When you are involved with public employee disciplinary matters and have procedural time limits imposed on your case, failing to meet those time limits will normally result in losing the ability to discipline the employee regardless what the misconduct may be. In essence these limits are essentially a statute of limitations, in other words, bring your discipline within the allotted time frame or you cannot bring it, no matter what the facts prove. These types of time limits are embodied in legislation, such as Law Enforcement Officers Bill of Rights, other legislative or administrative rulings, collective bargaining agreements, City or [...]

Golphin v. Florida, No. SC03-554 (December 14, 2006) The Supreme Court of Florida recently decided an important case regarding consensual encounters. In Golphin v. Florida, 1 two police officers were on patrol in an area of Daytona Beach that is known for prostitution and narcotics traffic. The police officers were specifically in that area to conduct field interviews with individuals in that area. The officers observed a group of approximately five males standing on a street corner and intended to speak with them. The officers parked their police vehicle on the opposite side of the street and walked across the street toward [...]

In Los Angeles County v. Rettele et. al, i the United States Supreme Court reviewed a civil rights lawsuit brought against Los Angeles County officers who had executed a search warrant at a home that had been sold and was no longer in possession of the subjects of the warrant. Los Angeles County officers were investigating a fraud and identity-theft ring that involved 4 African-American subjects, one of whom was known to possess a registered handgun. The investigation was conducted between September and December of 2001. In early December, the investigator in the case obtained a search warrant authorizing the search of two [...]

U.S. v. Courtney, 463 F.3d 333 (5th Cir. 2006) Cherie Marie Courtney testified falsely at the trial of her boyfriend, Shawn Kilgarlin. Two EPA Special Agents conducted two interviews with Courtney. A year later she was indicted, arrested and Mirandized. She waived her rights and spoke with the agents. She again made incriminating statements similar to her prior statements. At a motion to suppress, she argued that all of her statements should be suppressed because the agents, in their first two interviews, intentionally did not advise her of her rights under Miranda and they did so as a tactic to [...]

Rodriguez v. Farrell, 280 F. 3d 1341 (11th Cir. 2002) Chapman v. City of Atlanta, No. 05-15505, 2006 U.S. App. LEXIS 20767 (August 14, 2006) On January 20, 2002 the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals held that, when the police have a valid warrant to arrest someone, but mistakenly arrest someone else due to a misidentification, there is no constitutional violation, as long as the mistake was reasonable. This holding stems from an incident that took place in Florida on September 8, 1995. On that date, at 12:10 a.m., police officers in Florida conducted a traffic stop on a car [...]

Each and everyday, law enforcement officers throughout the United States come into contact with persons who are suffering from some disability. Some of these persons are suffering from a disability that would make them eligible for protection under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). i Some of these individuals would not meet the criteria for protection under the ADA but do suffer from some injury or illness that may make certain police tactics more dangerous to them. This article focuses on police contacts with persons suffering from a disability in the broader sense, in other words, those who would be eligible for [...]