Robert Lowery, Jr. National Instructor Legal and Liability Risk Management Institute: During this unprecedented time the need for social distancing and isolation (stay at home orders) has changed our daily lives. While, for some, this is disruptive we also must be mindful that It has also changed the daily routines of our homebound children. While at home our kids are engaged in a variety of safe and supervised activities, such as home schooling, play activities, crafts, games, etc. A side-effect of social distancing is that they’re also temporarily physically isolated from many important influences in their lives, such as school [...]

On August 22, 2019, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals decided Huebner v. Bradshaw et al.[i], which serves as an excellent review of the law related to false arrest and excessive force as it pertains to handcuffing.   The relevant facts of Huebner, as written by Judge Newsome, are as follows: You can't make this stuff up. We have hair-pulling, wrist-scratching, face-punching, and rock-throwing—all the makings of a good old-fashioned schoolyard scrap. But alas, the combatants in the fracas underlying this Fourth Amendment case were grown-ups—sisters, in fact. Sheesh… The sad story underlying this appeal began when one of our two [...]

©2020 Jack Ryan, Attorney, Legal & Liability Risk Management Institute (www.llrmi.com) Officer Can Make Brief Stop of Vehicle where Registered Owner’s License is Revoked unless there is Information that should Dispel a Belief that the Owner is the Driver In Kansas v. Glover,[1] the United States Supreme Court considered a case where Deputy Mehrer of the Douglas County Kansas Sheriff’s Office observed a 1995 Chevrolet 1500 pickup truck with Kansas plate 295 ATJ.   Deputy Mehrer ran the plate with the Kansas Department of Revenue and it came back on the 1995 Chevrolet 1500 pickup. The Kansas Department of Revenue [...]

This encounter is becoming more and more common in today’s public safety employee administrative investigations.  Can you order your employee to produce and assist in discovery of materials that might be on his/her personal cell phone or smart device?  The basic answer is yes; subject to certain conditions. What are some of the kinds of public safety administrative investigations where the need to get into an employee’s personal cell phone/smart device have recently occurred? SRO sexting with students Correctional officer making contacts with current and prior inmates A Chief of Police sending photos of his ‘junk’ to female subordinates Proof [...]

On July 9, 2019, the Court of Appeals of Georgia decided Chambers v. State[i], which serves as an excellent review of the law related to seizures of persons and searches of abandoned property.   The relevant facts of Chambers, taken directly from the case, are as follows: [T]he evidences show that in January 2009, an agent with the Oconee Drug Task Force received a tip from an unpaid confidential informant. The agent had known the informant for five years, the informant's previous tips had resulted in ten to fifteen arrests, and the informant had never given the agent false information. The [...]

On July 23, 2019, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decided Keller v. Fleming[i], in which the court examined whether a deputy violated the Fourth or Fourteenth Amendment when he drove a vagrant to the county line, dropped him off, and the man was subsequently struck and killed by another motorist. The relevant facts of Fleming, taken directly from the case, are as follows: On the afternoon of January 26, 2015, Gerald Simpson was walking in the middle of Highway 12 in Kosciusko, Mississippi, eating from a box of chicken. Kosciusko police officers responded to a dispatch call reporting Simpson's [...]