To the Editor:

With the enactment of An Act Concerning Police Accountability, Public Act 20-1 of the July Special Session, signed into law on July 31, Connecticut became the second state (after Colorado) to limit qualified immunity in civil rights lawsuits against police officers.

The act creates a new state cause of action that is worded very similarly to the federal civil rights statute, 42 U.S.C. 1983, and limits the defense of qualified immunity to situations in which “the police officer had an objectively good faith belief that such officer’s conduct did not violate the law.”

Enacted by Congress in 1871, Sec. 1983 authorizes private, federal lawsuits for deprivations of civil rights by anyone acting “under color of law.” The defense of qualified immunity was not created by Congress or the Constitution.

Early on, federal courts recognized a good-faith type exception for government actors. Starting in the 1960s, the US Supreme Court began to develop the doctrine of qualified immunity as an expansion of the good-faith exception. Since then, federal courts have expanded qualified immunity by more narrowly defining the rights that are protected by and actionable under the federal statute.

Recent decisions have held that the right be established particularly, not generally. In effect, if there is no basis in case law for a particular manner of the deprivation of a person’s rights, the suit cannot go forward. If suits cannot go forward and proceed to trial, new law cannot be established to define the right.

The good-faith exception appreciates that officers must make quick and difficult decisions in dangerous situations. Those who violate citizens’ rights through intentional or reckless conduct can and should be held accountable.

Christopher DeMatteo, criminal defense attorney

DeMatteo Legal Solutions

203 Campbell Avenue, West Haven September 8, 2020