Ask A Cop!!! Post Your Questions Here!

[dherbman]

On another note, for the cops...

When you're in the final stages of working over a suspect, the confession just blubbering from his swollen and cracked lips, what do you use to get the blood and mucus stains off the walls? I can see where heavy detergent on a concrete floor is do-able but I'd imagine those sound proof walls wouldn't stand up to alot in the way of abrasives.

Whitewash.

 

[WaterWayne]

Here's a probably-rhetorical question: How in the wide, wide world could an officer let his parked unit roll away?! In a routine traffic stop in daylight on a two-lane stretch of interstate highway, the officer's squad car rolled from the shoulder into oncoming traffic, causing a multi-car wreck. Now I could understand if it were a hot situation, where the officer had to jump out with gun drawn, but...

Seriously, isn't it just amazing carelessness that the officer didn't even put his unit in park? Don't cops routinely sit and finish up a license check, etc., via radio after they've pulled over the speeder, before getting out?

The funny aspect is that the "city" is a notorious speed trap, the kind that has expanded its limits to take in about a mile of interstate in otherwise rural country, and has therefore afforded new Dodge Charger units.

 

[TJcop]

Well, Wayne....
Remember that officers are people too. We make mistakes (at least I'll admit it), so it's very possible the officer made a mistake....OMG! I wonder how the same thing happens with everyone else. I walk up to accidents and say to myself "How in the heck did THIS happen?!?"

 

[L.A.Dave]

So called concealed carry laws are also illegal, as they violate the 2nd Amendment because they infringe upon the right to bear arms.

Asking permission from the goverment to exercise your 2nd Amendment Rights is like asking the goverment for permission to exercise your 1st Amendment Rights or any of your other rights enumerated under the Constitution.

As to cops making mistakes, I don't think any decent person has a problem with honest mistakes, as mistakes by cops normally have a different result then when perps make mistakes. I think society rightfully just holds cops up to a much higher standard than the violent Adam Henry's of the world, who frankly should be made into fertilizer or fed to starving buzzards....

I think law enforcement needs to be more forthright though about profiling and admit that not only do they do it, but they need to silence the violent criminal-hugging lunatic left by explaining to the uneducated public the value of profiling and how it is a legitimate law enforcement technique that statistically yields results. I am sure this would infuritate the Godless Religious Left's Mumia-Abu-Jamal and Stanley Tookie Williams huggers, the latter of which publically bragged with a racial epithet about how he used a shotgun and "...blew the head off some Buddha-head", killed her parents also with shotgun blasts, and then the Godless Religious Left promptly idolized him for writing a book which sold less than 100 copies, no doubt all to the leftist media, all while ignoring the horrific photo of his crimes that showed what he did with a close range shotgun blasts to people he thought were white enough that they should be executed.

http://www.jtf.org/america/america.black.crime.stanley.tookie.williams.one.htm

 

[WaterWayne]

Gotta say, T.J., you've lived up to your commitment when you started this thread. With help from others, you've managed to answer just about all the questions. And even in this 63rd page, there haven't been many doughnut jokes...

And regarding improbable accidents, I still wonder how people manage to T-bone two cars on a city freeway, away from entrance/exit ramps, in broad daylight on dry surfaces. But we do!

 

[TJcop]

:lol: Thanks Wayne!

BTW, one of my favorite bumper stickers is:

Bad Cop, No Doughnut!

 

[Knight1989]

Its easier than you might think to forget something like putting the car in park. While haveing not done that one myself, I have forgot to unfasten the seatbelt, or locked my keys in the car. We have a lot on our mind during a traffic stop, even a normal one. Sometimes you get so focused on the stop or the suspect you dont think about the otherwise common sense stuff.

 

[papps953]

I have forgotten to put my car in park. I did it when I was new (less than a year on). I did (as I was trained) set my park brake so it wasn't a problem.

1. Look for a safe place to make the stop.
2. Put my hat on.
3. Keeping an eye on the occupants of the car, call out the stop.
4. Turn on my lights as I finish call out my calling out the stop.
5. Pull to the shoulder at a rate so I'm quickly overtaking the stopping car.
6. Take off my seatbelt so I can exit my car sooner.
7. Pull in about 20-30 feet from the car so I will be stopped at the same time or before the car stops.
8. Angle my car and stop with the corner of the bumper over the fog line.
9. Maintain a visual of the cars occupants. (Are they reaching or moving around?)
10. Check traffic to make sure I'm struck by a passing car as I exit my patrol car.
11. Watch the occupants of the car as I exit my patrol car.

There's a lot going on which cannot all become automatic in just a few seconds.

Then, if you change to nights you have to worry about turning on and directing your spotlight and grabbing your flashlight.

Bill

 

[papps953]

Three lanes or more has been the law for school busses as long as I can remember.

When I was in the 5th grade (1974) we lived on a highway with four lanes. I lived less than a mile from the city limits. The bus would pick my up and then drive its about 10 mile route picking up more kids, turn around and drive back past my house picking the kids up on the other side of the street. I wanted to wait and catch the bus on the way back into town. I was told I could not, because the school didn't want to be responsible (liable) for me walking across the road.

Bill

 

[TJcop]

I teach vehicle contacts here in Wisconsin, so naturally I saw quite a few differences between your training and ours.

I did (as I was trained) set my park brake so it wasn't a problem.

We don't teach this, but it seems like it worked!

1. Look for a safe place to make the stop.
2. Put my hat on.

:lol: Oh man, hats by us mean troopers. And troopers by us means *&%$%#.

3. Keeping an eye on the occupants of the car, call out the stop.
4. Turn on my lights as I finish call out my calling out the stop.
5. Pull to the shoulder at a rate so I'm quickly overtaking the stopping car.
6. Take off my seatbelt so I can exit my car sooner.
7. Pull in about 20-30 feet from the car so I will be stopped at the same time or before the car stops.

Same here...pretty standard stuff.

8. Angle my car and stop with the corner of the bumper over the fog line.
9. Maintain a visual of the cars occupants. (Are they reaching or moving around?)
10. Check traffic to make sure I'm struck by a passing car as I exit my patrol car.
11. Watch the occupants of the car as I exit my patrol car.

Again, same here, except the squad position. On surface streets we do the "inline" approach or the "offset". Angle parking is only done by our troopers and some deputies. I don't like the angle since you lose some of your takedown lights and headlights on the stopped vehicle. Those lights then shine into traffic. Try an inline stop, and make a right hand approach if you're on a freeway. We're trying to get our officers to do alot more of the right hand approach.