Police are necessary to reduce crime and maintain civil order, but to maintain a free society, it is also necessary that the police abide by strict codes of conduct and do not abuse their authority. We need to hold police officers to an even higher standard than we hold other people because the police act "under color of law." This means they represent our government, system of laws, and, ultimately, civil society. Every action by a police officer is therefore an act by our government upon our citizens.
To that end, we have established codes of civil liability that the police are required to obey at all times. These rules ultimately owe their existence to fundamental rights established in the Constitution, such as the right against unreasonable search and seizure in the Fourth Amendment and the right against self-incrimination in the Fifth Amendment.
If a police officer violates one of these rights in the line of duty (examples include performing an illegal search, killing a suspect without justification, or performing a custodial interrogation without a lawyer present), that officer can be held liable and sued in court for damages. Evidence acquired illegally can be thrown out of court. If the offense is serious enough, it can result in the officer being removed from the force or receiving criminal charges.
Police officers have a responsibility to know and follow these codes of civil liability, not only to protect themselves from lawsuits, but also as a fundamental part of their job. Officers aren't thugs or vigilantes who fight crime without rules; they are police officers who exercise legitimate authority within Constitutional limits.
No comments:
Post a Comment