Lazy Police Officers

[Rahmota]

I need to put a disclaimer in my sig I think. I'm only familiar with Ohio laws so somewhere else probably will be different and considering how localities can stack their own ordinances on top of state laws (as long as they don't contradict) it could mean what I say is not true somewhere else.

But as far as I know in the state of Ohio to be DUI/DWI the car either has to be in motion under your "control" or there have to have been eyewitnesses that you where just driving the car. (Ie you pull over and swap with a sober friend then you're still tagged if the officer can proove it with eyewitness reports or other things) just being in the car drunk while not going to be dui/dwi can get you a public intoxication or open container depending on the situation.

In Ohio if you just have an open container (defined as any nonsealed item capable of holding a liquid including cups, bottles and shoes) of alcohol you can get ticketed and fined because the officer has no way of knowing that you wheren't drinking or if you where going to be drinking from it. AFAIK it doesnt matter if you or your friend has the beer in his hand just so lojng as it is in the passenger area of the vehicle.

Public intoxication is the being drunk in public charge and can get you anythign from a ticket and fine to jail time and several thigns in between,depending on how badly behaved you are.

And of course for those winners there is nothign keeping an officer from stacking all three of those charges together.

symposes said: My stepmom asked about it. And was told, by the cop that did it, that just being drunk and in the vehicle was all he needed to give a DUI, EVEN IF THEY ARE A PASSENGER IN A CAB...
Not a lazy cop, but a power trip none the less.

Yeah that sounds like a power trip to me too. I hate it when cops go bad or behave sucky too. It gives a bad name to all the good ones out there.

Sorry for going off tangent like this.

[protege]

Yeah that sounds like a power trip to me too. I hate it when cops go bad or behave sucky too. It gives a bad name to all the good ones out there.

I don't think anyone here is trying to slam cops for doing their job. Not all cops are assholes, just like not all customers suck. There's a tiny minority that makes them all look bad. Most cops are pretty cool. I've only run into one asshole. However, I tried to respect them all--there's no point in pissing off a cop.

The one asshole I dealt with, was shortly after I'd just wrecked my dad's car in 1993. Some idiot hit the brakes in front of me on a slick road, and I couldn't stop...slid right into him. We couldn't have been going that fast, since we just left a traffic light.

Cops came, and the asshole proceeded to screw me over. No matter what I, or the other driver, told him, he wrote down what *he* thought happened. Nevermind that he wasn't even there! Anyway, my father came down to pick me up, and talk with the cops. Because my father argued with him, I got cited for speeding and "reckless driving," along with 6 points on my license. (Don't even get me started on how 5-15mph could be seen as speeding in a 40mph zone...)

Fast forward a month, and I had my hearing with the magistrate. I had witnesses, photos of both cars, results of bumper tests etc...and got the charges dropped. Get this, the cop didn't even show up! He had the balls to pick on me at the scene, but apparently didn't have the balls for the hearing. At least the magistrate threw out the charges, and that cop eventually was forced to retire.

Again, most cops are *not* assholes.
========

How about this? Some of you know that my goofball neighbors like to use the police to harass people in the borough. They'll call the cops over stupid things--a kiddie pool in a yard down the street, people parking in front of their house, etc. 99.9999% of the time, the cops *do not* want to come and deal with it. But they have to, simply because the idiots next door are taxpayers.

Usually, when they come, they'll simply say things like "there was a complaint made against you by neighbor _____" and leave it at that. That's what goes on the complaint form.

In other words, they don't like dealing with those idiots

However, do we give them a hard time for coming over here? Of course not. They're just doing their jobs--it's not their fault they deal with idiots

[symposes]

How about this? Some of you know that my goofball neighbors like to use the police to harass people in the borough. They'll call the cops over stupid things--a kiddie pool in a yard down the street, people parking in front of their house, etc. 99.9999% of the time, the cops *do not* want to come and deal with it. But they have to, simply because the idiots next door are taxpayers.

