For purposes of Sections 6-5-338.2, 6-5-338.3, and 6-5-338.4, the following terms have the following meanings unless the context dictates otherwise:
(1)CLEARLY ESTABLISHED. A state statutory or constitutional right is clearly established, and a reasonable law enforcement officer would have known of it, in any of the following circumstances:
a. The right is clear from a materially similar case decided before the occurrence of the relevant conduct by the United States Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, or the Alabama Supreme Court.
b. The right is clear from a broad statement of principle that is established with so obvious clarity by one of the courts identified in paragraph a. that, before the occurrence of the relevant conduct, every objectively reasonable law enforcem
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For purposes of Sections 6-5-338.2, 6-5-338.3, and 6-5-338.4, the following terms have the following meanings unless the context dictates otherwise:
(1) CLEARLY ESTABLISHED. A state statutory or constitutional right is clearly established, and a reasonable law enforcement officer would have known of it, in any of the following circumstances:
a. The right is clear from a materially similar case decided before the occurrence of the relevant conduct by the United States Supreme Court, the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals, or the Alabama Supreme Court.
b. The right is clear from a broad statement of principle that is established with so obvious clarity by one of the courts identified in paragraph a. that, before the occurrence of the relevant conduct, every objectively reasonable law enforcement officer facing the circumstances would have known that the relevant conduct violated the right.
c. The right is so obvious from the text of a state constitutional provision or statute that, before the occurrence of the relevant conduct, no objectively reasonable law enforcement officer would have required case law to be put on notice that the relevant conduct violated the right.
(2) CONDUCT PERFORMED WITHIN A LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER’S DISCRETIONARY AUTHORITY. Governmental conduct by a law enforcement officer performing a legitimate job-related function or pursuing a legitimate job-related goal through means that were within the law enforcement officer’s plausible power to utilize. In determining whether governmental conduct was performed within a law enforcement officer’s discretionary authority, a court must temporarily put aside that the conduct may have been committed for an improper or unconstitutional purpose, in an improper or unconstitutional manner, to an improper or unconstitutional extent, or under improper or constitutionally inappropriate circumstances. The court must determine whether, if done for a proper purpose, the conduct was within, or reasonably related to, the outer perimeter of a law enforcement officer’s governmental discretion in performing his or her official duties.
(3) DETENTION FACILITY OFFICER. Any peace officer, guard, or detention or jail officer employed in a facility used for the confinement, pursuant to law, of any of the following persons:
a. Someone charged with or convicted of an offense.
b. Someone charged with being or adjudicated a youthful offender, a neglected minor, or juvenile delinquent.
c. Someone held for extradition.
d. Someone otherwise confined pursuant to an order of a court.
(4) LAW ENFORCEMENT OFFICER. Any peace officer or tactical medic, except a constable, who is employed or appointed pursuant to the constitution or statutes of this state, whether appointed or employed as a peace officer or tactical medic by the state or a county or municipality thereof, or by an agency or institution, corporate or otherwise, created pursuant to the constitution or laws of this state and authorized by the constitution or laws to appoint or employ police officers or other peace officers or tactical medics, and whose duties prescribed by law, or by the lawful terms of their employment or appointment, include the enforcement of, or the investigation and reporting of violations of, the criminal laws of this state, or who is empowered by the laws of this state to execute warrants, to arrest and to take into custody persons who violate, or who are lawfully charged by warrant, indictment, or other lawful process, with violations of, the criminal laws of this state. The term includes a detention facility officer, a public safety dispatcher, and any individual designated a peace officer for purposes of immunity under Section 6-5-338 as that section existed on February 5, 2025.
(5) LAW ENFORCEMENT RECORDING. A recording, as defined in Section 36-21-210, that shows a specific event described in the complaint, the image or voice of the plaintiff, or the image or voice of the decedent if the plaintiff has sued on behalf of the decedent as either the parent of the decedent in an action brought under Section 6-5-391 or as the personal representative of the decedent’s estate in an action brought under Section 6-5-391 or Section 6-5-410.
(6) RECKLESSLY WITHOUT LAW ENFORCEMENT JUSTIFICATION. A law enforcement officer acts recklessly without law enforcement justification if he or she is aware of, and consciously disregards, a risk of death or substantial bodily injury without reasonable law enforcement justification. A law enforcement officer who creates a risk of death or substantial bodily injury in the absence of reasonable law enforcement justification but is unaware of that risk by reason of voluntary intoxication, as defined in Section 13A-3-2(e)(2), acts recklessly with respect thereto. Whether a law enforcement officer acts recklessly without law enforcement justification is a question of law to be decided by the court, taking into account the wide range of a law enforcement officer’s duties. A law enforcement officer acts without law enforcement justification when the law enforcement officer harms the plaintiff by failing, in an objectively unreasonable manner, to comply with written policies of the law enforcement officer’s employer or appointing authority or when the law enforcement officer harms the plaintiff through conduct premised on the law enforcement officer’s objectively unreasonable interpretation of such a policy.
(7) TACTICAL MEDIC. A firefighter paramedic or firefighter emergency medical technician licensed by the State of Alabama and employed by the state or a county or municipality within the state, operating on-duty in direct support of a tactical law enforcement unit to provide medical services at high risk incidents, including hostage incidents, narcotic raids, hazardous surveillance, sniper incidents, armed suicidal persons, barricaded suspects, felony warrant service, and fugitives refusing to surrender.
(8) WRITTEN POLICY. A written rule, regulation, instruction, or directive issued by a law enforcement officer’s employer or appointing authority, and applicable to conduct within a law enforcement officer’s discretionary authority, specifying the particular manner in which a law enforcement officer should exercise discretion in specific situations or scenarios. The written rule, regulation, instruction, or directive must have been issued before the occurrence of the relevant conduct, and must have been made available to the law enforcement officer. Whether the law enforcement officer actually read the written rule, regulation, instruction, or directive is not determinative.