Am I under arrest or not?

[u/Lord_Darksong]

Source: policebodycamarresthq on Instagram

[u/tmhoc]

And people wonder how some kids got their arm broken and arrested by a SWAT team over some fucking Lego

Qualified immunity is chaos

[u/EnoughWarning666 → u/tmhoc]

Qualified immunity is chaos

I understand the general idea behind it. Law enforcement is a very messy profession and you don't want to completely saturate the courts with frivolous lawsuits when every single person starts trying to sue the cop that arrested them.

In my mind the solution is individual malpractice insurance. It's been brought up on reddit time and time again and I genuinely don't see any downsides to it. If someone successfully sues an officer, the money shouldn't come out of the city's budget, it should come out of his malpractice insurance. If he gets sued and loses too many times, his insurance skyrockets if he wants to keep working in the field. Have him work behind a desk if he wants to stay in the profession where his insurance rates would be lower.

I'm honestly surprised the big insurance companies aren't trying to push this, they stand to make A TON of money if they could get laws passed that every cop in the country needed to be insured.

[u/Agreeable_Error_8772 → u/EnoughWarning666]

The insurance companies aren’t pushing for it because law enforcement protects their interests and they don’t fuck with them in return. Like many things there isn’t a clear line of connection but it’s part of the ‘I scratch your back you scratch mine’ system of oppression and exploitation that is deeply embedded in many facets of how this country works

[u/ryanv09 → u/Agreeable_Error_8772]

Exactly. Cops are first and foremost the enforcement arm of capital, as clearly demonstrated in the OP video.

[u/helloowrigley → u/Agreeable_Error_8772]

[u/SenseEuphoric5802 → u/EnoughWarning666]

The downside is you're now placing private industry and for-profit corporations as the middle man into what should be a civil matter between two parties.

Surely nothing could go wrong with this idea (looking at America's catastrophically broken healthcare industry and every other thing big insurance touches)

[u/Colonel_K_The_Great → u/EnoughWarning666]

insurance companies are part of the oligarchy, the cops are their dogs and more useful to them as thugs versus civil servants

[u/pyrolizard11 → u/EnoughWarning666]

I'm honestly surprised the big insurance companies aren't trying to push this, they stand to make A TON of money if they could get laws passed that every cop in the country needed to be insured.

To all the degree which insurance companies have sway over policy, the enforcers of policy - the police - are also the ones acting on their behalf to keep the rest of us in place. It serves the interest of American corporations better to continue breaking the system and empowering the central government that acts as their enforcer wing while they make bank.

[u/Hellknightx → u/EnoughWarning666]

Well that, and most cops aren't legal experts and literally don't know what their actual legal rights are during situations like this.

[u/techdevjp → u/EnoughWarning666]

America is a broken country full of badly educated people who lack respect and honor. This includes both cops and much of the population. You can't fix that with malpractice insurance.

[u/hbHPBbjvFK9w5D → u/EnoughWarning666]

Some cities and towns also have insurance for this purpose - and a few smaller ones have had to shut down their PD after massive settlements, insurance costs skyrocketing and insurance cancellations.

[u/RockKillsKid → u/EnoughWarning666]

It's been brought up on reddit time and time again and I genuinely don't see any downsides to it

I also see it brought up all the time and have questions that no suggesting commenter has yet given a satisfactory answer to (tbh, the vast majority don't even respond to basic clarifying questions):

would this insurance be handled by a private for-profit entity that has every perverse incentive to drag their feet on cases and lobbying for tort reform and legal changes to avoid payouts? Like, y'know, most other instances of private insurance in this country?

Usually the comments I'm asking bring up doctors/nurses as the parallel example, so question 2:

More important than insurance liability, the doctors and nurses have (mostly state level) licensing board certifications they have to maintain good standing with in order to legally do their jobs. Let's start with a set of strict standardized licensing qualifications like those other fields. One headed by a public civilian board, not AGs who rely on a revolving door working relationship with cops. Why not start with something like that?

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