The start of a solution is to remove the USSC-created fiction of government immunity. A few money judgments against individuals and they will all shape up.
Note that a private person doesn't have their civil lawsuit attorney file a motion to dismiss because of immunity. Giving government bad actors immunity causes behaviors that are harmful. Black Lives Matter would do well to look at this, if they are interested in the causes of government misconduct.
No, they will all just quit. There is no job on Earth that you could fill, from teacher to plumber to police officer, that literally anyone would do if they were held personally responsible for doing their job wrong on the job.
It's insane that people want to strip this worker protection away from workers.
There has to be some kind of balance against the overwhelming power law enforcement wields over citizens. Maybe totally removing qualified immunity isn't the answer. But something needs to change to curtail abuse. I have no idea what that might be - even stepping up internal enforcement of policy and proper procedure might have the unintended consequence of law enforcement becoming reluctant to do their jobs.
> There is no job on Earth that you could fill, from teacher to plumber to police officer, that literally anyone would do if they were held personally responsible for doing their job wrong on the job.
Most private jobs have no immunity from liability for workers for torts done on the job; in most the employer is also liable and often a more attractive litigation target—more money, more motivation to settle, more likely to pay a judgement it settlement. But the worker isn't immune, and it's regularly sued when the employer is.
And yet, people work all kinds of jobs with neither absolute nor qualified immunity.
A DoD Information Assurance Vulnerability Management professional is required to sign a document that says they will be personally responsible if a breach occurs on their watch due to error on their part. An IAVM protects intellectual property. A cop protects lives. I consider lives more important than intellectual property - so why shouldn't a cop have to sign the same type of document?
There is a big difference between an honest mistake and willful actions that sabotage the job. For the latter normal employees are being held personally responsible. There is no reason prosecutors / police / similar should be the exception. They've committed criminal acts. Let the fuckers suffer the same fate they've imposed on their victims at taxpayers expense.
> There is a big difference between an honest mistake and willful actions that sabotage the job
Willful sabotage is not protected by QI.
> They've committed criminal acts.
Criminal liability isn't affected by QI (it is affected by absolute immunity, but that only applies to things that are mandatory, not discretionary, parts of the job.)
So I take it then that willfully ignoring a law and withholding an exculpatory evidence is not a crime then. Nice. Basically license to screw one's life without any consequences.
Note that a private person doesn't have their civil lawsuit attorney file a motion to dismiss because of immunity. Giving government bad actors immunity causes behaviors that are harmful. Black Lives Matter would do well to look at this, if they are interested in the causes of government misconduct.