Collecting evidence is essential for all those who wish to win any sort of case in court. When it comes to police brutality cases however, it becomes increasingly important to collect as much evidence as possible because of how much leeway officers are granted by the law. It may seem unfair that officers are granted special privileges, but the reality is these privileges only exist to ensure the justice system runs smoothly and does not get clogged with mountains of unnecessary and false complaints.
Officers are granted qualified immunity, which means that in regular cases, suspects who have been arrested can not file a legal claim against the officer that arrested them. The purpose of this is to prevent the high volumes of revenge-filled and baseless allegations that would be made against officers in court by the suspects.
It is important to remember that this qualified immunity only applies to ordinary arrests and not one’s involving police brutality, if a person has been forced to suffer injustice at the hands of an officer they should call a police brutality attorney in Iowa city and get started on their case immediately.
Some tips for collecting evidence to support their case include:
The importance of writing the incident down shortly after it takes place cannot be emphasized enough. Many times, individuals make the mistake of leaving everything to their memory and this often causes them to remember the wrong series of events.
When a person goes through a traumatic experience, it is only normal for the brain to either exaggerate the events or to cause a person to forget important aspects of it. The more time that passes after the incident, the more chances a person will experience this phenomenon and the less their testimony will be valued. A soon as a person can get their hands on any sort of recording material they should record or write down exactly what happened, along with the date and time in order to use it in court. It is also vital that a person collects the numbers and email addresses of the eyewitnesses on the spot because it may be impossible to locate them later.
Whether a person was guilty of committing a crime or not, police officers still must respect their human and civil rights. By collecting enough evidence to prove that the officer behaved unjustly, a person can ascertain that the officer will be penalized for their actions and that they will get compensated for their suffering appropriately.