When officers are negligent or abuse their authority, they are open to civil liability. This can result from false arrests, brutality and excessive use of force, allegations that the officer intentionally violated his constitutional and civil rights. Such charges could be the result of corruption and abuse of one's authority under the law. Civil liability reflects the private interests of a person or property that result in pecuniary damages and not those of a criminal nature. However, civil liability may be accompanied by criminal penalties depending on the circumstances of the situation, such as those related to wrongful death suits if the officer intentionally or negligently caused harm. This would also leave the opportunity for the officer to take the family to court if the conduct violated the victims' rights. With this in mind, the Civil Rights Act of 1871 was enacted to control the behavior of officers and provide individuals with legal redress if their constitutional rights were violated. The Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments led to the abolition of slavery and provided due process to control the conduct of officers and have since been codified under Title 42 of the United States Legislature, Section of 1983, to allow people whose rights civil rights are violated by government officials to file civil lawsuits in federal court against agents, law enforcement, and government agencies (Gaines & Kappeler, 2011). The statute known as Section 1983, was passed to protect the civil right to act unlawfully under (color of law) the authority of the law to deprive another person of his rights by acting outside the scope of the authority granted to him by the State (Gaines and Kappeler, 2011). The color of law means when ... middle of paper ... the law exists and whether the decision violated federal protection rights. The third is to determine whether probable cause existed during the search and seizure and had reason to believe that she/he was following due process construed as good faith (pp. 403-404). Accordingly, 42 United States Code, Section 1983 has acted as a remedy for those who have been harmed due to the abuse of government power. Therefore, law enforcement must take federally protected rights under the color of law, departmental policies, accountability training, and public safety very seriously because government officials may be held to the doctrine of the duty to protect rights of the public and may not cause reckless harm. Negligent and abusive practices in violation of the law under section 1983, not only affect an individual official, but can also adversely affect the agency and governments towards taxpayers.