Opinion ID: 2452067
Heading Depth: 5
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Unpublished case law

Text: Under Sheldon, a court must consider if a reasonable officer, using force which may or may not have been objectively unreasonable, was on notice that his behavior was unreasonable. [66] We said in Sheldon that to determine whether an officer was reasonably on notice, courts should look to our own jurisdiction and other jurisdictions to see if there are any cases, laws, or regulations which would suggest that the type of action taken by the officer is considered unlawful. [67] General excessive force statutes are insufficient to provide this notice; cases that deal with the specific actions taken by police officers are persuasive. [68] Hooper Bay argues that an unpublished summary judgment order issued by the superior court in Kotzebue [69] may have served as notice that the use of a taser on a handcuffed but resisting arrestee was lawful. Olson argues, in turn, that several unreported cases from outside Alaska put the police officers on notice that their conduct was illegal. The superior court reject[ed] that unpublished orders from the federal district courts in Washington and California would give notice to officers in Hooper Bay Alaska, of the unlawfulness of their conduct and also rejected the argument that the unpublished superior court order would provide notice that the officers' conduct was legal. Collectively, the court stated that [n]one of these cases are examples of citable authority that give guidance to practitioners. Olson argues on appeal that the superior court's refusal to include unpublished materials in its notice analysis is contrary to persuasive federal precedent and makes little sense if published cases are deemed to constitute notice. Olson cites to numerous unreported cases in which the use of a taser or other police weapon was deemed objectively unreasonable because the subject was not an immediate threat to the police or to others. [70] He cites these cases as support for the proposition that unpublished decisions of district courts may inform [a court's] qualified immunity analysis. [71] We decline to adopt this approach and instead hold that unpublished decisions generally do not provide notice regarding appropriate levels of force. [72]