New York City has become the first major USA metropolis to end qualified immunity for the NYPD massive 56K member force.
Qualified immunity protects a government official from lawsuits alleging that he, or she violated a plaintiff's rights, only allowing suits where officials violated a “clearly established” statutory or constitutional right.
The U.S. Supreme Court first introduced the qualified immunity doctrine in Pierson v. Ray 1967, a case litigated during the height of the civil rights movement, it is stated to have been originally introduced with the rationale of protecting law enforcement officials from frivolous lawsuits and financial liability in cases where they acted in good faith in unclear legal situations.
In the United States, qualified immunity is a legal principle that grants government officials performing discretionary functions immunity from civil suits unless the plaintiff shows that the official violated "clearly established statutory or constitutional rights of which a reasonable person would have known". It is a form of sovereign immunity less strict than absolute immunity that is intended to protect officials who "make reasonable but mistaken judgments about open legal questions", extending to "all officials but the plainly incompetent or those who knowingly violate the law".Qualified immunity applies only to government officials in civil litigation, and does not protect the government itself from suits arising from officials' action.
