Anyone physically present in the United States has certain civil rights. Those rights come from the Constitution, federal law and even state regulations. Police officers are technically agents of the state, which means that they have to uphold the civil rights of the people with whom they interact.
Unfortunately, encounters with police officers are a leading source of civil rights violations in the United States. Law enforcement professionals might engage in a variety of inappropriate actions due to personal bias or a powerful desire to resolve an investigation.
Violations of an individual’s civil liberties can impact criminal cases and may even lead to civil litigation in some scenarios. What are the most common ways that police officers violate the rights of the people they encounter?
1. The use of excessive force
Police officers sometimes need to become physically aggressive with people to perform their jobs. They may need to restrain someone to take them into state custody or to prevent a crime from occurring.
Police officers typically need to use the lowest amount of force possible given the degree of risk involved in the situation. Some police officers are overly aggressive and can cause significant injuries to the people they detain.
2. Miranda violations
People taken into state custody have certain legal protections. The Miranda warning helps inform individuals of their legal rights so that they can make use of them during an interaction with law enforcement.
Police officers need to tell people about their right to remain silent and their right to legal representation before questioning them while they are in state custody. The failure to provide the Miranda warning and to respond appropriately when individuals invoke their rights could constitute a serious violation of an individual’s civil rights.
3. Inappropriate searches
Police officers sometimes need to search an individual’s person, a vehicle or a private residence to find evidence of a crime or identify a suspect. There are numerous rules that restrict police searches.
Typically, officers need warrants if they want to impound vehicles or conduct searches of private property. Otherwise, they need probable cause to justify their decision to search. In some cases, they can search with the consent of the person subject to the search. If police officers conduct inappropriate searches, their actions can compromise how the state uses the evidence that they gather.
Learning more about how police officers may overstep their legal authority can help people better respond to a violation of their civil rights. Misconduct by police officers can influence the best criminal defense strategy or may provide the basis for civil litigation in some cases.
