There may come a time when you, unfortunately, find yourself in a police misconduct case due to anything including false arrest, police chases, and wrongful convictions. If this applies to you, here’s what you may encounter.
Filing a Complaint
The first thing you may do is file a complaint. This will often be with the police department the officer works at who committed the offence and this will involve sending the complaint to the chief of police and sending a copy to the Internal Affairs Division and keeping a copy for yourself.
Get a Lawyer
The most important step in cases like this is to get yourself a lawyer. In particular, you should look for an unreasonable search and seizure attorney as they are lawyers who are best equipped to take on cases like this. They will be able to look at the case in full and will advise you on your next steps into how you can get justice for this wrongdoing.
Knowing How to Handle the Media
You are probably more than aware that police misconduct cases quite often attract a lot of media attention, regardless of whether it is wanted or unwanted. This can be quite stressful, both for the victim and their friends and family, so you should know how to deal with this in a way that does not attract any more media attention than necessary.
If you have an experienced lawyer who is familiar with police misconduct cases, they are therefore probably familiar with the media attention, so will be able to advise you on how best to handle this. However, there may be a few reasons why this is not the case. Luckily, there are some online resources that can help give you the guidance you need to help you figure out how to deal with the media.
Getting the Law Changed
In the hope that you do win the case, there may also be the chance for you to contribute towards getting the law changed so no one else has to become a victim of the same crime as you were. For example, after the death of George Floyd in 2020 due to police brutality, there have been a few legislative police reforms passed in various states to help try and combat the issue of police brutality against innocent people. For example, some states have reinvested in community programs, limiting law enforcement in low-level traffic stops, and in reducing police presence in schools. It may not do much to help your case, depending on the circumstances, however, it should hopefully help many others who may have otherwise also fallen victim to police misconduct.
Getting Justice
Getting justice is something everyone wants to get in these cases, but this isn’t always what ends up happening. The most important thing you can do is to keep on fighting, getting a good lawyer to represent you and, most importantly, not giving up hope that justice will prevail.
