Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Police Who Used Deadly Force to End High-Speed Car Chase

The U.S. Supreme ruled today in favor of
several West Memphis, Arkansas, police officers who used deadly
force to end a high-speed car chase. The Court’s ruling in
Plumhoff v. Rickard overturns a previous decision by the
U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit, which had denied
qualified immunity to the officers involved in the incident.

“Under the circumstances present in this case,” Justice Samuel
Alito wrote for the Supreme Court, “we hold that the Fourth
Amendment did not prohibit petitioners from using the deadly force
that they employed to terminate the dangerous car chase.”

At issue was a 2004 pursuit that began with a routine traffic
stop and ended with the West Memphis police firing 15 rounds into
the fleeing vehicle, killing both the driver and his passenger,
neither of whom were armed. As
expected, the Court upheld the constitutionality of those
actions by the police. “If police officers are justified in firing
at a suspect in order to end a severe threat to public safety,” the
Court held, “the officers need not stop shooting until the threat
has ended.”

The opinion in Plumhoff v. Rickard is available

here. No dissents were filed.