Difdi
Regular Member
A Monell claim in US District Court would likely be more effective.
That's civil law. While getting the city expensively sued is liable to be bad for someone's chances of future promotions, nothing else has an impact quite like the potential for prison time that comes with violating a criminal law statute.
Cities get sued all the time, but knowing you could spend 10+ years in prison and then have to find a different career after getting out (since felons cannot be police officers) would tend to reduce the chances that anyone else would carry out unlawful orders that way.