How far can LEO go?

[deepNdirt]

We can do whatever we want, whenever we want! Kidding, kidding...

I'll try my best to shed a little light on this subject but I'm not sure how much of this is regional. I am a LEO in CT. I am a police officer, not a traffic cop, not an investigator, not a narcotics detective...I am all of these and some more depending on the day. I started in a small department that did not have any specialized units, I was the specialized unit. One day I might be investigating a burglary, the next a domestic dispute and a DWI arrest on another day...if it was a busy day I might have been doing all of these in the same shift on top of performing CPR at a medical call. Around here it is not uncommon for cops to wear many hats. While detectives or investigators are great, they spend a lot of time at the computer. The guys and gals on patrol are the ones that interact with the people on the street and they are often the ones who develop the leads that detectives use to "crack the big case". It's a team effort.

As for the traffic stop, as long as it does not delay the person stopped for an unreasonable amount of time, it is within our scope to do a little investigating if we have the opportunity. For the same reason I check to see if the operator has warrants, I might want to know if he owns the equipment that he is hauling. It doesn't take long for me to find out and I will happily send them on their way when everything checks out. I hate to use the term but a large majority of my job is "routine" but I always plan for the small percentage that is not. I hope that people don't take it personally, I treat everyone with guarded respect. After all, I have a wife and kids that I WILL come home to every day after my shift.

Hope this helps. :thumbsup:

I understand all of this and my hat comes off to you sir. I know you must have a difficult job to do, especially in these days and times,
however! I have to question the one part of "within our scope to do a little investigating if we have the opportunity." Why would you feel the need for such opportunity if there were no laws being broken? what you are saying is that I could be driving along the abiding the speed limit minding my own business simply trying to haul my tractor into the shop to be worked on,
and this gives you the opportunity to pull me over and run the numbers on my tractor etc,etc, of course this would be after I have provided all proper driving registrations,documentations even have meat all safety requirements on my trailer and load, you still would feel as though you need to run my tractor serial no# ....Just because you want to..... which is exactly what I'm referring to as hearing on the scanner,
not this this has anything to do with it,... But I have heard many times a LEO call in to say he going to check out the person on the side of the road who's trying to change his flat tire.... as if the poor guy changing his tire hasn't enough to deal with....I'll hear the warrant check and all is good.and then a 5-8 minutes later the LEO will call his 10-8 code as being back in service....... I know good and well the LEO couldn't have help that poor guy change his tire in that short of time But then I've also heard them call in to say their going to give someone a ride to a gas station, :thumbsup: IMO I think It comes down to the discrepancy of the LEO to make a decision on what to do in any given case or circumstance, not as much as it would be the "scope of the Law"

I'm no young buck that has any reason to buck the law, although don't get me wrong I have had my run in with them in my younger hot-rod car days,
its just that sometimes I hear too much on my scanner, and I suppose I really need to turn it off for a while

 

[flyingcow]

We can do whatever we want, whenever we want! Kidding, kidding...

I'll try my best to shed a little light on this subject but I'm not sure how much of this is regional. I am a LEO in CT. I am a police officer, not a traffic cop, not an investigator, not a narcotics detective...I am all of these and some more depending on the day. I started in a small department that did not have any specialized units, I was the specialized unit. One day I might be investigating a burglary, the next a domestic dispute and a DWI arrest on another day...if it was a busy day I might have been doing all of these in the same shift on top of performing CPR at a medical call. Around here it is not uncommon for cops to wear many hats. While detectives or investigators are great, they spend a lot of time at the computer. The guys and gals on patrol are the ones that interact with the people on the street and they are often the ones who develop the leads that detectives use to "crack the big case". It's a team effort.

As for the traffic stop, as long as it does not delay the person stopped for an unreasonable amount of time, it is within our scope to do a little investigating if we have the opportunity. For the same reason I check to see if the operator has warrants, I might want to know if he owns the equipment that he is hauling. It doesn't take long for me to find out and I will happily send them on their way when everything checks out. I hate to use the term but a large majority of my job is "routine" but I always plan for the small percentage that is not. I hope that people don't take it personally, I treat everyone with guarded respect. After all, I have a wife and kids that I WILL come home to every day after my shift.

