Civil Liability in Criminal Justice

Investigating Deaths in Custody and Officer-Involved Shootings addresses the critical investigation components from an expert witness perspective, providing the insights necessary to ensure a complete investigation. Investigating a custodial death or an officer involving a shooting presents unique and complex issues. When the deaths occur in the custody of the law enforcement agency, the investigator must be prepared to respond to emerging issues focused at his/her own agency or at another local agency. Conducting a thorough investigation is important because estate, community, judicial, agency, involved officer, and public policy interests are all at stake. These types of deaths present various emerging medical, psychological, legal and liability, technical, and investigatory issues that must be addressed through a comprehensive investigation. This is a timely topic as unrest over officer-involved shootings and deaths in custody take center stage conversations about policing and the criminal justice system. This book is ideal for students in criminal investigation, death investigation, crime scene investigation, and special topics in custodial deaths and officer-involved shootings, as well as death investigators, law enforcement officers, police administrators, and attorneys.