Opinion ID: 1936318
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: issues

Text: As we view this case, the issue is: Should a police officer, operating in disguise, although acting in the line of duty, who confronts a citizen who has no reason to know of the officer's official identity, be held civilly liable for the failure to make a reasonable effort to inform the citizen of his identity? The jury determined that the plaintiff's personal injuries and damage to his car had a direct causal relationship to Quarberg's negligence. It further determined Quarberg was negligent because of his failure to make a reasonable effort to inform the plaintiff of his identity as a police officer. Plaintiff's lack of knowledge that Quarberg was an officer was determined by the court and jury to be the causal factor of the events that followed and the injuries sustained. The resolution of these issues rests upon factual determinations which are within the province of the jury, and there is credible evidence to support the jury's findings. Based upon the evidence adduced at the trial, there is nothing in the record to indicate that the plaintiff actually knew of the presence of the marijuana. Certain rights and privileges are justifiably granted to a police officer in his relationship to the public. These rights and privileges do not attach to the police officer as a private individual but to his identity as a police officer. The rights and privileges of a police officer have legal effect only in those instances in which he, accompanied by his identity as a police officer, approaches the private citizen. Where the officer's identity is concealed by a deliberate disguise, such as in this case, the private citizen has the right to look upon that person so confronting him as he would any other private citizen. The fundamental importance of the private citizen's knowledge that the person facing him is in fact a police officer is demonstrated in 67 C. J. S., Obstructing Justice, p. 51, sec. 5, which states in part: ... As a general rule, in order to constitute the offense of resisting or obstructing an officer it is essential that accused have knowledge that the person obstructed is an officer; and consequently it is incumbent on an officer, seeking to make an arrest, to disclose his official character, if not known to the offender; ... The legislature has also sought to increase the security of the peace officer from bodily harm and has rated battery to a peace officer a more serious infraction of the law than battery to a private citizen, by the provisions of sec. 940.205, Stats. However, a private citizen who commits a battery upon a police officer does not incur the additional penalty unless he knows or has reason to know that the person confronting him is, in fact, a peace officer and not another private citizen. [2] When a person has no reason to know the officer's status or identity as a peace officer, and the officer has made a deliberate effort to conceal his identity, the officer must make a reasonable effort to inform the person of his status as an officer. In the instant case, the plaintiff was confronted with a person who had a pistol in each hand and because of his grooming and dress appeared to be a crazed farmer. Under the facts of this case, the plaintiff was entitled to resist and he had every right to flee from what appeared to be a serious attack upon him by another private citizen. Such would not be the situation in the case of a uniformed police officer or a plainclothes detective. Quarberg had the duty to make a reasonable effort to inform the plaintiff of his identity as a peace officer before Quarberg exercised the rights and privileges of that identity. After weighing the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses, the jury found that Quarberg had failed to act in a reasonable manner when he either failed or inadequately attempted to inform the plaintiff as to his status or identity. There is credible evidence to support such a determination. This court, in Huebner v. State (1967), 33 Wis. 2d 505, 516, 147 N. W. 2d 646, as reaffirmed in State v. Doyle (1968), 40 Wis. 2d 461, 162 N. W. 2d 60, stated: ... The central idea of an arrest is the taking or detaining of a person by word or action in custody so as to subject his liberty to the actual control and will of the person making the arrest. State v. Phillips (1952), 262 Wis. 303, 308, 55 N. W. (2d) 384. The same result is reached by a voluntary submission to such custody. But there must exist the intent to take into custody and a corresponding understanding by the person arrested that he is in `custody,' although no formal declaration of arrest is required. 5 Am. Jur. (2d), Arrest, p. 695, sec. 1. Peloquin v. Hibner (1939), 231 Wis. 77, 84, 285 N. W. 380.... (Emphasis added.) A person is not under arrest and an officer is not attempting an arrest, as such a definition relates to the flow of privileges therefrom, until the person knows or has reason to know the person attempting to restrain or restraining him is a peace officer. No particular declaration is required; the test, being one for the jury, requiring the officer, where the person does not know or have any reason to know of his official identity, to make a reasonable attempt to convey that fact. When the officer fails to so inform, yet exercises his privileges flowing from such an identity, the question of negligence arises. Quarberg's failure to adequately identify himself, understandably caused plaintiff to flee. In the exercise of such a right, plaintiff was injured. Quarberg is liable for the damages sustained by plaintiff. [3] Defendants contend that the trial court erred in failing to submit the case to the jury on the sole issue of excessive force. They argue that after the court determined Quarberg had probable cause to arrest, Quarberg had the privilege to use force and the only remaining question would be whether he used too much. Defendants cite Schulze v. Kleeber (1960), 10 Wis. 2d 540, 103 N. W. 2d 560, as authority. The problem with this case and the other excessive use of force cases is that the injured party was aware of the identity of the other party as a peace officer. In the instant case, Quarberg was negligent, not in the use of force but in his failure to take the steps which would reasonably have prevented the need to use force in the first instance. Defendants are looking past the negligent act to the results. The trial court did not err in refusing to submit the case to the jury on the issue of excessive use of force.