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Failure To Protect: History and Direction

NCJ Number
105920
Journal
Federal Criminal Investigator Volume: 4 Issue: 1 Dated: (Summer 1986) Pages: 43-49
Author(s)
F Carrington
Date Published
1986
Length
7 pages
Annotation
In recent years, law enforcement officers have been subject to lawsuits by crime victims for not doing their jobs or for acting in such a negligent manner that death or injury resulted.
Abstract
A review of such actions suggests that most of these victims had a legitimate complaint. These cases include failure to prevent crime generally as well as failures to respond to requests for assistance, to arrest or restrain dangerous persons, to investigate, or to protect persons whom authorities have brought in contact with assailants or who have been helping authorities. A finding of liability in such cases is rare. Often they are barred on the grounds of sovereign immunity or are dismissed on the grounds that police have a duty to protect the general public but not any specific plaintiff. In addition, courts have been reluctant to find liability when the allegation is merely that police have failed to prevent a crime. In those cases where police have been found liable for failure to protect, the courts have held that the specific circumstances created a special relationship in which there was a duty to protect the plaintiff. 28 references.