The Law Enforcement Officer Thread

Really, there's all kinds of great reasons to put less-lethal weapons on drones.

edited 28th Aug '15 9:02:29 AM by TobiasDrake

Interpol has officially rejected the request by the Royal Malaysian Police to issue a red notice for the arrest of Clare Rewcastle Brown, the editor-in-chief of the Sarawak Report.

And now I'm thinking back to the time I did a mock vehicle search and we made a mess of it.

That request looks pretty clearly like an attempt to use law enforcement as a way to get rid of critical opinions. Good on declining that one.

Adding Less than lethal weapons to drones that are small enough to fly over crowded areas isn't as easy as it seems but it has its merits.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vICfKPoCubw

Certainly it won't be able to neutralize a subject but will be able to harass suspects or single out trouble makers during protests and riots.

Good to see Interpol do something sensible.

I doubt that the RMP will give up.

Don't know for how long this was going on, but Clare Brown got Scotland Yard VIP protection.

edited 28th Aug '15 6:20:51 PM by Ominae

Can people generally ask police officers for their ID numbers or such?

How so?

In some places I believe it's a legal requirement for it to be visible at all times if they are in uniform,

For example, I get detained by a police officer. Can I ask them their name, or ID badge and they HAVE to tell me?

Badge number isn't always officer ID number. Likewise with car identifiers.

Here's a basic run down.

If cop engages you: traffic stop, stop and frisk, walks up and asks you questions, whatever. If they engage you on official business, you have the right to their number and name. They are often supposed to give you the name of their immediate supervisor.

If cop isn't engaging you: Cop is walking on the street, cop is at a traffic stop, whatever. Cop has not talked to you: they are not obligated to even acknowledge your existence let alone respond to your requests for anything except help.

Now there are many ways to get a cop's id without engaging him. It's a lot easier than people think.

Perfectly legal means?

If they're in uniform won't it often be viable? I think British coppers have it on their shoulder, so you'd literally just have to look at their shoulder.

Yes, the methods are legal. I don't give out illegal means.

No, ID is not always visible if at all.

The reason I asked is because it seems sorta common for some cops to apply bogus traffic tickets in secluded areas to sometimes get people to bribe them. With the onset of smartphones and pictures and that info, how do these sort of claims generally end for people...?

Example, cop stops you outta nowhere claims you did something wrong. Certainly, speeding and others are harder to prove with pictures but let me put an example. I have heard stuff like cops parking behind a car that was badly parked in a double lined street, and when cars have to slightly step on the double line to safely pass it, the cops appear and fine the person.

How does this stuff generally go?

Enough mystery then?

In the case of tickets, you have a built in check system. There is contact information on the back of the ticket with the coordinating court in charge of that ticket. You don't agree with your ticket, you show up at the court on the date given and present your case to the judge. The cop has to be present as well. So you don't even have to worry about trying to figure out who the cop is. It's on the ticket.

Now in cases of an altercation where a ticket wasn't issued or you feel the cop violated some protocol, you call the jurisdiction in charge and begin to file a complaint. IA (Internal Affairs) kicks in on that part and follows up from there. Yes, you can sue cops as well so if it was important enough, you give everything to the lawyer and let them handle it.

You're welcome to introduce camera phone footage, witnesses, anything you like in these situations to have your back. And yes, you can appeal traffic court just like any other court issue if you feel that is important.

Gabrael, can you go into detail? Sure.

I don't like going into a wall of vague text.

And to answer that, again depends. Which jurisdiction are we going against? Fed, State, City, County? What division? What rank?

You don't hunt down a park ranger the same way you hunt down a highway patrolman. Can you tell the difference between a meter maid and a captain? What about the fire marshal?

It's kinda complex so help me out and I can narrow it down for you.

But let's try a few basic scenarios.

Lets say we want to know who these guys are.◊ We see them on the street and want to find out their names without engaging them.

First, we need to know their jurisdiction. Most people at least have enough sense to know on sight what their local PD uniform looks like. So we know these are Ferguson City PD. For sake of contrast, here is Little Rock PD◊ There isn't any uniform uniform. You have to know your area to get that far.

