San Bernardino Excessive Force Lawyer: Police Misconduct Claims in the Inland Empire

Reviewed by David Gammill, California trial attorney · Last reviewed: October 11, 2026

If a San Bernardino police officer or a County Sheriff’s deputy hit you with a baton, fired a Taser, put a knee on your neck, set a dog on you, or took you to the ground hard enough to break something, and the force was more than a reasonable officer would have used, you have a civil claim for money damages against the officer and, usually, against the city or the county. The deadline for the state-law claim is six months. Gammill Law Accident & Injury Lawyers is a trial firm, led by a former Los Angeles County prosecutor, that handles excessive force and police misconduct cases in San Bernardino County. The firm has recovered more than $100 million for California clients across verdicts and settlements. Its results include a $21.1 million wrongful death verdict, a $16 million school sexual abuse verdict, and a $12 million whistleblower retaliation verdict; every case is different, and prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.

The Bottom Line

• The test is objective reasonableness: force is judged from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene, under the totality of the circumstances, and the most important factor is whether you posed an immediate threat.
• The officer’s training is written down: California’s POST academy workbook matches force options to five levels of resistance and tells officers to reassess constantly and de-escalate when they can. Force that does not fit the resistance is where most of these cases are won.
• Other officers had a duty to step in: California requires every agency’s policy to make officers intercede when they see unreasonable force, and an officer who stood by can be a defendant too.
• Six months: the written claim to the City of San Bernardino or the County of San Bernardino is due within six months of the incident, before any lawsuit. Body camera video is kept on a short schedule.
• The first step: a free, confidential case evaluation with an attorney. Call 310-750-4149 any time, day or night.

If this happened to you, call 310-750-4149 now. The first conversation is free and confidential, and the six-month clock may already be running.

What Is Excessive Force Under California Law?

Force beyond what an objectively reasonable officer would have used in the same circumstances. Penal Code § 835a lets an officer use objectively reasonable force to make an arrest, prevent an escape, or overcome resistance, and the Legislature wrote into the same statute that every person has a right to be free from excessive force by officers acting under color of law. The federal test, from Graham v. Connor, asks whether the force was reasonable from the perspective of a reasonable officer on the scene rather than with hindsight, weighing the severity of the crime, whether the person posed an immediate threat to the officer or others, and whether the person was actively resisting or trying to flee. In 2025 the Supreme Court confirmed in Barnes v. Felix that the inquiry covers the whole encounter, not just the final seconds. Our guide to what excessive force is under California and federal law sets out the statute, the cases, and the examples in full; this page is about how the claim is built in San Bernardino County.

What Was the Officer Trained to Do? Resistance Levels and Force Options

Every California peace officer completes the POST Basic Course, and its use-of-force chapter is a published workbook that we put beside the video. The Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training’s Learning Domain 20, Use of Force and De-escalation, revised in July 2025, teaches officers to match force to the subject’s actions across five levels. A compliant person who offers no resistance gets professional presence, verbal commands, and handcuffing. A passively noncompliant person who does not respond to commands but does not physically resist gets the officer’s strength to take physical control, control holds, and takedowns. An actively resistant person who tenses, braces, pulls away, or runs gets control holds and techniques to control the situation. An assaultive person who attacks or shows an intent to attack gets devices and techniques to secure compliance. Only a person whose actions are likely to cause serious bodily injury or death faces a firearm or any other available weapon. The workbook tells officers to reassess constantly and move down as well as up as the situation changes, to consider the least intrusive option, to try to gain voluntary compliance first, and to use time, distance, and cover to slow things down when it is safe. Its own examples teach that a control hold applied before any verbal command to a cooperative driver is unreasonable, and that an impact weapon used on a passively resisting person is unreasonable. When the video shows a Taser fired at someone who was arguing but not fighting, a baton used on someone already on the ground, or a dog released on someone who had stopped running, the officer’s own training says what should have happened instead, and that comparison is admissible on whether the force was reasonable.

Did the Other Officers Have to Intervene?

Yes. Government Code § 7286 requires every law enforcement agency in California to maintain a use-of-force policy that, among other things, requires officers to intercede when they see another officer using force that is clearly beyond what is necessary, taking into account the possibility that other officers may have additional information about the threat, and it defines intercede to include physically stopping the force, recording it, and reporting it. The POST workbook teaches the same duty and names the techniques. California also bars agencies from authorizing carotid restraints and chokeholds. In a case with several officers on scene, the officers who watched and did nothing are defendants alongside the one who struck, and an agency whose officers did not intervene faces its own exposure for training and supervision.

What Is the Deadline, and Which Agency Receives the Claim?

Six months, to the right entity. Under Government Code § 911.2, a state-law claim for money against a public entity must be presented in writing within six months of the incident, before any lawsuit, and filing it with the wrong entity does not stop the clock. The City of San Bernardino runs its own police department, so a San Bernardino officer means a claim to the City. A San Bernardino County Sheriff’s deputy, whether on patrol in the unincorporated county, working out of one of the fourteen contract-city stations, or working in the jail, is a County employee, and the claim goes to the County of San Bernardino. Our San Bernardino civil rights attorney page carries the full agency map for the county. Our guide to the California government claim deadline explains the form and the late-claim rules. The federal § 1983 claim does not go through the claim process and borrows the two-year period under Code of Civil Procedure § 335.1, but the evidence does not wait two years.

