Wouldn’t this lead to a terrible outcome for the victims of bad police officers? I.e. the insurance company claims there is no coverage for the officer’s brutality, and so they don’t have to make payment to the victim.
BTW - I’m not (necessarily) advocating this position - I’m looking at it and trying to suss out the eventual consequences, too.
OK, and what happens today when John Q. Public is crossing the street and is clipped by someone who just robbed a liquor store? Mr. Public goes into the hospital, pays his deductible, coinsurance, etc. IF Mr. Robber is caught and has some assets, JQP sues and can possibly recover. Not exactly a good outcome for the victim.
What happens if a LEO gets distracted by his computer in the car and clips JQP? Mr. Public goes into the hospital, pays his deductible, coinsurance, etc. His insurance sues the PD; their insurance reimburses JQP’s insurance; JQP still has to file (in effect, sue) the PD to get deductible/COINS covered; must absolutely sue to get pain and suffering.
What happens if an off-duty LEO gets distracted by his phone? Same scenario, but absolutely must sue to cover deduct/coins.
Now, what happens when LEO stops to harass JQP because he fits a profile and ends up slamming him against the wall and giving him a concussion? Today, JQP sues police department; PD insurance brokers a deal or the city gets sued directly; department insurance goes up and possible payout from the city; citizens pay more; LEO may or may not have any negative repercussions for his actions. In our hypothetical situation, PD insurance may still be on the hook for medical costs, but any pain and suffering comes from the LEO and his insurance. If his insurance doesn’t cover it, LEO is on the hook for any amount - there’s a definite penalty to the responsible party, but there are no repercussions to the taxpayers.
THE REAL PROBLEM is that asshat LEO possibly has no real repercussions in today’s scenario. I think everyone here agrees that there needs to be more accountability and ability to get rid of bad cops. At least in the personal insurance scenario, he may still have a job, but is getting some kind of penalty for being an ass.
Yeah, I’m re-evaluating the “we ain’t paying jack” clauses, but how about this: departmental insurance says “we ain’t paying jack if…” and personal insurance is set up as “covers any of the questionable things”. So, in my last scenario, city / taxpayers pay nothing; LEO insurance pays, but jacks up LEO’s rates. In that case, I wouldn’t even mind if the PD picked up the BASE COST for each LEO’s personal insurance, but if an individual’s rates go up because of questionable actions, it comes out of his paycheck.
I don’t think there is an easy way to separate department responsibility from officer responsibility. Sure there are instances when an officer goes rouge with no warning, but often there are plenty of warning signs about a bad officer that departments voluntarily or negligently miss. (“Oh, I know that Officer Jerkoff has had 22 citizen complaints for excessive force this year, but I can’t believe he tased that guy to death.”) I don’t know that it is possible to hold that type of mismanagement responsible without it costing the taxpayer money.
Yeah, I get depressed, too, if I think about this crap too long.
Agreed. It’s hard not to see it as a helpless situation. Especially when the overwhelming percentage of people don’t even see there being a problem.
I think most of them already support Republiopaths.
This has sort of been done before. Underwriters Laboratories (UL) got its start when insurers got tired of shelling out money for fires started by inept wiring and electric appliances and components.
How does it work with physicians and malpractice insurance? That is something I’m barely familiar with, other than the typical calls of it raising health care costs.
Could a similar paradigm be used for police officers?
So, this cop hit a pedestrian with his car, didn’t put it in his report and when the DA found out about it, he said “he was traveling less than 5 mph (8 kph) and the man ran directly in front of his squad car”.
The dash cam video shows he was going faster than 5mph, the man did not run in front of his car* and in fact the cop drove over the sidewalk to hit him in someone’s front yard.
*I mean, technically he did, but it’s not like he darted out from between parked cars or anything.
This isn’t the first time he’s been in trouble with the department.
And his punishment? A $500 fine.
Should be cued up, but skip to 7:30 to cut to the chase, so to speak.
How is that not attempted murder? Hitting someone with your car is misdemeanor attempted misconduct? WTF?
Forget it Jake. It’s Policetown.
You saying that if I ran over a police with my car I wouldn’t also be charged with “attempted misconduct”?
I’m shocked! I tell you, shocked!!
Another update, the officers have been disciplined.
One was suspended for four days because it was fine that he hit the guy, but the department felt he hit him too many times.
The other cop was suspended for 10 days because he didn’t clean the pepper spray off the guy that had nothing to do with this.
And it’s worth reiterating that this guy was literally just sitting in an Applebee’s, eating while Black. He had nothing whatsoever to do with the Black Person the cops were looking for.
Oh boy, Kenosha, where have I heard of that town before?
Kyle Rittenhouse
Police visit a woman who’s afraid of her caregiver. Police compliment the caregiver on his guns and depart - and a few hours later he kills her
Body cam footage in this one. They beat up someone unrelated to the case and it was deemed to be ‘justified’, then they wonder why people, specifically black people, run from them even when they did nothing wrong.
I think this is a good time to repost this clip from Trevor Noah discussing Stop and Frisk and why it causes people that run from the cops when they did nothing wrong other than running from the cops.
I envision a future where we can fix typos in posts that have youtube clips in them.
In a controversial non-encounter, group of about 20 people are marching in downtown Madison WI, displaying swastikas and other RW symbology.
As long as they are White and not protesting the Police, their 1A rights must be protected. If they were black or those damn lefties, we would be right down there in confrontation gear to stop the riot.
Derek Chauvin has been stabbed in the Tucson Federal Corrections Institution where he is currently being held. This after SCotUS refused to hear his appeal (i.e., he ain’t gettin’ out).
Apparently he is also attempting to get his federal guilty plea pulled back, claiming there is new evidence that he was not responsible for George Floyd’s death.