\

When my stepmom moved out of her house, to move in with my dad, she rented her house to her son, my step brother, he needed a place to live, and it all worked out.
Til the neighbors across the street started calling the cops on him for BS reasons.

Its a very long story, and i only had tidbits, but basicly the neighbor didnt like the fact that 4 college aged kids now lived across the street from her, and she used the police to harass them. And because he had a dui, the cops loved to harass him anyway they could.

Not to mention the neighbor 3 houses down that would come down and take pictures with his camera, and then act like a total jerkwad, saying that he was doing nothing wrong. My stepbrother decided to get even, so he stood outside that guys house, from the side walk, and pretended to take pictures with an old camera. guy didnt think it was too funny then. but thankfully nothing came of it, i still dont know why my SB did that.

[Rahmota]

Protege: Sorry if I came off too strongly like that. I'm sure there wasn't any intent to slam all LEOs or anything and I may have been a bit prissy myself.

As for power triping cops, I've run into a few on both sides of the badge. Working with and encountering in the public. Got pulled over for speeding. My speedo said 55 in a 45 he said his radar clocked me at 65. I acknowledged the 55. He said its 65 or he was writing me up for several vehicle issues I had as well. So it was 65 in a 45.

As for rear ending someone, here in Ohio the official law/opinion is if you rear end someone its your fault no matter what happened as you should have been paying attention or travelling at a speed and distance from the person in front of you that you could stop in time if they stopped.

I've seen the harrassment thing tried out here. One of our neighbors retired to the country from the city. Unfortuantely they picked the property that had horses on one side of them, goats on the other and cattle behind them. Livestock does not smell nice all the time and sometimes get out or make noise at wierd hours and these people tried to call the sheriff on their neighbor's for causing problems do to their livestock. Finally the couple moved out as the sheriff told them that unless the livestock actually gets on their property there is nothign the sheriff can or will do about it.

[Crosshair]

Am I the only one disturbed, though, that the story said that the police weren't sent out until AFTER THE THIRD 911 CALL?!?!?

One reason why CCW is so popular. If you have some nut comming after you saying they are going to kill you, you can cut out the middleman if you CCW. MOST people realize their mouth is writing checks their *ss can't cash when they see that the person they decided to pick on/rob is armed and able to defend themselves. 90-95% of the time there are no shots fired, the perp simply runs away or surrenders. Sometimes the victim files a police report, sometimes not, either way these reports don't make the news since nobody got hurt and it simply isn't "newsworthy".

Not sure if the mods would like me to post the link, but you can go to youtube.com and search for, "Good guy 1, Bad guy 0, CCW in action" if you want. The video is a security camera view of a motel robbery. Not graphic or anything, but the bad guy does end up with 3 cases of high velocity lead poisoning. Video doesn't mention it, but it was ruled to be a justified shooting (duh) and the perp got 8 years.

/Waiting for my CCW permit.

[ArenaBoy]

I work with the police from time to time, some of them are very nice and convenient to have especially on busy roads unloading barrels, while other times you wonder how they became police officers in the first place. Hilariously enough, they don't do much about all the alcohol that my drunks have on them in thier cars. The only thing they're interested in is fights and speeders. The police in my area are known to be jerks about speeding and have actually tailgated me so they can try and write tickets. I actually asked one of them about it and he said that's its just boredom that has a vice grip on some of them. Either way, cops can be very nice or big jerks. My grandpa is a cop and he thinks that cops don't deserve special treatment.

[friendofjimmyk]

Sorry to bust your bubble but to be perfectly honest I doubt anything will ever be said about this unless the tow driver lodges a complaint. And even then it'll probably be ignored or at best a slap on the wrist for the officer as to a peace officer that was a total non-event there. Two people passed out drunk in a non-mobile car that I am guessing was not blocking traffic or otherwise being a problem at the end of shift isnt even worth a write up.

True they had no doubt been driving somewhere but since when the officer arrived they where'nt and if there had been no other reports on that car then under OHIO law there was no crime being committed so there was nothing really for the officer to do.

