MEMPHIS, Tenn. — In Tuesday’s Ransom Note: we're hearing a lot about two different kinds of immunity these days. Herd immunity is a medical term related to getting enough people vaccinated to protect us from COVID-19. Qualified immunity is a legal term which protects just one group of people: bad cops.
Good cops will tell you it’s the single biggest factor as to why bad cops feel protected behind the blue line. It works like this. If you knew that no matter what you did you and your employer could never face a civil lawsuit, you might be more tempted to cross some ethical lines. Right now, that’s the protection police enjoy.
It also appears to be the sticking point as Congress works on a bi-partisan police reform bill called the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. The compromise being talked about is that individual officers will continue to have immunity but not police departments. While not perfect, that would be a win for reform. Police departments have deeper pockets than a cop making $50,000 a year anyway, and you can bet if departments no longer enjoy qualified immunity, they'll have much less patience for tolerating any bad officers in their ranks.
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