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Hold Police Liable

One idea we think is very promising is requiring police to carry insurance the same way that we require other professionals like doctors and lawyers to carry it. And I think that there are lots of advantages to that. It ensures that there’s always going to be funds to cover judgment so that the victim is compensated. You know, it protects individual officers, from what could be extraordinary litigation costs. But it also means that over time, as you see, it will price out of the market that minority of officers who routinely commit these kinds of violations. It’s worth noting that Derek Chauvin, the officer who killed George Floyd, had, I believe 18 complaints against him before this came up. In a sensible world where we required officers to carry professional insurance and their premiums proportionately reflected their likelihood of committing official misconduct, there’s a good chance to think he would have been priced out of the market long before this happened.

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