Against Strict Liability for Police Raids

The Buffalo police battered there way into the wrong house. They had a proper warrent to raid one home, but went to another by mistake. Instapundit advocates "strict liability and no official immunity" in these cases. This could be dangerous.

Let's say some police officers batter into the wrong home, do lots of damage and realize that they could all lose their own homes in a future lawsuit. These police would have strong incentives to justify what they had done by, for example, claiming that on their way to the correct home they saw someone going into the other home carrying drugs and guns so the police were justified in immediately raiding the "wrong" home. To backup their story the police would probably have to plant evidence.

You never want to put the police in a situation where their choices are to (a) be honest but suffer a huge financial penalty or (b) be dishonest, lose nothing but put innocent people in jail.