Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Do Police Have a Duty to Protect You?

Legally, NO.

Countless court cases attest to this fact.  The police have a duty to investigate the crime but not to protect the victim.  Ironically, once they take a suspect into custody, they do have a duty to protect him or her even from themselves.

The first case which established the general rule that police have no duty under federal law to protect citizens is DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services.   In this case, Petitioner is a child who was subjected to a series of beatings by his father, with whom he lived.   Respondents, a county department of social services and several of its social workers, received complaints that petitioner was being abused by his father and took various steps to protect him;  they did not, however, act to remove petitioner from his father's custody.  Petitioner's father finally beat him so severely that he suffered permanent brain damage and was rendered profoundly retarded.   The U.S. Supreme Court dismissed this case with this statement: There is no merit to petitioner's contention that the State's knowledge of his danger and expressions of willingness to protect him against that danger established a "special relationship" giving rise to an affirmative constitutional duty to protect.  

Likewise, Warren v. District of Columbia is one of the leading cases of where police were absolved from protecting the victims, who called the police and reported a crime in progress.  They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way.  When after 30 minutes they went to check on their friend who was assaulted, they became the next victims.  The facts before the court were: 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.  See: The Police: No Duty To Protect Individuals
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."Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981).

It gets worse in Freeman v. Ferguson a police chief directed his officers not to enforce a restraining order against a woman's estranged husband because the man was a friend of the chief's. The man subsequently killed the woman and her daughter.  

In Riss v City of New York, 22 N.Y. 2d 579, 293 NYS2d 897, 240 N.E. 2d 860 (N.Y. Ct. of Ap. 1968), the judge acknowledged that the city's gun laws prevented her from arming herself but the case was still dismissed.  

Peter Kasler states, "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 ... 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. "Police Have No Duty To Protect Individuals

Related Cases: 
Calogrides v City of Mobile, 475 So. 2d 560 (S.Ct. Ala. 1985), 
Morris v Musser, 478 A.2d 937 (1984), 
Morgan v District of Columbia, 468 A.2d 1306 (D.C. Ct. of Ap. 1983), 
Davidson v City of Westminster, 32 C.3d 197, 185 Cal. Rptr. 252, 649 P.2d 894 (S. Ct. Cal. 1982), 
Chapman v City of Philadelphia, 434 A.2d 753 (Sup. Ct. Penn. 1981), 
Sapp v City of Tallahassee, 348 So.2d 363 (Ct. of Ap. Fla. 1977), 
Simpson's Food Fair v Evansville, 272 N.E. 2d 871 (Ct. of Ap., Ind.), 
Silver v City of Minneapolis, 170 N.W.2d 206 (S.Ct. Minn. 1969), 
Keane v City of Chicago, 98 Ill. App.2d 460, 240 N.E.2d 321 (1968). 
Bowers v DeVito, 686 F.2d 61 (7 Cir. 1982),  
Balistreri v. Pacifica Police Department 901 F.2d 696 (9th Cir. 1990). 
McKee v. City of Rockwall, Texas, 877 F.2d409 (5th Cir. 1989), cert. denied, 110 S.Ct.727 (1990). 
Thurman v. City of Torrington, 595 F.Supp.1521 (D.Conn. 1984).

1 comment:

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