KY

Charged the same as a civilian but not given preferential sentenceing just because he was a cop. ................ drill sgt.

quote:

Charged the same as a civilian but not given preferential sentenceing just because he was a cop

To do that you'd have to back up one step because too often they're not charged at all, let alone the same as any other member of society. So I'd say not given preferential charging, in addition to not getting preferential sentencing, but the latter doesn't apply in a jury setting.

Yes and no.
All acts are not equal.
A cop who makes a mistake and shoots someone in the line of duty who should not have been shot due to the circumstances of the job, should not be charged. The dept should be able to be held accountable, but the officer should only face disciplinary action by the dept.
A cop who willingly uses their authority to commit a crime should be held to a higher standard due to the whole public trust issue. As should a teacher who molests a student under their control, and other examples of public trust.

Someone who enters the military voluntarily chooses to subject themselves to the uniform code of military justice knowing that they will be answerable to a dual layer of accountability that civilians are not subject to. Any LEO who buys into the LEO vs civilians, yet doesn’t feel the police should be held to a higher standard, are hypocrites. The police have authority over the public beyond what the general public has. See the video of the lady trying to stop the police car and get the supervisor to write him a ticket for not using his turn signal. Spoiler alert, she is nuts goes to jail.
I think at the department level this is understood which is why a cop will get fired for a DUI while I, as a engineering technician, will not be. But this is due to department policy, the results from the court should be the same as long as the cop was not on duty in his patrol car or uniform. As pointed out, other jobs such as truck drivers are held to a higher standard in specific areas such as allowable BAC even when driving a car.

LEOs are already held to higher standards. Here’s a long list of crimes the law enforcement officer can be charged with and some enhancements of law-enforcement officer gets charged with that or not applicable to folks who are not a public servant.

Federal
Violation of civil rights in the color of law 18 USC 242
Civil remedy for civil rights violations 42 USC 1983

State

Aggravated assault by a public servant is a first-degree felony versus a second-degree felony if committed by anybody else

Official oppression
Abuse of office
Acceptance of a gift by public servant
Acceptance of an honorarium for public servant
Bribery
Undue influence
Misuse of official information
Etc.

They’re also common-law restrictions placed on peace officers that are not applicable to the rest of the population. As an example Tennessee v Garner restricts the use of deadly force to where is objectively reasonable, where in certain cases civilians are allowed to use it without that requirement such as during a burglary, robbery, aggravated assault, and prevention of arson

There are also areas of law where official acts are given more leeway or officials are provided additional protections such as enhancements to assault offenses when taking us a public servant interference of public duties etc.

It is complex, but to get humans to make fast, discretionary decision involving use of force with imperfect information requires society to accept a level of imperfection.