COP SUITS UNCONSTITUTIONAL

Police Can't Be Allowed To Intimidate Complainants.

Citizen complaints are tools good police departments use to identify and
root out rogue officers. When citizens are dissuaded from complaining for
fear of lawsuits, a crucial check on police abuse is weakened.

In two separate cases at opposite ends of the state, two judges - one
federal and one state - have taken important steps to protect California
citizens from a dangerous, unconstitutional law that permits police officers
to sue citizens who complain about them.

In a case in Santa Ana, U.S. District Judge Gary Taylor struck down that
law, ruling it an unconstitutional violation of First Amendment free speech
rights of citizens who file complaints against police officers. While the
law may protect police officers from false complaints, Taylor said, "It is
also realistic to conclude it might be used to discourage legitimate
complaints."

In a separate action, a state court judge in San Francisco ordered a police
officer to pay $52,000 in legal fees to a woman he had sued after she
complained that the officer had kicked a handcuffed suspect. Even though the
San Francisco Office of Citizen Complaint, after interviewing the woman,
concluded the officer had used excessive force, the Police Department
internal review exonerated him. The officer filed a defamation claim against
the woman for $25,000.

Lawyers who took up the woman's case filed a successful countersuit under a
California law that allows people to recover attorneys fees when they are
sued improperly for exercising their First Amendment free speech rights. The
$52,000 judgment in the complainant's favor has potentially important
practical effect. It may make police officers and their unions think twice
about suing citizens.

Legally, the more significant ruling is the federal decision striking down
the law permitting police suits. Police lawyers have vowed to appeal that
ruling and that's probably a good thing. As it now stands, the ruling
technically covers only Southern California. The law, a dangerous and
unnecessary chilling of free speech, needs to be repudiated across
California, and at the highest judicial levels. An appeal would help
accomplish that.

These two court actions, while welcome, don't go far enough. An even more
troubling statute that lets police arrest citizens who file complaints
against them remains on the books, unchallenged. Both the public and police
departments benefit from open channels of communication. Unconstitutional
laws that allow police to arrest or sue people who complain about them clog
those channels.