Legal Update Archives - Page 5 of 19

The Failure of Supervision: Is It The Cause of Officer Failures?

Ensure Supervisory Ideals are Practiced as Well as Preached The death of Tyre Nichols on January 7, 2023, is a tragedy that resulted from being severely beaten by five officers from the Memphis Police Department. The tragedy is compounded by the fact that it was entirely preventable. From the outside looking in, the question that should be asked is ‘were there any failures within […]

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Always Follow the Suspect Holding Their Phone

The Eleventh Circuit case of United States v. Sanchez involved a warrant for the seizure of a cell phone. The court cited Riley v. California, which held that a person has a reasonable expectation of privacy in the data contained in their cell phone, including the call log. The court in Riley declined to extend the incident to lawful custodial arrest exception to the

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“Kettling” and Keeping the Peace

Baude v. Leyshock from the Eighth Circuit has a lot of legal issues that we have discussed and a new term that we have not, which is “kettling.” First let’s start with what we have discussed before: our case today brings to question excessive use of force during a protest. As a reminder, a court evaluates the reasonableness of the force by examining the

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United States v. Ambriz-Villa: The Right Way to Conduct a Traffic Stop

In United States v. Ambriz-Villa, the Seventh Circuit Court dealt with a case involving a traffic stop and consent to search a suspect’s vehicle based on suspicion of drug trafficking. The suspect argued that their consent to search the vehicle was not voluntary. To evaluate the voluntariness of consent, the court considers various factors, such as the person’s age, intelligence, and education, whether they

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Witness’s Change of Story Causes Qualified Immunity Decision to Change

The case of Gambrel v. Knox County, 25 F.4th 391 (6th Cir. 2022) brings to light the complex issue of qualified immunity and the use of deadly force by law enforcement. The Sixth Circuit overturned a decision on qualified immunity in this case, due to a tricky aspect of determining credibility of witness statements. In this case, a witness initially supported the officers’ portrayal

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Weighing Qualified Immunity Against Several Versions of the Same UOF Incident

In the Seventh Circuit case of Bayon v. Berkebile, qualified immunity was denied for officers who mistakenly believed that the plaintiff had a gun. The incident became complicated due to the numerous conflicting versions from both the plaintiff and the officers about the use of force. As a reminder, qualified immunity balances the need to hold public officials accountable for irresponsible use of power

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What the Kobe Bryant Trial Ruling Means for Law Enforcement Policies

I want to touch on a topic that was concerning to me when I saw it. Imagine the worst day of your life being passed around via pictures when you are still grieving the loss of your husband and young daughter. That is what happened to Vanessa Bryant; and on August 24th of this year, she was awarded $16 million after a trial over

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Body-Worn Camera Footage Proves that Officers’ Use of Force was Unnecessary

In this week’s case from the Eighth Circuit, an officer was denied qualified immunity. It is important to remember that when reviewing a claim of qualified immunity, courts are not allowed to resolve genuine disputes of fact in favor of the party seeking summary judgment. In this case, there were two conflicting accounts of the events, but the court had body-worn camera footage that

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Creating Your Assessment: Policies Are Only Part of It

Lately, I have been getting similar questions from various departments, “once we have our policies completed, we are ready for our assessment, right?” The answer is “no.” Completing your policies is part of the accreditation equation, but in order to be ready for your on-site assessment, there is much more to do.First, even though your policies are drafted, you will need to scrutinize each

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Does a 911 Tip Count as Reasonable Suspicion?

Our case of the day comes from the Seventh Circuit in Illinois. The suspect in the case was charged under an Illinois-specific law with possessing a firearm in a place licensed to sell alcohol. It is important to note that the location is relevant because the law that the suspect was charged under may not apply in other states. The case before us involves

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