The conventional wisdom among many in the security profession is that regardless of how security officers act, shoppers are opportunistic and will file lawsuits against retailers at the slightest provocation. However, evidence suggests that this is not the case. The authors conducted a review of 235 state-level lawsuits against retailers for false arrest in the United States between 1960 and 2004. The analysis shows that nearly all the suits were filed for justifiable reasons and that the suits were based more on the circumstances surrounding the incidents than on the depth of the retailers' pockets. This article discusses the motivations for the false-arrest suits and the basis for the damage awards.
Motivating factors.
Of the 235 cases studied, 63 percent were brought by shoppers who had been arrested for shoplifting, but had not actually shoplifted. In other words, more than half of the shoppers were arrested for shoplifting but were not caught in the act or found with stolen merchandise. Instead, they were arrested based only on the suspicion of shoplifting.
BASIS
Proof of actual shoplifting existed in only 34 percent of the cases. The remaining 3 percent of the cases did not reveal whether shoplifting had occurred or not.
All of the lawsuits examined in this study involved shoppers who alleged false arrest. But the shoppers filing suit also cited a variety of other charges, including assault, battery, false imprisonment, malicious prosecution, and unlawful detention.
Shoppers most frequently brought lawsuits against retailers immediately after they were acquitted at trial for shoplifting or immediately after the shoplifting charges against them were dropped. And those cases most often involved some charges of mistreatment during the investigation.
Acquittal. Of the 235 cases studied, 47 percent of the shoppers sued after they were acquitted at trial or the retailers had subsequently dropped the charges. This finding suggests that if retailers have weak cases or lack hard evidence, it is best not to have the suspects arrested. And if a company does go forward with prosecution, it should invest the resources required to help the prosecutors make a convincing case.
Mistreatment. Twenty-six percent of the 235 shoppers sued because of the way they were treated during their investigations. Allegations of mistreatment included excessive force, battery, and sexual abuse.
In 21 percent of the cases, plaintiffs were physically abused, and the abuse was often egregious. For example, one private security officer killed a male youth by striking him in the head during the investigation. Other plaintiffs were assaulted, sexually abused, or strip-searched by private security officers. Not surprisingly, this type of misconduct by employees often results in large judgments against the retailer (see damage awards section).
Other issues. Though acquittals and mistreatment were the major motivators for most plaintiffs, other factors sometimes led to lawsuits. For example, five percent of the shoppers alleged that they had been victims of racial profiling.
A fairly large number of shoppers alleged malicious prosecution, but the courts found evidence of a setup by store personnel in only 1 percent of the total cases.
Five percent of the cases involved arrests of groups of people shopping together, where only one shopper in the group had taken something. This type of arrest almost always prompted a lawsuit by the persons not holding the stolen merchandise at the time of the arrest.
Three percent of the shoppers sued on a legal technicality that did not relate to anything done by security personnel. For example, some of the shoppers sued to challenge other evidence, such as drugs or weapons taken by the police at the time of the arrest and offered as evidence at trial. Other shoppers challenged instructions given by the judge or statements made by opposing counsel.
Damage awards.
Of the 235 lawsuits filed against retailers, approximately one-third resulted in damage awards to the shoppers. Nine percent received nominal awards less than $5,000; 10 percent received between $5,000 and $50,000; 6 percent received awards between $50,001 and $300,000; and 2 percent of the plaintiffs received awards greater than $300,000. The amount of the award in another 2 percent of the cases was not disclosed.
More at this link
http://209.85.165.104/search?q=cache:yHI1ZU7n8rMJ:www.securitymanagement.com/library/001663.html+shoplifting+charges+dropped+malicious+prosecution&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=2&gl=us&client=firefox-a
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