Opinion ID: 2972457
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Monroe County Policy on Deadly Force

Text: Appellants argue that Monroe County’s unwritten policy regarding the use of deadly force is unconstitutional because it gives no deference to the “totality of the circumstances” faced by the County’s officers and requires no consideration of the elements of “objective reasonableness.” This Court reviews de novo whether a municipality’s policy is unconstitutional. See Petty v. United States, 80 Fed. Appx. 986, 989, 2003 U.S. App. LEXIS 23560,  (6th Cir. 2003). Here, the policy complies with the principles annunciated by the Supreme Court in Tennessee v. Garner, 471 U.S. 1, 11-12 (1985), that an officer may use deadly force where a “suspect poses a threat of serious physical harm, either to the officer or to others . . . .” Id. at 11; see also Brandenburg v. Cureton, 882 F.2d 211, 215 (6th Cir. 1989) (holding that “deadly force is reasonable if an officer believes that there is a threat of serious physical harm to the officer or others”) (citation omitted). The Appellants have no support for the notion that it is unconstitutional for a municipality to give officers discretion in determining whether a particular suspect or situation poses an immediate danger that warrants the use of deadly force. In fact, the prevailing law suggests the opposite: The reasonableness of a particular use of force must be judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, rather than with the 20/20 vision of hindsight. . . . With respect to a claim of excessive force, the same standard of reasonableness at the moment applies . . . . The calculus of reasonableness must embody allowance for the fact that police officers are often forced to make splitsecond judgments -- in circumstances that are tense, uncertain, and rapidly evolving -- about the amount of force that is necessary in a particular situation. 12 No. 04-5551 Burnette v. Gee Graham, 490 U.S. at 397 (internal citations and quotation marks omitted); see also Garner, 471 U.S. at 11-12 (same). Thus, the district court correctly found that the Monroe County policy on deadly force was not unconstitutional.