Holding Police Accountable: Joanna Schwartz

Thursday, March 23rd, 2023   Joanna Schwartz is a professor of law at UCLA, where she teaches civil procedure and courses on police accountability. Her new book is Shielded: How the Police Became Untouchable. We discuss the multiple levels of protection for police offers and how local and state laws can break us out of the qualified immunity maze.   There is a broad systemic problem with holding police accountable when they abuse their power or violate the law. The Supreme Court and state and local governments have created interlocking layers of shields for law enforcement officers. Qualified immunities have become so strong that officers are protected even if they have acted in bad faith, so long as they have not broken a law. Indemnification is also an important part of the shield, which results in officers virtually never paying. Police accountability can improve and we should all be invested in making it work better.   Follow Joanna on Twitter: https://twitter.com/JCSchwartzProf   Follow Mila on Twitter: https://twitter.com/milaatmos   Follow Future Hindsight on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/futurehindsightpod/   Love Future Hindsight? Take our Listener Survey! http://survey.podtrac.com/start-survey.aspx?pubid=6tI0Zi1e78vq&ver=standard   Want to support the show and get it early? https://patreon.com/futurehindsight   Check out the Future Hindsight website! www.futurehindsight.com   Read the transcript here: https://www.futurehindsight.com/episodes/holding-police-accountable-joanna-schwartz     Credits: Host: Mila Atmos Guests: Joanna Schwartz Executive Producer: Mila Atmos Producers: Zack Travis and Sara Burningham