AELE LAW LIBRARY OF CASE SUMMARIES:
Civil Liability of Law Enforcement Agencies
& Personnel
Police Plaintiff: Privacy
Police officials
did not violate the Fourth Amendment rights of police officers by searching
them after the residents of a home that they were searching accused him
of stealing $1,750 in cash during the search. A reasonable person in the
plaintiffs' position would not have feared arrest or detention if they
had refused the defendants' request to search them for the money. The fact
that one of the plaintiffs agreed to the search only because he was taking
a nonprescription supplement to clean his colon and therefore had an immediate
need to use the restroom and couldn't do so until he had been searched
did not turn what occurred into a "seizure." Carter v. City of
Milwaukee, #13-2187, (7th Cir.).
Television station's
broadcasting of the identity of two former undercover officers and their
undercover status while reporting on allegations that they were involved
in a sexual assault incident did not support claims for either invasion
of privacy or intentional infliction of emotional distress under New Mexico
state law. The officers were later cleared of any involvement in the sexual
assault. Alvarado v. KOB-TV, L.L.C., No. 06-2001, 2007 U.S. App. Lexis
16720 (10th Cir.).
The release of a police officer's personnel
file after a highly publicized traffic stop could not be the basis of liability
for the police chief and city manager in his federal civil rights lawsuit.
The release did not violate his constitutional rights to privacy or due
process, so the defendants were entitled to qualified immunity. Additionally,
the court finds that the officer's own "penchant" for attention
by the media led to the voluntary release of his personal information into
the public eye. Hall v. City of Cookeville, Tennessee, No. 04-6133, 157
Fed. Appx. 809 (6th Cir. 2005). [N/R]
Police officers stated a claim against an
arrestee for violating a Massachusetts state statute prohibiting unconsented
to interception of wire and oral communications in alleging that he surreptitiously
made a tape recording of his arrest, transportation, and booking. Gouin
v. Gouin, No. CIV. A.2001-10890-RBC, 249 F. Supp. 2d 62 (D. Mass. 2003).
[N/R]
311:173 Release
of personnel files of undercover officers to criminal defense counsel,
which was done without court order, violated their constitutionally protected
privacy rights, risking the lives of the officers and their families, in
light of home addresses and other personal information contained in files;
officers entitled to damages and injunctive relief. Kallstrom v. City of
Columbus, #96-3853, (6th Cir. 1998), reh. en banc denied, 1998 U.S. App.
Lexis 10896.