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That public employees are not to held responsible for their negligence is not just a California law it is in effect nationally

It is, therefore, a fact of law and of practical necessity that individuals are responsible for their own personal safety, and that of their loved ones. Police protection must be recognized for what it is: only an auxiliary general deterrent.

Because the police have no general duty to protect individuals, judicial remedies are not available for their failure to protect. In other words, if someone is injured because they expected but did not receive police protection, they cannot recover damages by suing (except in very special cases, explained below). Despite a long history of such failed attempts, however, many, people persist in believing the police are obligated to protect them, attempt to recover when no protection was forthcoming, and are emotionally demoralized when the recovery fails. Legal annals abound with such cases.

Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of this type. Two women were upstairs in a townhouse when they heard their roommate, a third woman, being attacked downstairs by intruders. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. After about 30 minutes, when their roommate’s screams had stopped, they assumed the police had finally arrived. When the two women went downstairs they saw that in fact the police never came, but the intruders were still there. As the Warren court graphically states in the opinion: “For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive, raped, robbed, beaten, forced to commit sexual acts upon each other, and made to submit to the sexual demands of their attackers.”

The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.’s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a “fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen.” There are many similar cases with results to the same effect.

Similarly, people in various states have been unable to successfully sue over the following situations:

— When 911 systems have been shut down for maintenance

— When a known stalker kills someone

— When the police pull over but don’t arrest a drunk driver who runs over someone later that night

— When a cop known to be violently unstable shoots a driver he pulled over for an inadequate muffler

— When authorities know in advance of a plan to commit murder but do nothing to stop it

— When parole boards free violent psychotics, including child rapist-murderers

— When felons escape from prison and kill someone

— When houses burn down because the fire department didn’t respond promptly

— When children are beaten to death in foster homes