OFFICER UNFRIENDLY
Posted on 05/21/2015 6:16:53 PM PDT by TurboZamboni
Before Officer Michael Griffin was indicted on federal charges for using excessive force and lying under oath, he cost the city of Minneapolis $411,864.78. The city paid $140,000 in 2014 to settle a lawsuit filed by Ibrahim Regai, who Griffin allegedly knocked unconscious at a Minneapolis night club in 2010, while he was off duty. That same year, a federal jury in a civil trial ruled the city must pay Jeremy Axel, Michael Mitchell and their attorneys $271,864.78. Griffin allegedly kicked Mitchell in the chest and punched Axel in the back of the head, knocking him unconscious outside a club in North Minneapolis in 2011. The Committee for Professional Policing in Minneapolis believes the city and the taxpayers who fund it should not bear the burden for this kind of conduct. “We want to hold them more individually accountable,” Eric Bauer, the group’s organizer said while soliciting signatures for a petition earlier this month. Bauer wants the city of Minneapolis to require police officers to pay for their own professional liability insurance premiums “It’s just requiring police to have the same insurance that doctors, lawyers, nurses and teachers already have,” he said. An amendment to the city charter would be added to the next election ballot if Bauer and his team of volunteers can gather enough signatures. If it makes it onto the ballot, the amendment would need 50 percent of the vote plus one to be implemented.
(Excerpt) Read more at kstp.com ...
OFFICER UNFRIENDLY
Never gonna happen.
Teachers pay for their own liability insurance?
Lawyers are behind this.
Good idea...
Right. Will never happen. Why would cops take such a job?
Now it would be wise for cops take out a personal umbrella policy which also includes intentional torts (as these suits often allege).
http://privateschool.about.com/od/profdevelopment/qt/insuranceteach.htm
Usually the school provides professional liability insurance for all its employees.
Must not upset the other sacred pillar of public unions.
Not unless they are private contractors.
Exactly. When you work for an employer, that employer assumes responsibility for your actions while you’re on the job.
In the recent Amtrak crash, the driver may be criminally responsible with limited civil responsibility, Amtrak is ultimately responsible and will pay.
The Deep Pocket...
Fairly easy to deal with this. Write it into their contracts that if they’re convicted of misconduct the city can sue to recover costs including taking all of their pensions.
L
Victims would be unlikely to accept it once they saw how quickly the pocket of the responsible individual dried up.
Good. Let’s multiply...
In this case, the citizens of Mpls write the check.
For instance, let's say an EMT goes to a car accident and in the process of rendering aid, poorly splints an injured limb causing nerve damage. So the patient sues. Was the EMT within scope of employment, yes. Should he be granted coverage by the department in the suit? I would say yes. Should his own liability policy have to be used? No.
Another EMT from the same department goes to the scene of an accident and the patient is suffering from a tension pneumothorax. The fire department doesn't allow for needle decompression, but the EMT saw it done once during a combat tour in Afghanistan and gives it a shot. The patient succumbs to his injuries and the family sues. Was the EMT within scope? No, he performed a procedure not authorized by his department. Who pays for the legal defense? He does from his own liability policy.
Yup.
In the case of this cop in Minneapolis, it appears he was acting well outside the scope of his employment. He should be personally liable for his actions without the city defending him in either civil or criminal court. Can the city be sued as well? Sure, they granted him authority which he abused, and this officer talked other officers into doing things that violated the rights of the victims
How are MDs “practicing professionals” while RNs are “hired by an organization that has granted them authority to act in their name?” It depends on who you work for.
Personally one of the things I would like to see in a second bill of rights is a requirement that all government employees be subject to the same civil liability as the rest of us. The American revolution was about getting rid of a sovereign and replacing him with rule by the people with protections for individual rights. Then of course the court draw from British common law and stick us with sovereign immunity.
Public employees are subject to civil liabilities, when they act outside the confines of their agency.
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