The following excerpt is from Hernandez v. United States, 939 F.3d 191 (2nd Cir. 2019):
omitted). "Deliberate indifference is a stringent standard of fault." Id. (brackets omitted). A municipality is deliberately indifferent where it fails to act when it has "actual or constructive notice," generally from "[a] pattern of similar constitutional violations by untrained employees," that its training program is "deficient." Id. A plaintiff, therefore, "must demonstrate that the municipal action was taken with deliberate indifference as to its known or obvious consequences. A showing of simple or even heightened negligence will not suffice." Outlaw v. City of Hartford , 884 F.3d 351, 373 (2d Cir. 2018) (internal quotations marks and alterations omitted).
In addition, "for liability to attach in this circumstance the identified deficiency in a city's training program must be closely related to the ultimate injury." City of Canton v. Harris , 489 U.S. 378, 391, 109 S.Ct. 1197, 103 L.Ed.2d 412 (1989). We focus on the "adequacy of the training program in relation to the tasks the particular officers must perform" and "[t]hat a particular officer may be unsatisfactorily trained will not alone suffice to fasten liability on the city, for the officer's shortcomings may have resulted from factors other than a faulty training program." Id. at 390-91, 109 S.Ct. 1197. Allegations that the injury could have been avoided with "better or more training" are not sufficient. Id. at 391, 109 S.Ct. 1197. The question is whether "the injury [would] have been avoided had the employee been trained under a program that was not deficient in the identified respect." Id.
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