![]() There's not the same evidence suggesting that the race of the officer determines whether or not they use inappropriate force or engage in misconduct in other kinds of ways. The data that we have available suggests that people who are victims of police misconduct are disproportionately Black and Latino and indigenous. Law Documentary Asks: Do 'Women In Blue' Police Differently Than Male Officers? So long as they thought that what they were doing was reasonable in the moment, that officer has not violated the Constitution. And the Supreme Court, in multiple opinions, has authorized, allowed, condoned officers to use force or arrest or search someone who has done nothing wrong. But the way in which the Supreme Court interprets "reasonableness" under the Fourth Amendment is focused far more on what the police officer was thinking at the time, whether it was reasonable for them to search, arrest or use force. If I was sitting in my living room doing nothing wrong and police officers barged into my home and shot me, I would think that that was patently unreasonable. If you think of the phrase "unreasonable searches and seizures" and what you think that might mean, certainly when I listen to that phrase and think about what it might mean, I think about the perspective of the individual. It covers claims of unlawful arrest, unlawful searches, as well as the use of force. It is often the basis for civil rights claims against law enforcement officers. I focus in the book on the Fourth Amendment, which protects against unreasonable searches and seizures. On how the Fourth Amendment is used as a shield for officers ![]() But looking at the history of policing in the 20th century in America, you come quickly to learn that police in the North had plenty of their own problems as well, and were using unconstitutional force, arresting people and assaulting people, particularly those Black Americans who came from the South to the North. And I think that was a belief that inspired the Great Migration and inspired Black Americans to move to the North. I think that the expectation, certainly for those who have not researched in this area, was that the South was this place of real racial misconduct, violence, horror inflicted by the Ku Klux Klan and by law enforcement, and that the North was somehow a safer, kinder place for Black people to live. Other times, the information isn't passed on because attorneys assume the details aren't valuable - "that it is just a plaintiff trying to make a buck," Schwartz says. She says attorneys sometimes withhold information from police departments because they're afraid that details of prior wrongdoing will create increased legal liability. Schwartz describes "silos" that exist between police departments and the attorneys who represent offices in civil suits. Oftentimes, Schwartz says, "the information from lawsuits goes back and forth from the city attorney's offices, but that information doesn't make its way over to the police department, officers and officials." The officers had no idea how many times they'd been sued.Īs it turns out, the situation was not uncommon. While interviewing officers, she learned something that shocked her. ![]() Gray, 25, died Apfrom a severe spinal cord injury he received while in police custody.Ībout 20 years ago, when UCLA law professor Joanna Schwartz was a civil rights attorney in New York, she worked on a large class-action lawsuit against the Department of Corrections. Pennsylvania state troopers deploy in Baltimore, Md, on May 1, 2015, following the release of a report on the death of Freddie Gray.
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