TOP COP PERSONALLY LIABLE FOR SUBORDINATES ACTS

           
HOLD COPS FINANCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FOR
DAMAGE AWARDS IN JAILHOUSE BEATINGS



Some of the L.A. County sheriffs are a brutal lot. This seems to be particularly true of those posted at L.A. County jails. The citizens of Los Angeles County have had to out $54 million in civil rights awards or settlements involving Sheriff Departments jailhouse beatings. 

 
Now, as the L.A. Times reports in its Op Ed section today, Sheriff Lee Baca was ordered by a federal jury to personally pay an inmate $100,000 for ignoring warnings that letting deputies hit inmates with heavy flashlights could cause serious injuries. It's rare that a top law enforcement official be held personally responsible for the behavior of his underlings (in some cases sheriffs beat and tasered inmates even when they were unconscious and there were flashlight fractures in one of the instances involved in the award). 

 
Usually the County--a.k.a taxpayers--have to pay for the illegal activities of savages in their employ and, as noted above, officials above sheriff subordinates are not held financially responsible. The Times editorial board recommends that the County not indemnify defendants in these personal injury cases. Indeed cops, who are supposed to enforce the law, not break it, might be able to better control their sadistic impulses and stop beating helpless inmates if the County held them financially responsible for jailhouse abuse.