You just DON"T LISTEN

All police executives are aware that they are responsible for the misbehavior of police officers, and may be brought to court under 42 USC 1983. The rule originated from the Civil Rights Act of 1871, and has become the cornerstone of federal civil rights lawsuits against law enforcement agencies. In general, Section 1983 lawsuits call for penalties against members of state and municipal agencies that violate the constitutionally guaranteed rights of any person, “under color of law”. Although at first limited to the actual misbehaving individual, Section 1983 has been expanded by the courts to include penalties against any police executive who promotes a “policy of deliberate indifference” to the well-being of public, usually through negligent selection, training or supervision. The now well-known case of Brown v. Bryant County, OK (219 F3ed 450, 5th Cir. 2000) is an excellent example of the inclination of the federal courts to expand the definition of deliberate indifference to allow a suit against a law enforcement agency for the misconduct of a single officer. In Brown, a deputy was hired in spite of a pre-employment history of arrest for assault and battery, nine moving violations within two years and a warrant for his arrest for parole violation at the time of hiring. Testimony revealed that there was a credible history of impulsiveness and irresponsibility in the deputy’s background. Shortly after being employed, the deputy unlawfully injured a vehicle passenger and the sheriff ultimately was required to pay a judgment of $624,300 for “deliberate indifference”, in addition to legal and future insurance costs. Although Brown is not usually described a negligent hiring case per se, it certainly can be seen in that light, since it would have been difficult to defend against any tort injury attributable to the deputy based upon “pre-hire unsuitability”, regardless of the training and supervision efforts by the Sheriff.

In general, the failure to properly select an officer is considered a form of negligent hiring. Although any employer potentially may be charged with negligence following the employment of an individual who “possesses some attribute of character or prior conduct that would create an undue risk to harm others in carrying out his or her employment responsibilities,” the risk to police executives is much greater than the average employer. This increased risk stems from the privileges granted to commissioned police officers to take “life and liberty” under special circumstances. In our society, this privilege to exert lawful, sometimes deadly force and restraint is considered to be so extremely important that the hiring of persons whom the Chief should have known may possess destructive characteristics is a form of negligence. Under 42 USC 1983 case law, "deliberate indifference" may be said to apply when the department should have had the ability to foresee risk to the public, but for any reason, did not take possible steps to minimize that danger. :oops:

In Hardy v. Town of Hayneville (50 F Supp. 2d 1176 M.D. Ala 1999), it was found that the city could be held responsible for the negligent hiring of an officer deemed unfit by later review of his background. In a similar case, Geidel v. City of Bradenton Beach (56 F. Supp. 2d 1359 M.D. Fl 1999), it was held that the city could be liable for any intentional tort by their police officer if it could be shown that the municipality had been negligent in its duty to select, train and supervise the officer. In Bonsignore v. City of New York (521 F. Supp. 394, aff'd 683 F.2d 635, 2nd Cir.1982), the failure to adopt a meaningful psychological testing procedure resulted in the award of $300,000 in compensation and $125,000 in punitive damages when an off duty officer, know generally to have emotional problems, wounded his wife and killed himself.