Most victims of excessive force and other violations committed by officials don’t have the resources to challenge the perpetrators in court. Those who do manage to lodge complaints are all too often unable to enforce accountability because of a legal doctrine known as qualified immunity, which protects public officials from suit in cases where the rights the plaintiff claims were violated were not clearly established.

Officials don’t always prevail, but all too often even extreme behavior is protected. The latest round of federal appellate court decisions proves how engrained official invincibility is in our legal system.

The Fifth Circuit, which hears federal appeals from Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas, recently ruled that an officer who killed a suspect after he sparked a high-speed chase, ignored commands, and asked an officer to kill him is protected by qualified immunity.

Six days later, however, the Fifth Circuit determined, in a rare blow to qualified immunity, that police who had reason to know the correct address can be held liable for actions taken after targeting the wrong home.

Elsewhere, the Ninth Circuit—that’s Alaska, Arizona, California, Guam, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington—decided, perhaps grudgingly, that an officer is protected from liability after shooting a drunk man who opened the door with knife in hand, fearing a hostile neighbor. That’s even though the victim prevailed at the district court level, where the jury found excessive force was used and awarded him $534,000.

Not to be left out, the Tenth Circuit—hearing cases out of Colorado, Kansas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Utah, and Wyoming—agreed that the sheriff and warden responsible for keeping pretrial detainees in jail in Santa Fe, New Mexico, for more than 30 days (despite a 15-day maximum) get qualified immunity, as does the county itself. Why? The court was in charge of arraignment.

In other words, it’s not just illegal actions that may be protected: Even if officials know better and could have acted to protect detainees’ rights, they can’t be held liable for failing to do so.

“Qualified immunity” is hardly a household phrase, but it should be. Until it becomes easier to hold officials accountable, it’s going to be tough to change the shoot-now-ask-questions-later mentality of some law enforcement or stop the epidemic of excessive force and unnecessary shootings.