Hope this helps. :thumbsup:

You are a good one. Most are. A very unthankful job. More power to you.

If i get stopped with my tractor in tow? Run my numbers if you want. Don't be a jerk about it and i won't. Ride on. Seems simple?

 

[LD1]

You are a good one. Most are. A very unthankful job. More power to you.

If i get stopped with my tractor in tow? Run my numbers if you want. Don't be a jerk about it and i won't. Ride on. Seems simple?

Very well said.

If I get pulled over for a "routine" traffic stop, check all the numbers you want. I have nothing to hide.

But...Back to the OP's point of "running" plates and checks for the poor guy changing his tire:

Criminals, murderers, thieves, druggies, etc have breakdowns too.

I am sure it happens in real life too, but the movie S.W.A. T. comes to mind. Where the "international terroist" was stopped for just a broken taillight. What if it was just a flat?
What if the LEO did run the checks??

If I have an open trailer in tow, and hauling equipment, run whatever #'s you want. Again, I have nothing to hide. The ONLY thing it is going to accomplih is catching thieves, and if that cost me an extra few minutes, so be it.

Now, if the ONLY reason you stopped me is to run the #'s, well......

But they (LEO's) are always smart enough to come up with a reason other than that. Like weaving, license plate light, took a turn too wide, etc.

Now if it is an enclosed trailer, and they want to take a look inside...thats a whole other can of worms.

 

[chuckd1277]

deepNdirt, I should have been more specific. There needs to be probable cause to make the stop in the fist place, speeding, weaving, etc... Once stopped, a reasonable, limited check of items or equipment that is in plain view is within the scope. However, as LD1 mentioned, if there is a car that I want to stop, there will be a reason to stop it. There are hundreds of statutes that almost everyone violates at one time or another. That being said, I am not a big motor vehicle guy. In fact, my first chief disliked me because all he ever wanted us to do is stop cars for every reason we could find. I didn't get into law enforcement until I was 30, so I had a little life experience under my belt. I didn't like getting pulled over before I was on the job and therefore I choose carefully what reasons I have to pull someone over. If you are in CT and get pulled over by me, you did something to deserve it (running stop signs, lights, high rate of speed, etc...).

flyingcow, thanks. I try my best. I wish I could say that we all did it right but there is always a small percentage that ruin it for the rest of us. It simply can't be avoided. As with any job, it takes all types of personalities to make it work as a whole. I happen to be a little more laid back than most and it has worked for me thus far. I also see the value in the hard chargers that are stopping cars all day. It may inconvenience most of the people they stop for a few minutes but I have seen it take drugs, weapons and dangerous people off the street on a small percentage of the stops. I am in a larger town/city now and I have seen a lot more activity that I was used to in my former town. :shocked: It's quite an eye opener!

 

[deepNdirt]

I'm pretty satisfied with the overwhelming responses so far that most folks really don't mind being stopped by the LEO's and in fact will offer any assistance that can be helpful to a speedy investigation, :laughing:
actually i would be the same way as I don't have anything to hide either,
well! other then the fact that my tractor is a gray, I might be bitting my fingernails over this
I suppose they are just doing their jobs, or should I say over doing them

 

[Jim Thompson]

I'm pretty satisfied with the overwhelming responses so far that most folks really don't mind being stopped by the LEO's and in fact will offer any assistance that can be helpful to a speedy investigation, :laughing:
actually i would be the same way as I don't have anything to hide either,
well! other then the fact that my tractor is a gray, I might be bitting my fingernails over this
I suppose they are just doing their jobs, or should I say over doing them

I'm wondering as I read this: would your prospective change should you become the victim of theft as I have been? It's a tough job trying to recover stolen equipment and I would suspect that less than twenty-five percent is ever recovered. My loss wasn't that great- $4000 worth of landscaping equip- but none was ever recovered. I don't believe in law enforcement abusing their authority; however, they don't need to be handicapped any more than they already are. The criminals have too many breaks already.
Jim