Alrighty. So what can we tell about our Ferguson guys? Well, all are wearing blues except the guy in the white. He's old and fat but his badge is the same shape as the blue guys, so it's fair to say he's part of the same department. White shirts are often higher ranking officers or government agents like Fire Marshals. Not always, but a fair guess. So this guy has a white shirt, looks out of shape, and is surrounded by blues. He's high enough that he also doesn't have to wear a jacket and can go small sleeves, so he's probably the chief. The chief of police is an elected position in many areas so google him: And we got him.

He is former police chief Thomas Jackson.

Alright. So we know the white shirt is Jackson. Let's look at his entourage.

Badges are all the same color. All are wearing shades, and there is no uniformity of how the radios are looped. Patrolmen. They are also all the same rank because they're patches and lines (or lack thereof) match.

So they don't have rank. This makes it easier.

Now some places have rosters like yearbooks of their officers where all you have to do is match a face to a name. Ferguson isn't going to have that and sure enough if you look at their website, that isn't going to be there. So we have to go a different way. Next resource would be the fraternal order of police. Ferguson is in St. Louis County. So look up the Missouri FOP and Saint Louis County. That would be lodge 15. Lodge 15 has wiped their online photo albums.

Again, no surprise.

So this is where you may have to get off the internet and do some in person action. You have a few choices from here.

You can go to the Police Department and ask to see the directory and they have to show it to you. You can go to the FOP and ask to see a directory but they don't have to show you and they will only have pictures of members so your guy may not be in there.

The next best place honestly, would be to go to a bail bondsman. These guys know everyone. They would probably know the officer on sight if they were patrol even in a big city. You can also request a Freedom of Information Act because the patrolman is a city employee and you have the right to know what their salary is and that would actually give you all the names. Then you just go from there to say, "White guys, mid 30s, etc."

But let's say you don't want anyone knowing that you're trying to figure out who this guy is. Alright. That's when you go back to the chief. Try and figure out what he was doing and where he was. The location and time of day is everything because patrol districts are mapped so you find the route and you only have to look up who was taking that route to continue as normal. That means paying attention to the neighborhood.

Local news reports are really awesome for this. The smaller the better because local guys love to get people's names in the paper. Another thing is the Associated Press also mandates prominent figures to be identified for transparency. So look up small town news and see if they covered the story. They can end up giving you the name right there.

Badge numbers alone will not help you find an officer. Badge number and car maybe. But time, location, and what type of officer is more important because that narrows the field to exactly who you need.

Another thing to keep in mind is that every police report once filed becomes public information in most circumstances. Violent or underaged crime can be sealed for a period of time. But most aren't.

So you see a cop say working an accident, or a lot of cop cars are huddled around a location with the lights flashing, no big deal. You get the address, then go to the station and ask the receptionist you want the reports connected with the incident at 12 Brown Street between 12 am and 2 am.

Make sure you give a time range and a location. Do not say anything more than incident. They see a lot of people and don't really give a damn why you want this report. It's also freedom of information so they don't even really have a right to ask. They will go pull the paperwork and you'll probably pay about $2 per report in copying fees and you'll have your own copy of all the legal reporting of the officers and what not. This will have all their identifying information like name, badge number, rank, that sort of thing on it.

You can't have photos. But you can have the written text which is often good enough to get what you need to know as well as a taste of the personality of the officer.

Wow.

Another officer shot and killed, this time outside Chicago. This is getting effing ridiculous.

Just like everything, everywhere...

I'm starting to think that there is a chance that this is a copycat murder. In other words, time to take a hint from Newswipe and leave the continuous reporting to the local news and the local news only.

Lots of cops are resigning amid the anti-cop climate.

I would advise against sourcing information from organisations that have gone to court to protect their right to lie to the public.

I looked around I couldn't find a reliable source just repeated through various forums and news feeds. Label as at best questionable. I did see one source that said currently police recruiting has seen a down turn since Ferguson and overt public bad feeling towards cops at the moment. Not exactly unexpected.

Maritime Advanced Situational Training Situational Awareness Training. Basically better human behavioral awareness and interaction training. Info on the course is kind of thin at the moment. Thoughts? I figure this something you guys can get behind.

edited 3rd Sep '15 2:43:45 AM by TuefelHundenIV

Yeah, FOX News is basically a propaganda organization for Republicans. Take everything they say with a grain of salt.