SMNR: Perspectives in Law Enforcement: Addressing Prosecutorial and Police Accountability

• Semester: Fall 2021
• Course ID: 397S
• Credit Hours: 3
• Unique: 30015

Description

This course will be taught entirely online via Zoom.

This course examines the role of two important actors in our criminal justice system- police and prosecutors.  We will explore the discretion that both these actors have, as well as the legal and professional rules that govern their behavior.  We will discuss the advantages and disadvantages of these rules and critique the adequacy of these rules to hold these actors accountable to the public. This course exposes students to the underlying rationale for many of the current proposals for criminal justice reform related to the use of independent prosecutors, use of force standards for police, qualified immunity, racial profiling, municipal liabilty, civil suit, criminal prosecutions, the use of technology and law enforcement, etc.

The learning objectives for the course are below: 

• Articulate the role and responsibilities of prosecutors and police officers in the United States;
• Identify various models of policing and forms of prosecutorial and police misconduct;
• Identify legal claims that victims of such misconduct might bring against prosecutors and police officers and anticipate and evaluate defenses to the aforementioned claims.
• Identify the merits and disadvantages of discretion in the criminal justice system;
• Evaluate current mechanisms used to constrain discretion in the criminal justice system;
• Think critically about various models used to hold prosecutors and police officers accountable for their conduct.
• Apply the aforementioned principles to recent examples of alleged prosecutorial and police misconduct and develop recommendations for reform.

The paper is 75% and class participation is 25% (class participation is based on an-class presentation and weekly journal entries)