Sure, failing to provide adequate or timely protection is not a violation of due process or any of our other rights. However, a police department’s purpose is to protect the citizens in its jurisdiction by preventing crime and arresting criminals. To “Protect and Serve” and all that. Would you say a police department had some other purpose?
That would be like saying a Fire Department’s job is not to put out fires simply because the Supreme Court ruled that failing to promptly or adequately distinguish the flames on your house is a violation of your rights.
Regardless of there being no Constitutional obligation for the police to protect anyone, or for a city to even have a police department, the police department’s purpose is to protect citizens. And ordering those citizens to intervene in situations which could cause them harm is counter-productive to that purpose.
And the city and department should pay gladly. The police should want the citizenry to have their backs. Part of that means looking after those who help you.
I suggest it would be to the longer-term benefit of society. If a criminal knows that the local citizenry are pro-active, then he’s more likely to go and be a criminal elsewhere. (q.v. Neighbourhood Watch)
Speaking as someone who works closely with law enforcement:
Do not try to help the officer unless he/she requests it. The second you become involved in a situation, you are one more potential victim the officer has to worry about. Best stay out of it.
I was driving a lightly used state highway in Eastern Oklahoma a few years ago and saw a Highway Patrol car at the side of the road at a funny angle with the driver door open but no lights going. I slowed down as I passed and watched in my rear view mirror and did not see anyone.
I had been watching the car for about a half a mile all together and felt something was off. so I turned around and went back to check. I got out and went to the edge of the road and called a few times. Then an officer popped up who had apparently been in a large culvert that was mostly hidden from casual view. He asked what I wanted and I told him what I had observed and felt.
He was flabbergasted. He said that he had never seen and had a civilian worry about, much less actually stop and check on their / his safety or where abouts. We had a short discussion about what / why he was there, a report of a car off the road, and then I went on.
One time on an toll road at 3 AM I did the same for a patrol car that was parked funny and had no lights at all. Turned out the guy was doing some paper work. He too was a bit surprised.
I would be very careful about actually getting into an ‘subduing a suspect’ situation.
Many years ago when I was pulling mobile homes, I was involved in help block a fleeing car but in that case, we, the truckers involved, did not stop after the patrol car had his runner caught.
How about you’re walking along a street, maybe downtown, and you see some guy running toward you with a cop running behind him yelling, “Stop! Police!” What are the legal ramifications if you stick out your foot and trip the guy so the police can catch up to him?
Haven’t there been cases of cab drivers pinning fleeing suspects against buildings with their taxis?
The amount of force involved (and subsequent injuries, if any) in tripping the guy is probably in the right spot on the continuum of force for a gentleman fleeing from the police.
If you shot him, you’d be going too far and up for murder charges.
If you tripped him and he feel in front of a passing tractor trailer, you might wish you had stayed uninvolved, although your fate would get murky at that point and it would help if you had a sympathetic DA and a clean criminal record.
In the taxi example, you should remember that using a vehicle is using deadly force to the same extent as using a firearm. That is to say, a Ford Crown Victoria taxi may kill someone you hit it with, or it may not. The same would go for a Glock handgun.
There’s a LOT of precision needed to hit someone with a cab and cause 1 inch of compression in them (enough to pin them without killing them) and not cause 6 inches of compression, which would likely be lethal or near-lethal. This goes double for a 2-ton taxi with a torquey V8.
Should you nail a subject who is in the process of discharging firearms at the local police with your taxi, I’m thinking you’re in the clear. Of course, then you have to hope you don’t get killed by a stray police bullet.
I am not an attorney licensed to practice in any US jurisdiction.
I am not your attorney. If you rely on my conjecture regarding the law above in any substantial decision regarding your actions, you are making a mistake. Your mileage may vary. Don’t play with lawn darts. Always wash behind your ears. Remember to vote!