failure to protect.
Vehicular pursuits
A police officer who has been in a car chase that has led to bodily injury of innocent civilians, damage to their property, death, or any combination of the three, is susceptible to at least three counts of liability. The police officer may be liable for departmental discipline in cases where the police officer violates agency policies during a pursuit. A lawsuit filed in state court will result in a tort liability for the police officer, and last, but not least, a police officer may be looking at a civil rights lawsuit in case a plaintiff applies for one in search of compensation for damages (Rutledge, (2007, 01).
Duty of care and failure to protect
Police officers together with other local government and state officials may face monetary lawsuits on grounds of violating the plaintiff’s civil rights with the color of authority, under the civil rights statute. Making an unreasonable arrest is one instance that could lead to a lawsuit as it violates the plaintiff’s rights provided by Fourth Amendment, which explicitly guarantees every person freedom from unreasonable seizures. It is, however, not possible to frame a lawsuit against a police officer on the grounds of failing to protect an individual from whatever harm that the person incurred. The due process clauses, under the Fifth and the Fourteenth Amendments, provide grounds for a plaintiff to file for a civil rights lawsuit, under either of two independent doctrines: the special relationship doctrine, and the state–created danger doctrine (Papenfuhs, & Daigle, 2012, 05).
Special relationship doctrine
The state assumes an affirmative duty of protecting persons under their custody. This condition holds for individuals who are under arrest or are committed involuntarily into a mental institution. According to this doctrine, when one assumes custody of another person, they also accept the responsibility to protect that individual from all foreseeable risks. Failure to uphold this responsibility will provide grounds for a lawsuit under due process.
State–created danger doctrine
This doctrine provides grounds for a lawsuit in cases where police intervention leads to greater harm to a person than the potential danger that the person faced before the intervention. A case in point is one in which state troopers stopped a vehicle at 2.30 in the morning and arrested the driver for driving under intoxication. The troopers impounded the car and left the passenger (the driver’s wife) to walk home in a high–risk area. A man who later picked up the woman drove her to a secluded area and raped her, a situation that would not have occurred if the state troopers had not impounded their vehicle.
References
Kenneth J., P. (2011). Justice Administration: Police, Courts, and Corrections Management (7 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
Papenfuhs, S., & Daigle, E. (2012). Police Officers, Cops & Law Enforcement | PoliceOne. Addressing cops’ confusion over ‘the public duty doctrine’. Web.
Rutledge, D. (2007). Police Magazine. Police Magazine. Web.