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Homeland Security midterm
Richard Bivens
Liberty University
HLSC 510
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Law Enforcement is a challenging field that is filled with a lot of changing
circumstances. Without the proper training for a law enforcement officer to handle the challenges
within the field it can cause multiple lawsuits claiming to violations of civil liability. “The
Section 1983 Civil Liability the section of title 42 of the U.S. Code that makes a person liable
for depriving another of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the U.S. Constitution
and laws while acting under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage of a
state”. These lawsuits can be costly to any police department. This paper will introduce an
introduction of the Section 1983 Civil Liability Section and seek to prove that proper training of
personnel is beneficial and is worth not paying for these costly lawsuits. This paper will also seek
to answer some of the questions of; How much training is enough? Do I need an attorney to
teach this to my personnel? How often should it be taught? Should a department policy be
updated with each new case? Lastly this paper will recommend what points a policy for a police
department should contain.
Introduction of Section 1983 Liability Section, it is of no mystery that law enforcement. police
departments are often scrutinized for the actions that are taken place by its personnel. Liability
issues are no different in that these issues are some of that departments frequently deal with. The
Civil Rights Acts of 1871, often referred to as Section 1983, Liability is a section of the tile 42 of
the U.S. code that provides a person a civil solution for aggrieved person to sue state actors who
under the color of the law violate federally protected rights. Section 1983 lawsuits are not
individually limited to an officer’s liability, but municipalities can be held liable as well. It is
infrequent that courts find municipalities liable under Section 1983, yet it is important to insure
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these preventions of lawsuits for municipalities. Section 1983 Liability lawsuits are costly and
can be minimized by proper training of officers and supervisors alike, as well as maintaining up
to date policy manuals. When a lawsuit arises, it is important to understand who and how a
plaintiff could pursue a case against. If a plaintiff decides to a sue an officer for an alleged civil
liability violation, the plaintiff may sue the officer in his individual capacity, official capacity, or
both. The city is also usually included in the lawsuit as a municipality can qualify as person for
the section 1983 liability. Warren Spencer provides explanation of when liability applies in his
article “Suggested Topics for Training Police Departments in Section 1983 Liability”. When a
person sues an officer in his official capacity, it is the same as if he or she sued the city. A Plaintiff
Can Assert Municipal Liability Claims Even if Officers Have Qualified for Immunity.
For law enforcement officers you can never have enough training to hone your own
skills and become a better officer. If you want your law enforcement officers in your
organization to be confident fighters and officers, who can execute defensive tactics in any given
matter upon stress, they should have realistic practices that can help them achieve their goals on
becoming better and more trustworthy officers. Organizations should also examine the
psychology of combat so officers can dominate the will of another. To do this an officer should
develop a force of will. Not all officers in law enforcement have a deep sense of aggression or
some type of force of will, this is not a trait that can trained, it is something that lies within a
person. Training in a law enforcement academy for a time of 6 months it is considered enough
time, but it should be pushed to 1 year because of how much stress this career choice could be,
and it can prevent future serious altercations.
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A department policy should be updated with every new case. This will help a department run a
lot more efficiently with updated intel. It should be automatically understood that policy and
procedures should be updated with each new case. The understanding of this should be two-
folded not only should the administrative side of an organization be updated but the officers
should be notified of every new case also.
One of the first recommendations would be to consistently try an offer mandatory training
throughout an organization set quarterly during that time of the year. Also, I would recommend
that all organizations resources be utilized, and be reach out to the outside connections on how
society is evolving. The evolution of society can affect how the department enhances and evolves
as well. If the chief executive is persistent in all these things, an organization can build morale to
ensure knowledge, as well as protect the department from civil liabilities. If these procedures are
implemented, we will see lesser cases.
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References
Pantoja, E. (2016, March 22). Better officer training would prevent excessive use of force.
Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/opinion/policing/spotlight/2016/03/21/police-
training-use-of-force/82102286/
Schwartzbach, M. (2017, June 16). What Is a "Section 1983" Lawsuit Against the Police?
Retrieved from https://www.nolo.com/legal-encyclopedia/what-is-a-section-1983-lawsuit-
against-the-police.html
Sylves, R. (2015). Disaster policy & politics: Emergency management and homeland security
(2nd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: CQ Press. ISBN: 9781483307817
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