 

[dcyrilc]

I'm pretty satisfied with the overwhelming responses so far that most folks really don't mind being stopped by the LEO's and in fact will offer any assistance that can be helpful to a speedy investigation, :laughing:
actually i would be the same way as I don't have anything to hide either,
well! other then the fact that my tractor is a gray, I might be bitting my fingernails over this
I suppose they are just doing their jobs, or should I say over doing them

I think chuckd1277 said it pretty well. I maintain the traffic signals in a town of just over 125,000 people (185 traffic signals) and work fairly often with our police department. It's not uncommon for me to have coffee during morning break with some of our officers once or twice a week. Good people.:thumbsup: IMO it's the new officers who seem to be a little over agressive. After they've been on the job for a few years they tend to settle down and mellow out.

The worst I've seen was one night when I was responding to a signal issue in the downtown area in my personal vehicle and had a new officer stop and basically harrass me. I think he was going to ticket me for parking on the sidewalk until a senior officer stopped, greeted me by name and asked me what was up. There was definately an attitude change after the senior officer showed up and was ready to provide me with any assistance I needed.

 

[MossRoad]

So let me get this straight...

You are driving down the road, towing a trailer with your truck. There is a car on the trailer. The police pull you over for a routine check. No reason to pull you over. No visible loose tie downs, chains, low tires, bad lighting. They just pull you over to check. You are a private hauler, not a commercial vehicle. They just pull you over to check. And they climb up on your trailer, take your VIN number from your car and run that, too. No reason, other than to check. And some of you have no problem with this?

Well, then, you wouldn't have any problem with them walking up to all the vehicles on your driveway, maybe walking around the side of your house and checking the VIN on the un-plated truck you have back there behind the garage, getting the VIN numbers and running those, either, would you? Heck no. What's wrong with that?

I have two words to say about that....

Papers, please?

 

[dcyrilc]

So let me get this straight...

You are driving down the road, towing a trailer with your truck. There is a car on the trailer. The police pull you over for a routine check. No reason to pull you over. No visible loose tie downs, chains, low tires, bad lighting. They just pull you over to check. You are a private hauler, not a commercial vehicle. They just pull you over to check. And they climb up on your trailer, take your VIN number from your car and run that, too. No reason, other than to check. And some of you have no problem with this?

Well, then, you wouldn't have any problem with them walking up to all the vehicles on your driveway, maybe walking around the side of your house and checking the VIN on the un-plated truck you have back there behind the garage, getting the VIN numbers and running those, either, would you? Heck no. What's wrong with that?

I have two words to say about that....

Papers, please?

I think you're misunderstanding Moss. I believe that all of us stated that we have no issue of a check being run after being stopped for a legitimate traffic stop.

 

[MossRoad]

I think you're misunderstanding Moss. I believe that all of us stated that we have no issue of a check being run after being stopped for a legitimate traffic stop.

I understand that. And I always cooperate. However, I do not agree with routine stops, sobriety checkpoints, checking for citizenship papers, etc... I believe they should have a visible reason for stopping you in the first place and they should be required to stick to the reason they stopped you for unless obvious plain sight issues arise when the officer looks into your car through the window while conversing with you.

As an example, you forget to put on your seat belt, an officer sees you not wearing the shoulder harness as you pass by, he pulls you over and gives you a ticket for a seat belt violation. That's fine. Then he asks you if you would mind if he had a look inside your vehicle. You say, no, that would bother me. Oh yeah, I forgot to mention you are Hispanic and near Chicago. He says what have you got to hide, keeps you there, calls in the drug dog to sniff your car over, it gives a positive indication, they handcuff you on the side of the road and tear your car apart. They find nothing. The dog was mistaken. It happens often.

Tribune analysis: Drug-sniffing dogs in traffic stops often wrong - Chicago Tribune

I just wish they would stick to the visible violations and not be able to do routine checks on random citizens, that's all.