That deputy who stood around while a killer blasted away at students inside a school in Parkland, FL, has been roundly criticized for his inaction. But did he have a legal duty to enter the building? Unless there was a Florida statute demanding that he do so, then he was not required to anything other than what he did.
I use nighttime talk radio as a sleep aid, and here in Midland, TX, a local AM station plays a delayed broadcast of The Joe Pags Show. The other night a caller tried to discuss that absence of legal duty, and Joe Pags insisted that the caller cite the law. The caller couldn't.
Actually, it's a Supreme Court case which ruled in 2005 on civil liability for police inaction. The holding was in favor of the police. Without a state statute demanding action, then the plaintiff had no cause of action against the police. The facts of the case in Castle Rock v. Gonzales were horrendous. The plaintiff's estranged husband kidnapped her children and ultimately murdered them. The wife called the police several times after the kidnapping, but the police did nothing for several hours.
A moral duty can't be enforced. And without a statute that demanded action, the Parkland deputy really had no obligation to run into the gun fight. That said, police departments in many jurisdictions train the officers to go toward the gunfire in an active shooter situation.
Meanwhile, there's that nagging old saying, "When seconds count, police are minutes away." No wonder so many citizens are obtaining concealed carry permits. As of about a year ago, 6.6% of the adult population in the U.S. had a carry permit. However, only about 1.2% carry on a daily basis. That percentage probably ebbs and flows in proportion to the number of high profile shootings in the headlines.
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11:28 AM 3/18/2018
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