Craig Futterman on Why Cops Are Often Let Off the Hook for Civil Rights Complaints

Trib investigation: Cops often let off hook for civil rights complaints

Brian Bowling and Andrew Conte
March 12, 2016 Trib Live

The most frequent reasons cited for declining civil rights complaints involving officers: weak or insufficient evidence, lack of criminal intent required under a 1945 Supreme Court ruling standard, and orders from the Justice Department.

“This is an area, quite honestly, where the feds need to be bolder and put greater resources in,” said Craig Futterman, a law professor who founded the Civil Rights and Police Accountability Project at the University of Chicago. “... Indeed, the failure to aggressively bring those cases has allowed too many abusive officers to believe that they can operate without fear of punishment.”