First off, in most states, if you are in a vehicle and intoxicated and the keys are merely in the ignition - you can be arrested for drunk driving. The only chance that you may have for getting off is if the keys are not in the ignition. In this case, they were not only in the ignition - but the engine was running...two intoxicated people in the vehicle - one in the driver's seat - this is not a "non-event" this is drunk driving in most states.

The officer told the driver he didn't want to do anything about it because it was the end of his shift.

[friendofjimmyk]

And sorry for getting on a soapbox there but I've seen the other side of the badge and I don't like LEOs getting bashed for stuff that may not be understood or their fault. Its a tough job and the officer on the scene has to make decisions based on the laws, operational orders and facts/evidence/probable cause as he is aware of on the scene. Sometimes his judgement is one people agree with, sometimes it isnt. But as long as he doesnt break any laws or regulations then there isnt much that is going to happen to him.

Okay, I think you need to go back and read my OP...as I stated in the post before this one...the keys were in the ignition, the engine was running, the driver was drunk! Drunk driving, sir, I don't care what state you live in or when you wore the badge. The driver was drunk.

[friendofjimmyk]

I wasn't trying to slam cops for doing their jobs. That was not the intent of this post. The cop told the driver that it was the end of his shift and he didn't want to do anything about it.

The vehicle was in the situation it was in because it hit something and blew out the tires! I suppose the cop would've done something if it was another vehicle that it had hit, right? In this case, a curb or whatever it hit had no ability to speak up and say, "HEY, they hit me! OUCH!" so, there was no victim?

What about the next time this person gets behind the wheel and drives drunk and does hit somebody?

I wasn't saying all cops are lazy, but this one was, in my opinion.

[Rapatwork]

First off, in most states, if you are in a vehicle and intoxicated and the keys are merely in the ignition - you can be arrested for drunk driving. The only chance that you may have for getting off is if the keys are not in the ignition.

Similar laws in the UK. Someone I once knew told me he had been doing a touch of over-the-limit driving (lost quite a bit of respect from me for this) some years previously, and he'd pulled over for a nap. The layby he was in was miles from anywhere, and the car stank of booze, but because the police office who came to investigate and wake him up could see that the keys were not in the ignition, he couldn't do anything about it. This was back in the seventies where drunk drivers weren't the social lepers they are now.

Rapscallion

[Ree]

I work with the police from time to time, some of them are very nice and convenient to have especially on busy roads unloading barrels, while other times you just want to shoot them.

I know this wasn't meant in a bad way, but as the aunt of a police officer, whom I love dearly, and who has a wife and child, comments like that really upset me.
That is always my worst fear for him.

Next time, I would hope that you would think twice before using an expression like that.

[Rahmota]

friendofjimmyk spoke thusly:the keys were in the ignition, the engine was running, the driver was drunk

Ooops.

I have four eyes and still missed that rather important point you made. That doth change the way the winds blow. As you said that was just being a bit lazy. Still though in self defence without being on the scene it's kinda hard to armchair quarterback that. But yeah sounds like things could have been handled a bit better.

Sorry for being such a goober. So as Gilda Radner's character on SNL used to say. "nevermind....."

[friendofjimmyk]

Dat's otay! I thought maybe you missed that detail. Sometimes I read posts and see one thing that gets my goat and miss the other thing that explains it!

[protege]

Protege: Sorry if I came off too strongly like that. I'm sure there wasn't any intent to slam all LEOs or anything and I may have been a bit prissy myself.

It's no problem. It's not often we get to hear things from behind the badge

BTW, my borough has a *very* low crime rate. It's not so much that it's a small borough, but simply because the cops do a good job keeping things under control. There are stupid things--like vandalism, shoplifting, etc., but for the most part, it's pretty safe here. I think we've had one, maybe 2 murders in the past 30 years. One was simply a barfight gone bad, the other was a murder-for-hire thingie. Apparently, a guy got promoted over some people who didn't like him. He came home one night and surprised an intruder...who shot him.