united-states criminal-law contract-law police
Can a victim of crime sue a city that abolished their police department?
<p>Say that a city abolishes their police department based on accusations of systematic racism within their police ranks. The following day a person living in that city calls 911 to report that their home is being burglarized but no police show up at their home until several hours later.  Can this person sue the city for not providing in a timely manner the services needed to protect themselves and/or their property?</p>

<p>No. The government generally has no duty to protect private citizens from each other. </p>

<p>It was different facts but basically the same question in <a href="https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/489/189/" rel="noreferrer"><em>DeShaney v. Winnebago Cty. DSS</em>, 489 U.S. 189 (1989)</a>, where the Supreme Court held:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>A State's failure to protect an individual against private violence generally does not constitute a violation of the Due Process Clause, because the Clause imposes no duty on the State to provide members of the general public with adequate protective services. The Clause is phrased as a limitation on the State's power to act, not as a guarantee of certain minimal levels of safety and security; while it forbids the State itself to deprive individuals of life, liberty, and property without due process of law, its language cannot fairly be read to impose an affirmative obligation on the State to ensure that those interests do not come to harm through other means.</p>
</blockquote>
