Police Misconduct / Civil Rights Violations

Over the years the Law Office of David S. Olshansky & Associates has been responsible for starting major lawsuits against various police agencies for misconduct and has been able to recover large sums of money for the victims of the misconduct.

If your life has been affected by unconstitutional police or governmental conduct you may be able to collect money damages for violations of civil rights granted under federal statutes and Illinois state laws. There are many forms of police misconduct ranging from false arrests to excessive force. Police brutality is a term used to describe the excessive use of physical force, assault, verbal attacks, and threats by police officers and other law enforcement officers. the term may also be applied to such behavior when used by prison officers. Brutality is one of several forms of police misconduct which also include false arrest, intimidation, racial profiling, political repression, surveillance abuse, sexual abuse, and police corruption.

There are State and Federal laws that provide a victim of police misconduct the opportunity to collect money damages for the illegal actions of the police. the most commonly used section of the law is Section 1983 of the Federal Code.

Section 1983 states: “Every person who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws, shall be liable to the party injured in an action at law, suit in equity, or other proper proceeding for redress, except that in any action brought against a judicial officer for an act or omission taken in such officer’s judicial capacity, injunctive relief shall not be granted unless a declaratory decree was violated or declaratory relief was unavailable. for the purposes of this section, any Act of Congress applicable exclusively to the District of Columbia shall be considered to be a statute of the District of Columbia.”

In short, the 1983 Section statute creates a lawsuit for abuse of government power and authorizes a private, civil lawsuit against any person who abuses state or local government authority to violate another person’s civil rights. Police brutality is illegal, and victims of police brutality can sue individual officers, as well as the cities or counties that hired them for violation of their civil rights.

If you are a victim of police misconduct please contact us immediately – 312.902.2233, – because there are time limits in which you must start the legal action against the police.