Opinion ID: 6931624
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Failure to Provide a Written Policy

Text: Mrs. Belcher contends that Chief Anderson acted with deliberate indifference to her son’s life by not providing a written policy for the handling of suicidal inmates. In Schmelz v. Monroe County, 954 F.2d 1540 (11th Cir.1992), a case decided after Mr. Belcher’s death, this Court held that a sheriff who had an unwritten policy that “made an effort to identify and protect potentially suicidal inmates from self-harm” was not guilty of deliberate indifference. Id. at 1544. Chief Anderson’s unwritten policy for the handling of “unstable” inmates met the Schmelz standard. Our decisions prior to Mr. Belcher’s death do not require any more, in the way of a policy, than does Schmelz. Therefore, it could not have been clearly established at the time of Mr. Belcher’s death that a police chiefs failure to have a written policy for the handling of suicidal inmates constituted deliberate indifference.