Qualified immunity also does not inoculate state actors from criminal charges. It does nothing to protect a cop from a murder charge, including in the line of duty. In fact, if cops were more reliably prosecuted and convicted for murder when they killed people, I’d bet very few people would still be worried about qualified immunity. And qualified immunity does not protect the state itself from liability arising from the misdeeds of its agents. It is actually quite common for a city to be sued and eventually reach a settlement with the victims of their murderous police forces.
