Ask A Cop!!! Post Your Questions Here!

[H2Andy]

Is it true that an officer can be vocally disrepectful to you, but you can't respond in turn without being arrested?

i don't believe there is any law in the books (in FLorida) that allow for an
arrest for simply "talking back" or "mouthing off" to an officer.

there is a charge (again, in Florida) of "resisting arrest without violence," and
the line between smarting off to an officer and resisting arrest wihtout violence can get crossed real fast...

and it's a night in jail for you



i would say that if faced with an arrogant, hostile, or whatever officer,
the best thing is to cooperate, get off the arrest situation, and report
that officer (by name and badge number, with date and time of incident)
to the police department's Internal Affairs or Integrity Units, if they have them.

 

[OE2X]

This is a great thread. Thanks to all the officers that have taken the time to respond. You folks have a thankless job and not one that I would want. Thanks for being there when we need you, and if the WA and OR officers could avoid looking for my two cars when I don't need you that would be even better .

 

[gecko3s]

Resisting w/o violence....disorderly intox....breach of the peace....also known as "POP"
Pissin Off the Police

 

[SteveDiver]

We need some officers in Houston big time! The New Orleans evacuees increased our pop and the crime rate went WAY UP! We are bringing back retired officers with good records to the streets.. and recruiting like crazy...

Officers are underpaid just like school teachers however they are responsible for developing our children and protecting our families. Makes sense? yet, a football player makes millions to entertain our criminals and under educated...

 

[Knight1989]

The thing with the talking back to us, is that recent changes in laws have made it more difficult to prosecute under the disorderly conduct law, which is what we used to use for people that would go off on us. Basicly to sum it up, dissorderly conduct is behavior thats offensive to the general public. We as police are no longer considered to be the public and cant be "offended" by a persons actions so there for unless we have a citizen who witness the act and is willing to cliam they were offended, we cant arrest for dissorderly. Again, this varies by jurisdiction and is a VERY abridged explination of the law.

 

[Rick Inman]

Here's my question. What book/movie/TV show (fiction, not COPS) best reflects what it's really like to be a police officer? (Please don't say, T.J. Hooker)

 

[OE2X]

O.k the scenario that happened to me was a couple of years ago at the airport in Seattle.
I was dropping off a friend and I was one lane to the left of the curb.There are four lanes total. There were six cars ahead of me and the traffic was backed up. I was stationary for less than one minute when the traffic cop came up to me and started writing me a ticket for $110. I was shocked. When I asked him why I was being cited he told me that I couldn't park in this lane. I never got out of my truck, it remained in gear the whole time with the engine running. So I questioned him about the other six cars that had been ahead of me, why he didn't write them up.

As soon as I started to question his authority, he looked at me and said "One more word out of you and I'll arrest you." I never called him a name or was derogatory to him, yet he felt that he had the ability to be proactive.

As to my being drunk - well it was 7:00 AM and I hadn't had a drink prior to that in about 17 years...

Needless to say I got real quiet and only cursed him under my breath. BTW - it was also my birthday.

 

[OE2X]

The thing with the talking back to us, is that recent changes in laws have made it more difficult to prosecute under the disorderly conduct law, which is what we used to use for people that would go off on us. Basicly to sum it up, dissorderly conduct is behavior thats offensive to the general public. We as police are no longer considered to be the public and cant be "offended" by a persons actions so there for unless we have a citizen who witness the act and is willing to cliam they were offended, we cant arrest for dissorderly. Again, this varies by jurisdiction and is a VERY abridged explination of the law.

Thanks for the info. I don't advocate giving anyone a hard time particularly someone who is not to different from myself and has a very hard job.

Be safe and thanks for the hard work.

 

[SteveDiver]

O.k the scenario that happened to me was a couple of years ago at the airport in Seattle.
I was dropping off a friend and I was one lane to the left of the curb.There are four lanes total. There were six cars ahead of me and the traffic was backed up. I was stationary for less than one minute when the traffic cop came up to me and started writing me a ticket for $110. I was shocked. When I asked him why I was being cited he told me that I couldn't park in this lane. I never got out of my truck, it remained in gear the whole time with the engine running. So I questioned him about the other six cars that had been ahead of me, why he didn't write them up.

As soon as I started to question his authority, he looked at me and said "One more word out of you and I'll arrest you." I never called him a name or was derogatory to him, yet he felt that he had the ability to be proactive.

As to my being drunk - well it was 7:00 AM and I hadn't had a drink prior to that in about 17 years...

Needless to say I got real quiet and only cursed him under my breath. BTW - it was also my birthday.

There are some officers who think they are superior to others... There ae some officers that do not have to prove their "manhood" because they are descent "real men" I work with many officers as a life-flight medic and many are my friends. They joke about the "young cocky officers" having penis envy.. LOL

 

[baitedstorm]

I can't believe this thread has taken off like this. We have soooo many cops here, that I can't help but to be a little surprised. Not saying it's a bad thing, just a little shocked. Kinda reminds me of a sub-forum on GlockTalk