The Farmington Hills Police Department Case.

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The Farmington Hills Police Department Case.

Question Description

Read each paragraph and give me your opinion do you agree do you disagree with those 4 paragraphs one for each part and if you agree or disagree why or why not

1. When it comes to complaints/litigations against law enforcement their actions could primarily fall under tort liability. A tort describes a civil wrongdoing resulting from an intentional act on the part of the alleged wrongdoer. Police get hit with all types of allegations from police brutality to harassment. Under tort law injuries suffered by civil parties don’t have to be always physical. The harm done could be claimed to be emotional or a mere violation of personal rights. An violation of personal rights could be refusal to seek counsel when asked upon while being questioned, not letting an individual make a one time phone call after being arrested to being held for a long time without proper accomendations. There are 3 major differences between criminal law cases and tort law cases:

1.) Parties- tort cases are usually commenced by a plaintiff and victim of the wrongful conduct

2.) Burden of proof- in tort law cases plaintiffs evidence must show that it is more likely than not that the defendant caused plaintiff to suffer injuries

3.) Outcome- tort law cases usually seek monetary compensation for their injuries although sometime non-physical referring them injuries due to( pain& suffering)

Tort law cases result mostly from negligence or violation of statutes.There are four elements to tort laws which are duty, breach of duty, causation and injury. Law enforcement under tort laws can be charged with either negligence, strict liability or intentional torts. Depending on the injury a tort liability can be aimed at the officer individually or can affect the entire police department as a whole if the injury is found to be a reach of duty. There are ways officers can avoid these types of liabilities and that would be to follow strict protocol/procedure. Law enforcement officers are bond to make ethical and moral decisions when it comes to protecting and serving the citizens in their communities remembering to treat all suspects as humans and respecting their rights is one way of avoiding civil liability when it comes to tort laws.

Another example of tort liability is if a person is arrested and conmvicted of driving under the influence of alcohol/drugs. The person could be held liable under tort law for potentially enabling/causing an accident that could have possibily injured others (even if a crime was not committed) the person could be charged for negligence and fined which could result in monetary compensation being paid to the state in which the DUI occured.

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2. Tort is defined as a civil wrong in which the action of one person causes injury to the person or property of another, in violation of a legal duty imposed by law ( R. del Carmen, 2014, Criminal Procedure Law and Practice). There are two types of torts. One is intentional tort and the second is negligence tort. Intentional tort occurs when there is intentional harm or mental coercion on another person ( R. del Carmen, 2014). There are five forms of intentional torts that are generally brought against officers. One is false arrest/imprisonment, two is assault and battery, three is excessive use of force that is considered nondeadly, four the use of force that is considered deadly force, and five which is wrongful death. The second type of tort is negligent tort which does not involve any intent from the officer but is instead the failure to act according to law to stop possible forseeable harm that may occur from an individual’s conduct. Examples of negligent torts are liability for failing to protect a member of society, liability for negligent use by police vehicles, liability for injury caused by a fleeing motorist, liability of failing to respond to a call, and liability for failure to arrest drunk individuals. When it comes to negligent torts these would fall on the individual officers. These fall under decisions based upon failure of the act which makes the liability on the officer not the department. Intentional torts can fall on either on the individual officer or the department. In some cases the liability can fall on both with exceptions such as assault and battery which would only fall on the individual officer.

Things that can be done to articulate ways to eliminate and avoid civil liabilities from law enforcement would be to offer extensive training and knowledge to officers on how to properly handle all situations. Another way would be for departments to educate the public on what to expect and how to respond when they encounter law enforcement officers. The overall impact of tort liability in the criminal justice is that a lot of issues are not dealt with and are swept under the rug to protect the officer, the department, or both. This leads to citizens fearing, distrusting, or disliking the police. This can also lead to situations being taken to the courts causing possible injustice for both sides.

3. The topic I chose was woman equality. I researched the wage gap and how it has been fought and changed over the years. It is a long process overdue but slowly there has been change. United States is one of 32 countries that does not include woman in the constitution for explicit gender equality guarantee. The wage gap shows woman make .78 cents for every dollar earned on average by men, per the U.S. Census Bureau. That gap, though, is worse for women of color: Black women make 64 cents and Latinas make 56 cents for every dollar earned by a white man. Today, a new revitalized movement to ratify the ERA is gaining steam. To the women and men behind the push, including an unlikely alliance of politicians, it is unfinished business they want to see completed. It’s long overdue, they say, and would prove to the world that women in the United States matter.

4.The topic I chose for the Measuring Diversity was the diversity within the Farmington Hills Police Department.This learner has chosen to evaluate diversity within law enforcement; specifically within the Farmington Hills Police Department. In addition, this learner will evaluate how affirmative action policy is utilized to encourage diversity and upward mobility within the police department. The topic of diversity and affirmative action within law enforcement is integral to the course and cultural diversity in that it examines the community of law enforcement and breaking the glass ceiling in this organized agency. Next this learner looked at researching diversity and touched on a few key points. In order to properly research and evaluate diversity and the use of affirmative action in Farmington Hills Police Department data must be gathered. This learner will evaluate data gathered by utilizing informal interviews and questionnaire as measuring tools. Informal interviews are integral as it provides essential information without having to directly ask the hard questions. This learner also touched on Demographics and Social Economic Status.

Out of the 102 officers that work for the department, none of them work in the nearby major city which is Detroit. Most the police officers that work for Farmington Hills are Caucasian and they live in the suburbs or further north in a rural area of Michigan. Followed by that was Education and Rank which entailed The Farmington Hills Police Department requires you to have at least some college experience to get accepted with the department. There are currently 15 officers in the positions of Sergeants and Lieutenants. Out of the 80 plus officers that are not in a supervisory position, one of them will be promoted as the rank and command staff retire.In the third tier of the paper, this learner touched on recommendations to increase diversity and sociological concepts/Theory. Ways to increase diversity within the department is to look at bigger urban department and recruit those more experienced officers by showing how the same job is much safer policing a suburban city and make more money while doing so. Lastly Sociological concepts and theories that will be utilized are community, bureaucracy, and labeling theory. This learner found it quite interesting how diverse the department is compared to bigger inner city departments.