REMEDIES FOR FALSE ARREST: What are your options if falsely arrested? There are limited options for compensation.

Suppose a police officer finds an aspirin powder in your pocket and insists a presumptive test kit shows it is cocaine.

You are handcuffed and arrested. Maybe your neighbors or co-workers are watching, thoroughly embarrassing you and damaging your reputation. You are hauled off to jail, held for several hours and freed only after you post bail. Your mug shot is published online and in print in one of those “Just Busted” tabloids. You shell out money to get your vehicle out of the impound lot and hire a lawyer.

Then, weeks later, a test by a forensic chemist reveals that powder was exactly what you said it was — aspirin — and prosecutors drop the charge.

The officer was wrong. Your dignity, reputation and wallet paid the price for the officer’s mistake.

Lawsuit in the making, right?

Not under Tennessee’s Governmental Tort Liability Act.

If a citizen is wrongfully arrested, the tort liability law protects governments and their employees from legal action.

It’s that way most places. It shouldn’t be.