Opinion ID: 2980104
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Failure to Screen

Text: Plaintiffs go on to contend that the County “had a policy of not checking the criminal backgrounds of the individuals it hired.” They highlight the records of two officers: Daniel Pedrin, who had a citation for operating a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license, and Green, who was charged with—but not convicted of—one count of domestic violence, and who had two civil orders of protection against him. “Cases involving constitutional injuries allegedly traceable to an ill-considered hiring decision pose the greatest risk that a municipality will be held liable for an injury that it did not cause.” - 10 - No. 09-6115 Siler v. Campbell Cnty. Brown, 520 U.S. at 415. Like failure-to-train claims, a “pattern of injuries” caused by failures to screen is thus “ordinarily necessary to establish” deliberate indifference. Id. at 409–10. Again, Plaintiffs offer no relevant pattern; but again, there exists a potential pattern exception. The Brown Court “assum[ed] without deciding” that it could import Canton into the failure-to-screen context, making a municipality liable if “a full review of [the offender’s] record reveals that . . . [the offender’s] use of excessive force would be a plainly obvious consequence of the hiring decision.” Id. at 412–13 (emphasis added). The Court noted that “a finding of culpability simply cannot depend on the mere probability that any officer inadequately screened will inflict any constitutional injury,” but “must depend on a finding that this officer was highly likely to inflict the particular injury suffered by the plaintiff.” Id. at 412. Though the officer in Brown had convictions for assault and resisting arrest, the Court held that his use of excessive force—pulling a suspect from a vehicle and injuring her knees—was not a “plainly obvious consequence of the hiring decision.” Id. at 414. Plaintiffs pose no argument that their screening claim falls within Brown’s pattern exception. Nor can they: here, the officers had milder backgrounds, and performed more brutal acts, than the officer in Brown. Though, like the Brown officer, Officer Green’s domestic violence charges and protection orders “may well have made him an extremely poor candidate for . . . deputy,” id., Plaintiffs cannot show that these shortcomings made it “highly likely” that he would “inflict the particular injury suffered by [them],” id. at 412. - 11 - No. 09-6115 Siler v. Campbell Cnty.