BlueSheepdog
10 Years Experience
Around the Way, FL
Male, 40
Cheating death and fighting communism: that is how a fellow officer once described our job. It was meant to be funny, but as time went on it seemed all too true.
I spent more than ten years in law enforcement, all of it on the street in uniform patrol. I've been a patrol officer, instructor, sergeant and lieutenant.
Do not report crimes here. Nothing here should be considered legal advice. All opinions are my own.
Drugs are held in evidence storage until the conclusion of the criminal trial. At that point, a judge will typically issue a court order for their destruction.
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It depends on the circumstances. There are three tiers of police-citizen interactions: consensual, investigative detentions and arrest. Your question relates to the first two tiers. If it is a consensual encounter, you do not have to stop and talk with the officer. An example of a consensual encounter is an officer engaging in friendly conversation with a shop clerk, stopping out to talk to kids playing basketball in a park or talking to someone on a street corner. This conversation is another example of a consensual encounter. If it is an investigative detention, then you must stop and identify yourself to the officer. Depending on the circumstances, you may be required to give additional information (such as on a traffic stop, you would need to provide a driver's license, registration and proof of insurance in many states). An investigative detention is predicated by an officer's reasonable, articulable suspicion of illegal activity by the person being stopped. This is more than a hunch, but far less than probable cause (needed for a lawful arrest). Examples of reasonable suspicion that would warrant an investigative detention could include a subject hanging out at the rear of a closed business late at night or seeing someone matching the description of a person fleeing from a crime. The problem with just ignoring the officer and walking off is you don't know which of the encounters the officer is initiating. If you ignore and walk away from an officer who is attempting to stop you as part of an investigative detention, expect to get grabbed and possibly face obstruction charges. Your best bet is to stop long enough to talk with the officer and inquire if you are being detained. If the officer says no, then feel free to walk away. Of course, being friendly and introducing yourself to the officer is always an option as well. Cops are people too, and unless you are involved in criminal activity you might find that we can be quite engaging to talk to.
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It is very situation dependent. What information has dispatch relayed to us? Is there someone that is displaying a badge or other identifiers? What are the circumstances? Do we have prior information about undercover officers working in an area? Misidentifying a good/bad guy is always a problem, and shooting an off-duty or plain clothes officer is a very real possibility. There is no simple answer to this question and the circumstances will offer responding officers "context clues" to the nature of the incident.
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Yes. It saddens me to see certain political "leaders" suggest otherwise for their own personal gain. It saddens me even more that their are people gullible enough to believe it.
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Professional Poker Player
Are you worried that online poker is rigged?
Starbucks Barista
Why does Starbucks attract so many homeless people?
Tattoo Artist
Have you ever messed up while giving someone a tattoo?
Some officers avoid the places, while others don't mind. For a lot of areas, these are one of the few places open if you are working midnights. So if you need a cup of coffee, the local Dunkin Donuts might be your best bet. I'm not a huge fan of donuts or coffee, so I don't generally have cause to stop in.
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Some agencies have used quotas as a method of ensuring officers maintain a high level of productivity. Frankly, quotas are unethical and are just a lazy supervisor's attempt to look good. If officers are not active, a supervisor should demonstrate leadership and inspire his or her people to provide superior service. Even if an agency employed a quota, I don't know that timing would have any bearing on enforcement. It is possible though. Maybe a topic for Mythbusters?
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The severity of the crime generally dictates who will process the scene. At my department, all of the patrol officers are equipped and trained to lift prints. So, on a relatively minor crime like an auto burglary, the patrol officer is responsible for processing the scene for evidence. We also have officers in patrol that are cross-trained to be evidence techs. These officers have been through multiple training classes for advanced evidence collection and have more tools than the average patrol officer has. In your example, a patrol officer would likely call one of these officers to help process the scene. For major cases, such as murder investigations, a specialized crime scene unit will be called in to work the scene. Traffic homicide cases are handled by a specialized unit of traffic homicide investigators. Evidence collection in these cases is similar, but these investigators are having to collect a lot of physical data that will allow them to reconstruct the physics of the accident. All crimes are important. However, a finite amount of resources requires departments to ration services. The more serious the crime, the more resources a department will be able to devote to it.
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