Issue Police Misconduct
THE ISSUE: Police and prosecutorial misconduct is a huge blemish on our society. We routinely hear about police shootings of civilians where the evidence is not aired out publicly, or police stealing millions of dollars in cash from forfeiture seizures, or prosecutors who are willing to subvert the rule of law to get a conviction in court on flimsy evidence. Something must be done so that we can feel safe around the police again.
THE PRINCIPLE: Anyone who violates the individual rights of another must make restitution, to the extent possible. It makes no difference that the rights violation may have been in the course of a misguided attempt to enforce rights-violating laws.
We believe all government employees and elected representatives must be required to comply with the same laws that apply to private citizens. When government is allowed special immunities against wrong doing that ordinary citizens are not, it should be no surprise that there is so much corruption and abuse of power in our law enforcement departments.
LIBERTARIAN SOLUTIONS: First, we call for the elimination of absolute immunity for prosecutors and qualified immunity for other law enforcement officers. Immunity breeds contempt for the rule of law, and transgressors must be held accountable for their actions even if employed by the government.
Second, we call for strict requirement of restitution and compensation to victims of rights violations, paid out of the pockets of the individuals responsible for the violations. The taxpayers should not be asked to foot the bill on behalf of law enforcement officers who break the law they swore to uphold.
Third, we call for the establishment of an independent citizen review board that would have authority of censure and removal of bad police officers and prosecutors. The power of the citizens over its law enforcement is the only thing that stands in between a free people and a police state.
LIBERTARIAN ACTION/TRANSITION: Arizona law denies the claim of immunity to many government actors who would be protected by immunity laws in other states or in the federal jurisdiction. This is a good start; but it is hardly the entire recipe for eliminating police and prosecutorial misconduct.
The largest abuses tend to revolve around asset forfeitures, where police seize "drug money" or other properties belonging to a suspect, and then keep the property for the local police department regardless of whether the suspect is even charged with a crime, much less convicted. Asset forfeiture laws need to be eliminated, but law enforcement officers caught with their hands in the forfeiture cookie jar deserve to meet with the harshest penalties. Such actions by the police completely undermine society's confidence in the police as protectors of individual rights.
