It should be mandatory for police to carry their own insurance

[tulipsandroses]

I think they should pay for their own insurance - akin to healthcare providers' malpractice insurance. As a healthcare provider, I carry my own malpractice insurance. I also have malpractice insurance through my employer. Its always advised to carry your own insurance. If the business is sued because of something you the provider are accused of, don't always assume the the business will protect you.
Some businesses, usually smaller ones, make it mandatory for providers to carry their own malpractice insurance.

My point is, if these cops have to pay out of their own pockets, they may think twice before being reckless. As it stands, they have no financial skin in the game. Someone sues, they are suing the city. AKA local tax payers. Malpractice insurance is not cheap. Depending on the field. The higher the risk, the higher the insurance. I have worked with healthcare personnel that left areas of medicine due to it being high risk and having to pay an arm and a leg for malpractice insurance. I think policing should be considered high risk and make them pay an arm and a leg for insurance

By the way, I think all gun owners should carry insurance.

[Onelove Vt]

1. Instead

Settlements should be paid for out of the police union and retirement funds

[gopiscrap]

7. YES!!!!

[MontanaMama]

2. This is interesting.

I’ve never thought of this possibility before. While it might be a financial hardship for a twenty something to get liability insurance when he/she gets out of cop school...maybe it would make more sense if cities and counties to carry the insurance. That way, the insurance companies would require vetting for officers to enter the police force and then keep vetting them to be able to keep them on the force. That said...I hate insurance companies with the heat of 1000 suns. However, your idea is intriguing. I look forward to seeing What the comments are here.

[alwaysinasnit]

3. Ending qualified immunity.

https://www.aol.com/article/news/2020/06/01/us-lawmaker-readies-bill-aimed-at-ending-police-court-protection/24502158/

WASHINGTON, June 1 (Reuters) - With cities across the United States in turmoil over the death of George Floyd, a U.S. lawmaker plans to introduce legislation this week to eliminate a legal doctrine that protects police officers from being sued for illegal and unconstitutional acts.

U.S. Representative Justin Amash, a conservative independent from Michigan, won support from a Minneapolis Democrat on Monday for his "Ending Qualified Immunity Act," which would allow civil lawsuits against police, a recourse that the Supreme Court has all but done away with.

The high court's adoption https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-police-immunity-scotus-specialrep/special-report-for-cops-who-kill-special-supreme-court-protection-idUSKBN22K18C of the qualified immunity doctrine has largely shielded police and other government officials from having to pay financial settlements to victims or grieving families. The doctrine increasingly protects cops even when courts have determined that the officers violated a victim's civil rights, a Reuters investigation showed https://www.reuters.com/article/us-minneapolis-police-immunity-outliers/when-cops-kill-redress-is-rare-except-in-famous-cases-idUSKBN22K193.

snip...

[marybourg]

4. And then the insurance companies will lobby

for higher thresholds of liability, shorter statute of limitations and laws against “frivolous lawsuits”, threatening bankruptcy if they don’t get their way. No, there’s a very good reason why the employer - the city, state or federal government - should be held liable. We don’t need “private industry” involved in an already fraught and complex situation.

[uponit7771]

5. Or the insurance companies should be sued for letting PDs hire assholes who have 18 complaints

... and multiple unarmed shootings on their records.

The insurance companies have a responsibility to share holders to insure responsibly and currently they're not, they just pay out when assholes like Chauvin murder people.

[pecosbob]

6. Non-partisan citizen review boards for LEO misconduct perhaps?

Actual documentation and recording of misconduct statistics with meaningful ratings that follow the officers in question. You can't operate as a damned plumber anywhere these days without being rated by a world of outfits like YELP and Angie's List, yet we can't seem to tie misconduct to rogue police as they serially relocate to other departments. A way to force LEOs to police their own must be found...the blue wall kills.