Collective Responsibility
by Jeff Harrison
Got Insurance? Police officers, police departments and police unions across America are asking this question for the first time. They are asking it because the days of the taxpayer paying 100% of a judgment for a police officer are over in Colorado and other States are looking to follow. Right about now you are thinking, “Wait a second, I’m a taxpayer. Did I pay the judgment for that police officer I read about in my local paper?” Yes, you did. Rogue police officers that are found guilty in civil court of using excessive force will be issued a financial judgment against them. At this point, the police officer is personally liable to pay this judgment. Do they pay it? No. The police officer hands the judgment to a city official who will write a check using taxpayer’s money. The police officer pays nothing.
Municipalities have been voluntarily using taxpayer’s money for police judgments forever but this is changing. Colorado is the first State to make it illegal for a municipality to use taxpayer’s money to pay for 100% of a judgment against a police officer. On June 19, 2020, Colorado signed into law Senate Bill 217 which requires police officers to pay 5%, up to $25,000, of any judgment against them. This is why professional liability insurance has become the buzz around the law enforcement industry.
Let’s talk about insurance for a second. I know what you’re thinking, boring! As the CEO of Prymus Insurance, I understand that insurance is not the most exciting thing in the world, but I promise I will make this worth your time. What is an insurance company? The best way to think of it is a fancy bucket. The bucket is filled with money from many people with similar risk to share in the cost of an event by a few. For example, when a doctor pays for malpractice insurance that money goes into a bucket that other doctors paid into as well. When one doctor has a claim the money used to pay it will be coming from this collective bucket. Simple concept. Now think about a police officer in Colorado that has to pay a $25,000 judgment. Do they write a personal check out of their savings or join a group of other police officers paying into this collective bucket? Insurance is really the only option to guarantee a judgment can be paid by an individual police officer which is why Prymus Insurance created our Law Enforcement Liability Insurance product.
Professional liability insurance is extremely common in all industries. It is rare for a professional to not carry liability insurance. For example, my wife is a couples counselor that meets with married couples online. She has a small one woman practice and she has professional liability insurance. Even a notary at the bank has to personally carry professional liability insurance. It is not some bizarre idea for police officers to carry professional liability insurance. It’s more amazing that they have gone this long without it.
No matter where you stand, law enforcement liability insurance benefits you. If you are a taxpayer, less of your tax dollars will go towards police officer judgments. If you are a police officer, you have a method of pooling risk with other police officers to pay for a judgment. If you are a police accountability advocate, police officers will now directly pay their portion of a judgment.
Currently, Colorado is the only State that makes it illegal for a municipality to pay 100% of a rogue police officer's judgment. This means that 49 States are still paying 100% of judgments with taxpayer’s money that could be used for other purposes. What we need to decide as a society is this. Do we want our taxpayer money to pay for 100% of judgments against police officers or do we want the law enforcement industry to have Collective Responsibility for judgments against police officers?