Cops worrying about lawsuits? They’d better. Around the corner from where friends of mine live in BP a mentally ill young man was shot down in the street by several officers. He was carrying a claw hammer and screaming insults. He took one step towards the officers (plural) and they shot him dead in front of his neighbors (and their children). The logical choice in this situation would have been a taser. Or the officers could simply have backed off and waited until the squad specially trained for dealing with such situations had a chance to arrive. After all, a claw hammer isn’t a gun. Believe it or not, the investigation cleared the officers.
NYC seems to have problems along these lines. If officers know that they will have to answer to someone outside their in-group it will keep down the frequency of such incidents.