Why You and Your Officers Need Our Civil Liability
Prevention Courses:
 Since
1991, our Director
of Training, George T. Williams, has been serving as an expert witness
in civil litigation cases where the use of force by officers was an
issue. In 1995, there was a decided shift in tactics by
attorney's specializing in suing officers. Becoming more
sophisticated, Plaintiffs' Attorneys are now asking officers specific
questions about the officer's training and duties that, frankly,
officers are not adequately answering. This is leading to
plaintiff's awards in cases where officers achieved proper conduct in
the field but lost in court. Many cases are settled due to a
lack of articulation and/or documentation by the involved-officers.
Criminal cases are now suffering, too. We are hearing from
officers all over the nation about criminal defense attorneys using
the same tactics in questioning officers as plaintiffs' attorneys in
civil cases. When the officer fails to adequately answer the
question, some of these criminal cases are being dismissed! This
is a problem these courses address completely.
In the
area of reporting uses of force, again, the threat posed by
plaintiffs' attorneys actions have changed dramatically. Now force
reports that were adequate just a few years ago, are being challenged
as never before. Due to inadequate reports, not only are officers
being penalized through judgments (including punitive awards), but also
their agencies and command personnel are being sued via Monell
theories of liability. Articulation is the key, and recent trends in
litigation show our officers, their supervisors, and police
administrators need additional training in explaining force
employment. Their explanation of their police enforcement tactics and
actions is now just as vital as the proper and reasonable use of force
itself.
These Courses Were Designed For You
These
training courses were designed for law enforcement guided by a peer
review committee of nationally-known attorneys who work full time
defending officers and their agencies against civil litigation
alleging civil rights violations. However, it is not an attorney's
course featuring the usual dry legal update lecture. These
are nuts-and-bolts, ultimately practical seminars that change
officers behavior due to their real world application to real world
problems. These are the courses that every police administrator
wants, and every patrol officer and supervisor needs!
These
are extremely popular courses with the officers, supervisors, and
managers who attend these timely, vital courses. It's interesting
that they are so well received considering that most officers view the
assignment to a civil liability course with the same enthusiasm as a
root canal without anesthesia. We constantly receive comments that ...every
officer in the country should be required to attend, and ...should
be mandatory training every year for every officer. These are
the courses your officers, supervisors, and managers need to do their
job and then prove their proper conduct.
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