TERRE HAUTE —
Indiana lawmakers are playing with a loaded gun in a bill that passed the Indiana Senate Monday, 45-5.
The bill attempts to carve out situations in which citizens can use force — yes, force — against police officers who may be entering a home unlawfully. The bill would allow a citizen to resist if it is not clear that the person is a real police officer, or if the person, in a citizen’s opinion, “is not engaged in the execution of the law enforcement officer’s official duty.”
We assume those designing the bill see it as an attempt to protect our homes (our “castles” in ancient legal references) from improper entry by police and, in the words of the bill, “reduce potential for violence.”
But we believe just the opposite would be the result if the bill were enacted and allowed to stand. Such a law, in fact, would place police officers and citizens in greater danger, including mortal danger. Thus, our reference to a loaded gun.
This half-cocked bill arises because of a 3-2 Indiana Supreme Court decision last May that ruled, without a persuading dissent, that an Evansville man did not have a right to resist a police officer from entering his home to investigate a reported instance of domestic abuse.
That finding could have been appealed to a higher court. Instead, a group of legislators is trying to change the equation in the future by changing the law with this bill, Senate Bill No. 1.
All who value good police work agree that bad police work can lead to unlawful entries, unnecessary force and even physical assault by officers. And those excesses should be opposed by existing remedies: registering formal complaints, seeking departmental discipline or filing civil lawsuits.
But those remedies are far superior to the language of the bill, which now goes to the Indiana House for consideration.
The bill says:
• That officers can enter a residence if one party gives permission — unless another party at the home disagrees.
• That entry into a dwelling is allowed if police are in “hot pursuit.”
• That a resident can use force, later described in the bill as “reasonable force, including physical force,” if the resident believes an unlawful entry is taking place.
Those allowances leave way too many questions.
• Is an officer supposed to stop an investigation if one party in a house believes an unlawful entry might have occurred or be in progress?
• How many citizens can define hot pursuit?
• Just what is “reasonable force ... physical force”? Does that mean it’s OK to slam a door, push someone away, bust someone in the face, tackle someone to the ground, threaten someone with a hammer, point a gun at someone? Someone who is a police officer?
Those lines are just too vague, too arbitrary to have their meanings parsed in the rapidly occurring, instantly escalating, highly volatile situations officers are trained to face each time they respond to a call. Even if they are later proved to be wrong, officers have to be able to act in a split-second — on the doorstep while a crime may be occurring or while a life may be in danger — as well as their knowledge, experience and training allow.
This bill, we fear, would give criminals the right to lawfully fight an officer who may have inadvertently failed to identify himself or who may be dressed in undercover clothes without a shield being displayed.
As Indiana State Police Lt. Mark Carnell, an attorney, said in a Tribune-Star story in November: “Do you really want some meth dealer with a gun making a split-second decision about whether he has the right to use force against a police officer about to enter his home?”
We don’t. To protect the lives of police officers, the accused and the public, this bill should die.
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