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.
In general, a police officer can use that force which is reasonable to defend himself or another, to prevent a crime or to detain a subject. Refer to http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=490&invol=386 and http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=471&invol=1 as a starting point for this body of work.
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Yes.
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At one department, there were three patrol zones and only a single station. A sergeant plus three or four officers were on duty at any given time. (Not including any specialty units.)
At a larger agency, there were six patrol zones with multiple officers assigned to each zone. There were three "sector offices" plus the main station. There were up to 24 patrol officers on the road. Generally there were 2-3 sergeants on duty at any given time plus a lieutenant and possibly a captain depending on time of day/day of week. Those staffing numbers did not include specialty units that might have also been working. For example, three traffic units plus a sergeant, a gang unit plus sergeant, etc.
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Call your local police department and ask for their assistance. They will know what to do.
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Stand-Up Comedian
How do you fend off hecklers?
Fashion Forecaster
Are people in the fashion world as rotten as those in Devil Wears Prada?
School Bus Driver
Do the kids treat you with the same amount of respect as other authority figures at school?
It depends on the state's laws. Some states yes, others no. Additionally, red light cameras typically operate under a different set of laws in each state. The rules for mailing tickets may be substantially different from on view violaions observed by a police officer. So, you may or may not get a ticket mailed to you. I really dont know. Call the police department in question if it is really bothering you.
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Call your local police department and ask for their assistance. They will know what to do.
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I value them all. If you are asking me to arbitrarily rank them in order of importance, I cannot. What duty is the officer trying to perform? Every task is different and requires varying degrees of each of the above. Also time in grade does not equate to experience. Also, experiences vary widely. Are the experiences in roles as a trainer, investigator, narcotics officer, or what? A highly educated homicide investigator with ten years of violent crime investigations may get his butt kicked the first night he rotates back to patrol and goes to a bar disturbance, while the two-year officer with nothing more than a high school diploma saves him. There is no neat way of quantifying police officers.
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