Police Liability and Risk Management
Torts, Civil Rights, and Employment Law

Law enforcement agencies and their employees are continually at risk for potential liability related to torts, civil rights violations, and employment law issues. Litigation may involve suits by the public against officers and the administration, actions by the administration against officers, or actions by officers against the administration or members of the public they serve. Knowledge of these risks and understanding how they arise are essential to law enforcement officers, administrators, and their legal counsel.

Police Liability and Risk Management: Torts, Civil Rights, and Employment Law is written by an attorney and a 34-year law enforcement veteran who knows his way around the streets and the courtroom. Dr. Robert J. Girod combines decades of teaching and practical experience with legal and academic education to compile this practical source of case law and risk management principles. The book is designed to help law enforcement professionals reduce police liability and avoid the risk of litigation?or, in the event a lawsuit does arise?to manage liability and defend themselves.

In our litigious society, suits involving the law enforcement community are becoming a more common occurrence and can destroy an officer?s career or cast a pall on an entire department. By understanding the laws governing these types of issues, law enforcement professionals are better able to monitor the sources of liability and implement risk management strategies to shield their policies, practices, procedures, and protocols from the danger of liability.

Risk Management. Fundamentals of Risk Management. Torts. Intentional Torts. Negligence. Duty of Care. Nuisance. Defamation. Invasion of Privacy. Misrepresentation. Liabilities and Common Claims. Products Liability. Strict Liability. Common Claims: Negligent Operation of Emergency Vehicles and Pursuits. Civil Rights. Civil Rights. Use of Force. Employment and Labor Law. Employment Law. Labor Law. Managing Risk: What to Do Now. Risk Management: Recapitulation and Retrospective. Appendices. Index.

Robert J. Girod, PhD,JD is the president and CEO of Robert J. Girod Consulting, LLC. He also serves as a captain with the Haviland-Latty Police Departments. Dr. Girod retired from the Fort Wayne Police Department after 23 years as the robbery–homicide supervisor and founding member of the FBI Federal Bank Robbery Task Force. He served as a special deputy for the U.S. Marshal’s Service and as a police officer with the Indianapolis Police Department and the Indiana University Police Department. He was a special agent with the Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigations and an investigator with the Indiana Department of Insurance and the Wells County Prosecutor’s Office, where he began his career in 1979. He was also a captain in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he primarily served in the U.S. Army Criminal Investigations Command (USCIDC) and later as a major in the Indiana Guard Reserve.

Dr. Girod has been an adjunct professor or associate faculty member at eight universities and has taught more than 30 subjects in management, criminal justice, public administration, political science, history, and sociology at the undergraduate through the doctoral level in traditional, adult education, correspondence, and Internet modes. He is the author of Profiling the Criminal Mind: Behavioral Science and Criminal Investigative Analysis and Infamous Murders and Mysteries: Cold Case Files and Who-Done-Its. He also has authored numerous articles for various professional periodicals, such as FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, Security Management, The Police Marksman, and Musubi.