How Is an Excessive Force Case Proved?

With the video, the medical records, the officer’s own report, and the training that report is supposed to reflect. The first move is a written preservation demand to the agency for body camera, dash camera, dispatch audio, and any jail or station video, followed by a public records request; our guide to police body camera footage in California explains the retention rules and what happens when the camera was off. Second, the medical record: an emergency room chart, a fracture, a Taser burn, or a dog bite documents the force in a way the report cannot talk around. Third, the report itself. POST trains officers to document the facts they actually knew at the moment of the force, the commands they gave, the subject’s response to each, and the reason for every escalation; a report that is silent on those points, or that the video contradicts, is often the center of the case. Fourth, the officer’s history. Since 2019, records of sustained findings of excessive force, and of any use of force that caused great bodily injury or death, are public under Penal Code § 832.7, and the rest come through discovery. Fifth, an expert in police practices who can explain to a jury what a reasonable officer would have done at each step.

What Can an Excessive Force Case Recover?

Medical care, past and future; lost wages and earning capacity; and non-economic damages for the pain, fear, and humiliation of the incident. Punitive damages, which exist to punish and deter, can be awarded against an individual officer whose conduct was malicious or oppressive, although California does not allow them against the city or the county itself. Both the Bane Act, Civil Code § 52.1, and the federal statute let the court order the defendants to pay your attorney’s fees when you win. Our FAQ answers the direct question, can I sue the police for excessive force in California, in plain terms.

Who Is the Best Excessive Force Lawyer in San Bernardino?

The honest answer is that it depends on what your case needs, and there are three things worth checking before you hire anyone. First, trial experience against public entities: a city or a county does not pay fair value until it believes a jury will hear the case. Second, familiarity with how force cases are built: the government claim, the preservation demand, the records statutes, the POST training materials, and the qualified immunity defense officers raise in federal court are their own body of law, and a general injury practice may not handle them often. Third, the fee arrangement in writing: a contingency fee means you pay nothing unless the case recovers. Ask any lawyer you are considering about all three.

Why San Bernardino Clients Choose Gammill Law for Excessive Force Cases

We know the other side of the table. David Gammill, a former Los Angeles County Deputy District Attorney, has tried over 100 cases to verdict, and our attorneys bring more than 40 years of combined legal experience to every case we take. A former prosecutor has worked alongside police officers, read thousands of their reports, and knows how a use-of-force report is written and where it tends to diverge from the video. The firm’s results include a $1 million recovery in an excessive force case. Every case is different, and past results do not guarantee a similar outcome. We prepare every force case for trial from the first call, because that is what moves a city or a county to settle. The consultation is free, there is no fee unless we win, and the firm answers calls in English and Spanish. Clients have trusted this firm with cases against the agencies that police their own neighborhoods.

Where Is the Case Filed?

The state-law claims are filed in the San Bernardino County Superior Court, Civil Division of the San Bernardino District, at the San Bernardino Justice Center, 247 West Third Street. The federal § 1983 claim is filed in, or removed to, the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Eastern Division, in Riverside. Cases that plead both are often moved to federal court by the defendants, and which forum is better for you is one of the first strategic decisions we make with you.

Frequently Asked Questions About Excessive Force Cases in San Bernardino

I was resisting. Can I still sue?

Often, yes. Resistance justifies force that is proportionate to it, not any force at all. The officer’s own training matches each level of resistance to a range of options, and force that continues after you stopped resisting, or that jumps past what your resistance called for, is the core of many successful cases. If you were charged with resisting, how that charge ends can affect the civil case, so talk to a civil rights lawyer before you plead to anything.

I was Tased. Is that excessive force?

It depends on what you were doing when the trigger was pulled. An electronic control weapon is an intermediate force option that POST classifies as carrying a significant risk of injury, and it is not the answer to someone who is arguing, walking away, or already restrained. Multiple cycles, a Taser used on someone on the ground, or a Taser used when the person could not comply with a command are the facts that make these cases.

The officer was a Sheriff’s deputy. Who do I sue?

The deputy individually and the County of San Bernardino, which employs every deputy in the county, including deputies assigned to the contract cities and the jails. The government claim goes to the County, not to the city where it happened, within six months.

What does it cost to hire an excessive force lawyer?

Nothing upfront and nothing unless we win. We work on a contingency fee, which means the fee is a percentage of the recovery and is paid only out of the recovery. Our page on what a personal injury lawyer costs explains the arrangement in detail.

Related Pages

If an officer fired a gun, our San Bernardino police shooting lawyer page covers the deadly force standard and the wrongful death claim. If you were stopped or held without cause, our guide to your rights when police detain you without probable cause explains when a stop becomes illegal.

Talk to a San Bernardino Excessive Force Lawyer

Gammill Law represents people hurt by police force in San Bernardino County. A free, confidential conversation will tell you whether you have a claim, which entity must receive it, and how much time you have. We work on a contingency fee under a written contingency fee agreement that complies with California law, so there is no fee unless we win.

Get your free case evaluation or call 310-750-4149. You will speak with people who handle these cases, and you will pay no fee unless we win.

This page is attorney advertising and general information, not legal advice for any specific situation. Deadlines and outcomes are fact-specific; consult a licensed California attorney about your own circumstances. Prior results do not guarantee a similar outcome.