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Mike Callahan

The Objectively Reasonable Officer

John Michael Callahan served in law enforcement for 44 years. His career began as a special agent with NCIS. He became an FBI agent and served in the FBI for 30 years, retiring in the position of supervisory special agent/chief division counsel. He taught criminal law/procedure at the FBI Academy. After the FBI, he served as a Massachusetts Deputy Inspector General and is currently a deputy sheriff for Plymouth County, Massachusetts. He is the author of two published books on deadly force and an upcoming book on supervisory and municipal liability in law enforcement.

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LATEST ARTICLES
Court refused to dismiss county liability allegation that sheriff tacitly authorized pattern of unlawful bean bag deployment
Jury trial required to determine liability for mass arrest, alleged excessive force and supervisory indifference
The Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court rules a police pat frisk of an armed gang member lawful
Eighth Circuit affirms police detention including handcuffing and pointing guns at suspects
Not mentioned by the court, but the officer’s immediate shooting response justified because he was facing the “deadly reactionary gap”
Eighth Circuit rejects officer’s qualified immunity defense and finds continuous TASER deployment unnecessary, excessive and a violation of clearly established law
Seventh Circuit reverses lower court dismissal of civil rights lawsuit and reinstates officer and city as proper defendants
Court also rejects lower court use of freeze-frame “screen shots,” ruling that it amounts to “20/20 hindsight and second-guessing” of officer split-second decision to shoot
Did incident circumstances, including the concept of inattentional blindness, result in an officer’s inability to see the suspect drop his gun?
If H.R. 1280 becomes law, the defense of qualified immunity for law enforcement officers will be abolished