You may believe you have no chance of being let off once you have been arrested for an offense you may not even know you had committed. This often happens in DUI cases when a police officer fails to use the field sobriety test correctly or when an illegal search is conducted before your Miranda rights have been read out to you. You do have legal rights and whether you committed an offense or not if the police officer involved breached your legal rights and you are able to find the evidence you may get a better outcome to your arrest.
Some of the most common wrongdoings by police officers include:
- Unlawful shooting.
This is the excessive use of force which is more likely to result in fatal injuries
- Verbal abuse.
This includes threats of violence and inappropriate comments about the person’s features such as disability, race, gender, socioeconomic status or sexual leaning.
- Sexual abuse.
Police have been known to use their status to sexually abuse both genders and in particular women when they are subjected to strip searches, forced into sexual encounters, groped, assaulted, or forcibly rape.
- Jail neglect and abuse.
It is a law enforcer duty when confining someone in jail to provide them with sufficient food, water and medical treatment as well as preventing the person from being injured by someone else.
- Illegal search and seizure.
This is not acceptable without a search warrant.
- False arrest.
This sort of action is often linked to racial or other bias profiling and sometimes results in coerced or forced confessions leading to a false arrest
- Excessive use of force.
This could include unreasonable use of tasers, guns, stun guns, pepper spray or nightsticks.
If you have been the victim of illegal action by police and were even wrongly accused of something you didn’t do, the effects can be devastating while making you feel helpless. Depending on the type of misconduct by the police officer you may be damaged emotionally and feel humiliated as well as being physically injured. The sorts of common injuries from police misconduct could be broken limbs, a spinal cord injury and traumatic brain injury. These can be life changing injuries requiring long term medical treatment. The emotional effects of a police officer’s wrongdoing may have long term effects on your relationship with family and friends.
If you have been a victim of a police officer’s abuse of power you are not the only one who has been through this experience. You need to gather together the evidence that supports you have been a victim of wrong doing by a police officer.
Finding evidence which supports your case
A police misconduct case is notoriously difficult to prove and the police will try to blame you the victim. Depending on where the illegal behavior took place you will need evidence to prove it. For example if it was on prison premises surveillance cameras may reveal the misconduct. Also there maybe witnesses who are prepared to come forward who saw the abuse take place. An investigation by your attorney may reveal that there had been previous complaints against the police officer who abused you. Medical evidence provided by your doctor should show the extent of your injuries and how they took place.
You can help to build your claim by keeping a record of the wrong doing as it happened. This could include the following:
- writing down the details of the incident as it takes place;
- taking photographs of your injuries as soon as you can;
- keep any clothing that was torn or damaged by the police officer including any that may be blood stained when you were injured.
One thing you shouldn’t do is discuss the abuse with anyone except your attorney. This could lead to misinterpretation which may make it more difficult to prove when your attorney takes up your complaint.
When your attorney has agreed to take up your case you may find you can get compensated for the injuries you got from the police officer and compensation for the pain and suffering you have endured due to the police officer’s misconduct.
In Anchorage, contact the Law Office of Dattan Scott Dattan if you have been mistreated or harmed by a police officer. He will fight to represent you in court. Call Dattan Scott Dattan’s office in Anchorage at 907-276-8008.
