Quote Originally Posted by Flatline View Post
When a plumber floods your house he is expected to pay for damages, the same for faulty electrical work or IT mistakes, or at least to the the point of their expressed contracts.

What is the social contract with the police? What is their reprimand for violating it? Is the amnesty provisions as written appropriate?

Is dropping false charges after the public humiliation, false accusation, and legal fees not to mention the false imprisonment or arrest enough?


Clearly these police officers have a gross lack of education for the job that they do, is that their fault or the department that educated them? Whoever continued to issue a "cheat sheet" that is used to issue citations or arrest suspects with incorrect laws is partially responsible for what happened as well.

Most likely there will be no apology, no significant reeducation (though apparently the reissued the cheat sheet after being corrected), and nobody will be held personally liable within the department. And instead of receiving an apology from the department the guy could sue the department/officers and instead potentially cost the city millions (which he may or may not do).
Just like anyone else who screws up a job, there are remedies. If the plumber screws up he doesn't necessarily own up to the mistake and just fix it. Nor does the auto mechanic. Sometimes it takes a little persuasion.

We have a system for dealing with this. It's called civil court.

I'm in no way defending what the police did. It was wrong. They had the wrong information for some reason...for 9 years it went unnoticed.

But... A guy gets arrested and jailed. He's then released and the charges are dropped. Short of a public apology by the PD...which they can't really do for several reasons...is that all there is to it? Well, that's up to the citizen that was mistakenly arrested. He has further remedies in civil court just like he'd have if the plumber screwed up his plumbing and didn't make it right.

The officers might have some immunity. If they were trained that this is the city ordinance and department policy regarding guns in the park and they acted in good faith within the policy by which they were trained, they may indeed face only limited liability. However, the department overall and some others may not be so lucky.