Brickbat: Should've Stayed On the Boat

Jennifer Heath Box spent three days last year, including Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, in a Florida jail on a felony child endangerment warrant. It turns out the cops had the wrong person. Her problems started when she disembarked from a cruise at Port Everglades, where she was required to scan her ID. The database alerted officials to an outstanding warrant for a Jennifer Heath. The warrant said Heath was born on April 7, 1997, meaning she was 25 at the time. Heath Box is 49. But a Broward County sheriff's deputy insisted on taking her into custody. At the jail, intake officers found Heath Box's driver's license number did not match that of the wanted woman, but they booked her into the jail anyway after the arresting deputy insisted she looked like the photo of the wanted woman. After three days, sheriff's office officials determined Heath Box wasn't the woman in the warrant and released her.

Comments

[Jerryskids]

Happens more than you might think. Just do an internet search for "wrongful arrest".

[Carey Allison]

Another disturbing story of false imprisonment. But because of the Universal Law of Unintended Consequences, we should be careful of what we ask for in response to this.

Any change in law that would subject an enforcement person to a penalty of any significance for this type of malfeasance would simply function as an incentive for the system to decide it was easier (or perhaps cheaper) to move ahead with conviction and incarceration of the 49 y/o woman arrested for the sins of a 26 y/o, or the white male arrested for the bad acts of a black male. (The inverse of that situation would, of course, merit significant punitive damages.)

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[mad.casual]

From 2014 to 2020, Chicago Appleseed found over 3,000 cases where suspects were held for over 48 hours (upper limit 'recommended' by SCOTUS).

Which is a pretty massive number compared to the couple of shiny objects Reason recently discovered and will completely forget when they find the next shiny object (we're currently overdue for another women-in-prison story from ENB), but when you consider that they looked at over 500,000 cases the number is, by their own telling, rather exceptional and that 99% of people are released within the 48 hours with the mean being in/under the 10 hour mark.

The people crying "This is a REAL PROBLEM!" this week are very much akin to the tantrum-throwing children who insist that because executions aren't 100.00% pain-free, no one should be executed (like that solves, rather than exacerbates, the "problem(s)" of inmates torturing/killing each other, guards torturing them, criminals torturing/killing civilians, civilians defending themselves to the death in ways that are exceedingly painful for the criminals...).

[Libertariantranslator]

I searched "wrongful arrest" "qualified immunity" and got over 9000 hits, some of them kind of entertaining since I was nowhere near.

[Adans smith]

Seems they have low [ I. Q . ] employment standards .

[Livemike]

"The warrant said Heath was born on April 7, 1997, meaning she was 25 at the time. Heath Box is 49. But a Broward County sheriff's deputy insisted on taking her into custody. "
"I'm flattered but I must say no."

[Nazi-Chipping Warlock]

That just means the 25 year old had a lot of road miles on her.

[Fist of Etiquette]

...after the arresting deputy insisted she looked like the photo of the wanted woman.

This genius is wasted on law enforcement. Send him to Mensa.

[Ed]

We are subject to more intense verification of our identity when we get a flu shot than when being tossed in jail. At least they check both our name AND our date of birth in the healthcare system.

But hey, who wants to be the cop that let the wanted criminal slip through their fingers? There is no downside risk to tossing someone in jail for a few days. Better safe than sorry...

[Crackers Boy]

And so the citizens of Dade County give a couple of bucks apiece to Jennifer and it's all good. No harm, no foul, no one loses their job. What's the big deal? (/sarc)

CB

[Chumby]

My initials and last name are DB Cooper. This crap happens to me several times per year and it needs to stop!

[Á àß äẞç ãþÇđ âÞ¢Đæ ǎB€Ðëf ảhf]

They're getting that money back a few bucks at a time.

[sarcasmic]

Rule number one of power is never admitting to being wrong. Had that officer admitted to arresting the wrong person, that would have meant admitting to being wrong. Even worse than that, he may have had to apologize. Luckily for him the people at the jail went along, knowing that they were imprisoning an innocent person but not giving a shit, otherwise his ego may have been dealt a lethal blow.

[MWAocdoc]

But it's okay because the taxpayers of Broward County will reimburse the innocent victim of police abuse for her lost cruise expenses and an extra million dollars to make the legal problem go away and nothing bad will happen to the Rambo wannabes in the police department or the jail.

[Gasman]

What's needed is a no-fault compensation system.
Spread the costs equally among each member of society, so that we as the general public can be protected from bad actors, but that innocent individuals swept up are compensated by the society.
Anyone detained more than a de minimus time should be fully compensated. Police would have a budget, and use some part of that budget each time someone is mistakenly stopped more than a few minutes. pick some numbers for liquidated losses that the party can accept, maybe $100 per hour, up to $1000 per day. If some larger loss is suffered, like a substantial chunk of vacation, then the party should be able to file for all costs of what it takes to have a complete uninterrupted vacation (all time off from work, travel, meals and the whole deal.)
Even perfect policing is going to inconvenience individuals; this is a way to share the costs borne by the individual to the collective.

[TryLogic]

Additionally, lets reduce the funds available for police salaries a commensurate amount based upon the number of payments made for incorrect incarceration. Then the problem becomes self correcting. When people's paychecks take a hit, they generally get motivated to fix the problem.

[Michael Ejercito]

That is a great idea!

[Libertariantranslator]

Vittorio here sounds like Are Eff Kay Jyoonyah. That collectivist wants all reactors shut down unless underwriters insure them against illiterate hysterics, communist brainwashing, ignorance of physics and drooling superstition. So the same oughtta go for cops. Defund the donut forkers until someone ponies up insurance policies against steroid abuse, confiscated meth madness, rape, wrongful arrest, brutality, torture, extrajudicial killings and getting caught commiting felonies.

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