Since photos of the van in question have been posted with some of the news stories, I am willing to assert outright that not having shoulder restraints installed constitutes negligence in and of itself.
It is a hard walled narrow cell on wheels.
You would have to be a real idiot not to anticipate problems from that at some point with only lap belts - even without handcuffs.
Agreed.
One of the big points thats going to come up with this is going to be police policy and capabilities vs the culpability of officers who had to work with what they had.
For instance, there WAS a policy that prisoners in vans had to be buckled in. That policy was only three days old, and hadn’t been fully briefed to the force. Should officers be held accountable for not enforcing a policy if they had no knowlege of it? Again, for instance ...