How would a city police department handle a super-hero joining as an officer?

Question

Inspired by some of the comments on How to safely capture someone when you have super-strength I am wondering how police departments would handle a super-hero entering the police academy and joining the police force.

Some questions that might come up:

• Would they be able to use their super powers while acting as a police officer?
  • Is super-hearing or X-Ray vision an illegal search?
  • Is a lightning-bolt stun attack allowed?
• Or would they be restricted to officially issued equipment like Tasers, handcuffs and guns?
• Will prosecutors and juries treat them the same as other officers if they use lethal force in response to threats, or because the super-hero is invulnerable will they expect him to simply wade through the bullets without shooting back?

Answer 1

Being a police officer is about a lot more than restraining offenders. Good police officers in modern times are taught negotiation, assertiveness, conflict resolution, and a strong understanding of the criminal code and investigative practice.

In Australia (and many other countries are similar) a police officer retiring without ever having drawn their weapon in the field is very likely. The reason why you hear about the cases where weapons are drawn and standoffs and hostages are involved is because they are out of the ordinary and sound exciting; the press get larger audiences reporting on such things and that means more advertising revenue, but I digress.

Of all the things mentioned above, good knowledge of the law and of investigation techniques are going to be paramount in this instance. This is because most of the laws that surround the use of force and the right to surveil a suspect are based on the premises of presumption of innocence and the right to privacy. What that means is that while super hearing or X-Ray vision may be an inherent skill of the police officer, what is learned through the application of such skills may only be admissible under certain circumstances. Super hearing (for example) could be used in lieu of a phone tap, but ONLY if the appropriate warrants have already been issued.

Being able to stun suspects without a taser doesn't make your super hero exempt from the rules around appropriate use of force. It's not restricted equipment per se, but its use would be restricted according to the same rules as such equipment.

Law enforcement agencies of any kind would struggle integrating this kind of recruit because it would force them to look beyond their rules to the intent and then come up with all the 'special cases' that apply to a person with a broader range of skills. Ultimately what those special cases would look like would depend on court case decisions. The police are there to enforce the law as written; the courts are there to interpret the law and how it applies to the case as brought before it by the police.

That said, the existence of your super hero indicates that society knows of the existence of super powers and has already put rules in place to govern the appropriateness (or otherwise) of certain skills within society. The special cases as determined by the police for such an individual is likely to start out as a conservative version of those rules, whatever they are.

What I suspect would happen is that such a recruit would be put through the standard training and if he or she graduated that, they would then be assigned to training for groups like Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) that took care of tactical operations. The one thing that your recruit would NOT be considered for is detective work; his or her presence in a case would always raise the doubt that due process was followed because of the inherent skills that could be brought to bear without anyone else knowing.

I actually think it would be a good idea for someone with such powers to join an organised and disciplined police force rather than go vigilante like we see in the comics, but such a decision comes with the caveat that the police force knows what to do with such skills and can deploy them effectively and in a manner best suited to the skillset. When you get right down to it though, that's no different to any normal recruit that joins up insofar as they all have different strengths and weakness in how they would contribute to the mission of the police in general.

Answer 2

Much of the answer will have to be handwaved since a lot of things will depend on which Police department the superhero is joining, and in what capacity.

A British Superhero joining the Metropolitan police will be operating under different rules, laws and customs than an American Superhero joining the NYPD. In fact, there may be significant differences between a NYPD cadet, a New York State Trooper, a cadet joining a small town department in upstate New York, etc. And in the US this does not even cover things like the FBI, US Marshals office or quasi law enforcement agencies like the US Secret Service (part of the US Treasury department).

We also need to know if the candidate is being recruited as an ordinary officer, or because of his special powers is he being recruited for a special capacity (perhaps the tactical squad if using conventional superpowers like breaching walls with his bare hands), or is the superhero being recruited as a detective due to extreme mental powers, or maybe forensics because they can use x-ray vision or other super senses to examine a crime scene.

I expect the Police chief and commissioner (or equivalent ranks in other nations) will have some special duties in mind which both exploit the special powers of the superhero but also fall inside the various legal restraints the police operate under in the jurisdiction in question.

So as part of your world building, you will need to carefully consider which department or force the superhero is joining, what laws and regulations they operate under and how their special powers will be of interest to the force.

Answer 3

Questions 1 and 2:

Depends on how the first couple of legal precedents work out. I would guess yes on super-senses and the like. If an officer with good-but-not-super ears hears how the perpetrators discuss a crime, that's their fault.

Regarding super-attacks, probably no. There are precedents that police forces regulate how officers may fight, with legal and illegal chokeholds or baton strikes. The stun bolt is not on the list, so it is illegal. A punch with super-strength may be legal, however, if punches are legal.

Question 3:

The superhero should be treated differently. Police officers use force as necessary to make an arrest or stop an attack. If an attack is obviously ineffective, no force is necessary to stop it.

Things look different if the bullets endanger bystanders.

Answer 4

Frankly, there is a much better chance of them being accepted into a specialty military unit, where their skills would be much more effective, and welcome.

Specialized forces are not constrained by the rules of evidence or by due process.

