The Police Service and Liability Insurance: Responsible Policing

Abstract

Noel Otu is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at The University of Texas at Brownsville. He has experience in both law enforcement and correction. His research interests combine academic, professional and life experiences in the study of culture and punishment, and law enforcement. He has worked extensively with at-risk juveniles, enabling them to master a variety of computer skills and techniques which will keep them away from criminal activities. ABSTRACT The United States Constitution, as well as national values, centre on individual (human) rights. Conservatives, liberals, and independents agree that police officers must at times resort to physical force if they are to carry out fully their official responsibilities. As well, there is no question the lawful use of force by police officers frequently escalates to unlawful behaviour (police brutality), and that this must be controlled. Despite this shared attitude, however, public opinion and government policy diverge in their approach to deterring police brutality. Most recent official and unofficial policies are based on the plausibility of prevention through creation of civilian review boards, recruitment tests, counselling, and training and retraining of officers. None of these measures seems to work well in reducing police brutality, although society is answerable to the kind of police it chooses to have, whether it be by deliberation, power struggle, or total neglect, the fact is police brutality is an issue of great concern to individual officers, police administrators, and more importantly, the victims (society). This paper focuses on the deterrence effect of requiring police officers to purchase individual occupational liability insurance, on a fundamental belief of deterrence philosophy and documented examples that a high rate of police brutality stems in large part from lack of monetary liability/ accountability on the part of the individual police officer. Police brutality occurs in part because some (both normal and emotionally disturbed) officers have opportunities to commit this unlawful behaviour, and in part, because they are not deterred from committing it, and because the judiciary chose to 'water down' the doctrine of sovereign immunity. It's time to require all police officers to have personal liability insurance. This calls for Congressional action. Without solid reform, police brutality will have no incentive to do anything other than continue to worsen.

Police Body Cameras and Liability Insurance: The Deterrent to Police Misconduct

“…Common knowledge as well as the Rodney King and Eric Garner cases tell us that if deterrence is measured as the extent to which a police officer expects to be held accountable for misbehaving, a body camera alone is not enough of a deterrence mechanism. Lessons from the Rational Choice theories show that the high rate of police misconduct stems in large part from a lack of monetary liability/accountability on the part of the individual police officer (Otu, 2006). When the employer/government uses taxpayer money directly or indirectly to settle police misconduct lawsuits, there is reason to believe that police officers will continue to apply excessive force.…”

The police service quality in rural Taiwan

“…Developing production functions describing their activities is, unfortunately, not possible as it is possible for most business enterprises (Ritsert and Pekar, 2009). Policing is a difficult and complex occupation (Otu, 2006). In light of police reforms, police professionalism has come to be defined through changes in police organisation, administration and technology in the past 20 or 30 years such as those to improve the efficiency of the police service and performance in the deterrence and apprehension of criminals (Douthit, 1975).…”

A Virtual Environment to Test Police and Public Awareness of Anti-Social Behaviour Indicators

“…5.5), particularly in the context of the communities where they live (Taylor, 2001, p. 164). There are a number of areas where the perceptions of police practitioners and community stake holders may differ, for example crime and residential property design (Cozens, Hillier, & Prescott, 2001), police brutality (Otu, 2006), fear of crime (Cozens, Neale, Whitaker, & Hillier, 2003), hot spots of fear and concern (Taylor, p. 369), ASB and public disorder (Crawford & Flint, 2009) and ASB identification (Millie, 2008). It is important that officers are not left with an 'empathy void' (Peace, 2006) in their skills-base by focusing their training on technical aspects of the law and procedures.…”