Mandatory Professional Liability For Police Officers: How Insurance Can Step Up

As the entire world scrutinizes the American justice system and police involvement in the deaths of unarmed black men and women, the insurance industry is in a unique place to exercise a market-based solution: Mandatory professional liability insurance for police officers.

This solution, proposed by Deborah Ramirez, a criminal law and procedure professor at Northeastern University School of Law, would require officers to be evaluated by actuaries to see if they have a high risk of using unjustified violence during police business.

If deemed so, the officers would be required to hold a professional liability insurance policy in the hopes that the insurance would deter such behaviors.

This is not unlike high premiums in auto, which discourage dangerous drivers from taking to the road, or medical malpractice insurance, which encourages doctors to preform their very best every day.