The problem would be in their willingness to follow the chain of command, and to follow orders.

Really, the average police force just doesn't have the action that these personalities require.

Answer 5

A super hero joining a police task force is completely unrealistic:

1. If he is so "super", why would he join 'random-city' police force? if a super-hero did affiliate himself with a government/law-enforcement agency, most likely they would do so as a contracted mercenary, more like a gun for hire when things get real serious.

2. A super heroes presence in active law enforcement would be highly distracting, distracting to the point where it complicates the enforcement of the law itself. Imagine the chaos and crowd control needed when you send Spider-Man into a crime scene, media and hysterical people around town would be trampling all over evidence, contaminating everything. A super hero on a police force would be nothing but a community mascot, doing no real police work.

3. There would be laboratories around the world coughing up major cash trying to get him in their facilities for studies. Hollywood studios would be throwing script after script at this hero for reality shows and what not. I highly, highly doubt anybody would be taking a job with somebodies police agency with those offers available.

Answer 6

Would they be able to use their super powers while acting as a police officer?

-I see no reason why not to, as long the use respects the laws. Due process, proportionate use of force and human rights(or Party directives if you are in a socialist nation) all apply.

Is super-hearing or X-Ray vision an illegal search?

-It would depend upon the situation and the suspect that belives that a violation of rights happened will have to sue. The lawsuit will certainly go all the way to the supreme court. Is using super senses in a combat situation against drug cartels illegal? Most certainly would be legal. Is it legal in stop-and-frisk and checkpoints? Probably no judge would consider it illegal because super senses would be analogous to the smell sense that a dog has. If you can't use x-ray vision to detect cocaine you can't use a dog to detect drugs and bombs. Is it legal in an investigation? Maybe not, requiring warrants for wiretapping and house searches. But in the end the supreme court and the legislators will have to decide.

Is a lightning-bolt stun attack allowed? Or would they be restricted to officially issued equipment like Tasers, handcuffs and guns?

• The cop would be restricted to standard, certified issue to decrease legal risk. His lightning bolts aren't certified and if the suspect is hurt the police department may be sued.

Will prosecutors and juries treat them the same as other officers if they use lethal force in response to threats, or because the super-hero is invulnerable will they expect him to simply wade through the bullets without shooting back?

• Depends on the situation. Let's say that your cop is a brazillian/mexican military police attacking drug heavily armed cartels. If he is invulnerable it would be expected that he wades through the bullets and catches the criminals.

Answer 7

Question 3:

It's going to depend hugely on the jurisdiction, as attitudes to policing and the use of force vary enormously between countries/cultures (and even within them). This influences how policing is done within a country (values / priorities / methods), and how it's perceived – and of course how other cultures' policing is perceived.

For example, some cultures like the UK have a very low level tolerance of police violence, and police are expected to resolve things without force wherever possible.

In the UK, any officer using lethal force is (I believe) automatically suspended pending an independent investigation. We're very keen on "watching the watchmen", and ensuring that the police do not make routine use of lethal force.

So in the UK, someone with super-powers using lethal force will be looked on especially poorly – and it's not unlikely that they'd be proactively kept away from anti-terror raids and the like, just to prevent the minefield that'd ensue should they kill someone. Or they might be used as a meat-shield but not allowed to hit people. This might of course provide some good tension for a story – "I have this awesome power, why can't I use it?"

In the UK, the police instead rely on massive surveillance to make catching people easier. A very high proportion of court cases are decided on the basis of CCTV footage. We (largely) don't care about the level of surveillance, though other cultures would see it as a massive issue.

It's quite possible that super-powers would be particularly useful in non-lethal scenarios – catching suicide attempts, searching riverbeds, etc.

In the US, where police use of force (and lethal force in particular) is more common, a super-strength policeman would likely be highly popular. A culture which has people with superpowers would quite possibly be far more extreme in this direction. From a US perspective, this trait of using lethal force is largely not seen negatively, but as an important part of a 'strong' police or similar – whereas from (even a right-wing) UK perspective, the rate of police shootings in the US is extremely concerning. This type of contrast of values would again provide interesting tension for a story – cf. Marvel's Civil War arc.

So the simple answer is that it'll depend entirely on the culture of the society / police force. Imagine a similar issue – police force is offered indestructible, super-fast cars.

• In the US, they'd be deployed continuously, as (I believe) the US priority in a car chase is to resolve the chase as quickly as possible, typically (if TV be believed) by pursuit with a large number of vehicles, and the use of force (often lethal) to end the chase.
• In the UK, they'd sit idle, as the UK priority is to reduce the number of injuries/fatalities – UK police have previously been criticised when a perp has crashed while being chased even if no-one other than the perp was injured. So the UK response to a car chase is to leave them alone (largely preventing accidents), and put up a heli (can't be outrun by most cars, but doesn't put psychological pressure on the perp to drive fast/dangerously), and then catch them safely when they stop or give up.

Your original question mentions super-strength; from a UK perspective, super-strength would be of little value, but powers relating to e.g. vision or flight might be highly valued. So the types of super-power valued in policing in different cultures would vary.