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52 UC Davis L. Rev. Online 1 (2018-2019)

handle is hein.journals/usdlro52 and id is 1 raw text is: UC DAVIS LAW REVIEW ONLINE Crossing the Thin Blue Line: Protecting Law Enforcement Officers Who Blow the Whistle Ann C. Hodges and Justin Pugh* Law enforcement makes headline news for shootings of unarmed civilians, departmental corruption, and abuse of suspects and witnesses. Also well-documented is the code of silence, the thin blue line, which discourages officers from reporting improper and unlawful conduct by fellow officers. Accordingly, accountability is challenging and mistrust of law enforcement abounds. There is much work to be done in changing the culture of police departments and many recommendations for change. One barrier to transparency that has been largely ignored could be eliminated by reversal of the Supreme Court's 2006 decision in Garcetti v. Ceballos. Criticism of the decision has been widespread, but its specific consequences for law enforcement officers who cross the thin blue line remain little examined in the legal literature. This article begins to fill that gap. Garcetti held that when public employees speak pursuant to their job duties, their speech is unprotected by the First Amendment. This boundary creates a threshold hurdle that employees must meet before they can seek * Copyright @ 2018 Ann C. Hodges and Justin Pugh. Ann C. Hodges is Professor of Law Emerita at the University of Richmond. Justin Pugh, J.D. 2017, University of Richmond is Law Clerk, Circuit Court for the City of Portsmouth, Virginia. The authors thank Mollie Laird and Adam Wall, Class of 2019, University of Richmond for valuable research assistance. 1

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