Miller: Who’s considered a law enforcement officer for
purposes of the Federal Tort Claims Act?
Solari: A law enforcement officer for purposes of the FTCA
is anyone who can make arrests for violations of federal law, or seize evidence,
or execute seizures. If you qualify, then Uncle Sam will pay for
intentional torts like assault, battery, false imprisonment, false arrest,
malicious prosecution, and abuse of process if those torts were committed while
within scope. Limiting that intentional tort provision to law
enforcement officers makes sense, if you think about it. The federal
government asks its law enforcement officers to arrest people, conduct searches,
and seize evidence. And as we know, that often involves doing things like
grabbing people, knocking them down, hitting them with an ASP… whatever.
So you’d expect law enforcement officers to be doing things that look like
intentional torts. On the other hand, you know, a person who gives out
checks at the social security office shouldn’t be grabbing anybody or knocking
them down, or hitting them with sticks. Uncle Sam just doesn’t ask them to
do that, so the federal government’s not going to pay when they do.