After Lawrence Massachusetts spent $1,200,000 defending police officers in civil litigation in the last 3 years, city officials announced that they are ending their long-standing policy of paying for the legal defense for police officers and the police union is suing in response. The city is currently facing 9 more excessive force lawsuits against various police officers, including one former officer who is named in 5 of those 9 lawsuits.
The Southampton NY police department & Suffolk County NY sheriff’s department are the subject of a lawsuit filed by a woman who claims she was falsely arrested for taking a photo from a public street outside of an airport and then horribly mistreated during and after the arrest. Interestingly, Southampton may already be subjected to a default judgment in that lawsuit after their city attorney failed to file a response to the claim in federal court which, if the judge decides not to accept their late answer to the claim, would put them in the lurch for a full $70,000,000.
While the New York NY police department has consistently refused to admit that arrest and summons qoutas exist within that department despite a series of damning reports and recordings made by police officers confirming the existence of those quotas, a jury may have settled the matter once and for all, opening the department up to waves of civil litigation as a result after it ruled that those quotas do exist and that they violated the civil rights of a woman who was injured when she was arrested while confronting cops arresting her son. That suit then settled for $75,000 afterward. Attorney Scott Greenfield has more on that story as well.
A Boston MA police officer has been arrested on charges of assault and battery, malicious destruction of property, intimidation of a witness, and failure to secure a large capacity firearm after police were called to his apartment on a domestic violence complaint involving his wife.
An Ottawa ON police officer has been sentenced to conditional discharge after pleading guilty to charges for severely whipping his young children, one a toddler still in diapers, as a form of discipline over a period of over two years.
An Austin TX police officer has been given a one-day suspension after being cited for slightly injuring a pedestrian he hit when he made an illegal turn in his police cruiser.
An Oak Brook IL police officer has been fired for obstructing an investigation into his father by hiding weapons for him and possibly hiding cash as well. His father, former Bolingbrook police officer Drew Peterson, facing trial on allegations he murdered at least one of his former wives.
A Carmel IN police officer has been fired on multiple allegations including that he would get overly friendly with female motorists and that he repeatedly turned off his dashcam and recording equipment against policy including one occasion where he entered a woman’s home while on duty.
Several New Haven CT police officers are under investigation on allegations that they participated in a protest against planned layoffs while they were on duty and others are under investigation on allegations that they participated in an illegal “sickout” as well.
Records released by the Houston TX police department show that arbitrators there, some serving in that capacity for over 20 years, have overturned disciplinary actions against police officers in 259 of 378 cases in last 17 years, which is about 70% of the time.