Have a Police Question? Ask me I will answer to the best of my ability.

[TklDuo-Ann]

I personally knew 17 young officers and one great sgt and 1 super lieutenant who died and no the department only has one treatment and thats take your guns put you in the station house and send you to a psychologist once every 4 months like that helps. The sgt and lieu. both were suicides from lack of support by NYPD but thats my opinion.

I'm sorry but not too surprised to hear that. I've seen how rough that can be. One of the guys, a sgt, is still often found sitting at the graveside drunk out of his mind. They actually have a special code for the call so the other guys know it's him in trouble and react accordingly. Such a shame. We demand so much from you guys, take it for granted and do nothing to support you. What idiots we can be!

 

[taptoematt]

OK, I have another question , I learned from a high school driving ed teacher.
Heres the scenario:
I'm driving from NYC to Albany on the Thruway. I'm doing 65 mph when out of nowhere a police car passes me doing 100mph without his lights on.

According to my teacher, I can then follow him at 100mph as long as he doesn't turn on his lights and I don't pass him.

Is there any truth to this ?

 

[MasterPaladin]

not a shred the police vehicle may be responding to a job that he does not want to alert the perp he is coming. To go a bit further just because an officer does something does not give you the right to. Police Officers have an authority called Right and Privileged meaning he can do anything that he can justify doing but does not have to tell anyone his reason (he should but does not have to) he does have to explain his actions to a superior officer.

 

[taptoematt]

Thankyou MasterPaladin, you are clearing up many questions I've had and its quite fun asking a policeman these bizzare situations, but I have one more to ask. Here is the scenario:

I've been out drinking with my friends , poundin down the ole brewskis and at the end of the night I decide to be a bad boy and get behind the wheel of a car ( I would never do this for real ) Low and behold the police see me and pull me over to check my sobriety. Before the officer walks up to me , I pop a cough drop in my mouth with a slight percentage of medicinal alcohol. I fail my test and when the officer bring me " downtown " I say I have a cold and have been sucking on cough drops.

Does this throw the sobriety test into doubt because now it can't tell how much is the drinking and how much is the cough drops ?

 

[MasterPaladin]

no for cough drops they don't have alcohol however even if it were a medicine that had it there is a warning not to drive or use heavy machines and it could become an abuser of prescription meds. there was one that worked for a while a breath spray it was 90 proof binaca. but they fixed that now lol. Different states have different rules and if your in south dakota you can pass the breath test and pass the blood test they can still with the officers testimony try and I say TRY to get a conviction for dui I know cause been there and done that. I am not afraid to say SD in aberdeen has the most corrupt pd I have ever seen. with one da and no ada's meaning there is only one person to deal with they bend laws there. Let me not get off on a tangent there.

here is a situation to think about. You get in an accident a bad one the driver gets out of the car and in front of witnesses goes in his trunk takes out an unopen bottle of whiskey opens it and drinks it cause he is so upset. He didn't drink before he was driving only after the accident and tells the police this and that he can no longer drive what happens ? lol

I'll tell you in short he has a lot of explaining to do and will 12 people believe him.

 

[General Zod]

What do most of the police officers think of the police shows or movies?

 

[taptoematt]

It's funny you say that one will have some explaining to do.
Heres an actual incident that happened when I was young to my local police dept.How do you think it got handled ?

Heres the scenario:

A policeman is on patrol in his cruiser when he sees a car that has crashed into a pole. When walking up to the car he finds no driver and three guys drunk off their asses in the backseat. The car is registered to one of the guys in the backseat. They tell the officer they were out to a bar and were too drunk to drive home, so a guy they met and whom they never saw before and wasn't drinking, drove them home and after hitting the pole , left the scene to go and get help.

What do you think happened ?

 

[MasterPaladin]

It's funny you say that one will have some explaining to do.
Heres an actual incident that happened when I was young to my local police dept.How do you think it got handled ?

Heres the scenario:

A policeman is on patrol in his cruiser when he sees a car that has crashed into a pole. When walking up to the car he finds no driver and three guys drunk off their asses in the backseat. The car is registered to one of the guys in the backseat. They tell the officer they were out to a bar and were too drunk to drive home, so a guy they met and whom they never saw before and wasn't drinking, drove them home and after hitting the pole , left the scene to go and get help.

What do you think happened ?

well for one try to see if that story checks out then look for witnesses if none they could take the owner of the car in due to it is a misdemeanor and police don't have to witness the driving all they need is probable cause to believe he was driving. With a drunk it's not to hard to trip up the stories for one seperate the three and ask questions , I bet the stories don't match then the owner goes.

 

[MasterPaladin]

What do most of the police officers think of the police shows or movies?

there not true to life at all. If it was factual it would make for a boring show. For example in NYC shoot someone the cop has to go to the hosp for trama thats mandatory then a lawyer and union delegate have to be present before the officer answers any questions no matter how clear cut the shooting is. this whole process plus paperwork can go 20 hours from the actual incident.

 

[taptoematt]

well for one try to see if that story checks out then look for witnesses if none they could take the owner of the car in due to it is a misdemeanor and police don't have to witness the driving all they need is probable cause to believe he was driving. With a drunk it's not to hard to trip up the stories for one seperate the three and ask questions , I bet the stories don't match then the owner goes.

What happened was there were no witnesses, due to it being late at night , so all the guys were taken to the police station for interegation. They tried for hours to get one of them to break their lie and tell them who the real driver was. They used every police tactic in the book to gain probable cause ,but all three guys ( having worked out the story in advance ) stuck to their story like glue while the police got more and more pissed that they couldn't break them.Eventually they had to let them go and the mysterious driver, of course, was never found.

 

[MasterPaladin]

well thank god they just hit a pole and no one was hurt and sorry for the delayed response for some reason it didn't highlight and I didn't know you posted I'll be more aware of that in the future.
If someone was injured in that accident they all would have been arrested. If the police pull over a vehicle and find a gun under the seat and there are 5 people in the car and no one fesses up to owning the gun they all go for a gun charge and here in NYC can all be found guilty.

 

[taptoematt]

well thank god they just hit a pole and no one was hurt and sorry for the delayed response for some reason it didn't highlight and I didn't know you posted I'll be more aware of that in the future.
If someone was injured in that accident they all would have been arrested. If the police pull over a vehicle and find a gun under the seat and there are 5 people in the car and no one fesses up to owning the gun they all go for a gun charge and here in NYC can all be found guilty.

Yes, that may be the reason they weren't overly worried about finding a driver. I know this story about how a bunch of stupid kids beat a DUI rap was talked about for years.

 

[MasterPaladin]

if they really wanted to press it the owner of the vehicle is responsible for all damages. I am also sure if they followed up on it one of those kids bragged about what they did. They should consider themselves very lucky. In South Dakota the one who drove to the bar or one responsible for the car would have been arrested and charged. It all depends on the state as well.

 

[taptoematt]

if they really wanted to press it the owner of the vehicle is responsible for all damages. I am also sure if they followed up on it one of those kids bragged about what they did. They should consider themselves very lucky. In South Dakota the one who drove to the bar or one responsible for the car would have been arrested and charged. It all depends on the state as well.

I'm sure one of the kids had to pay the damages and the bragging had to be eventually heard by the police, but it was a small town, and by then it was just water under the bridge. It is interesting, however, how different states handle their drunk driving laws. They were lucky it was in a small town in New York.

 

[MasterPaladin]

I'm sure one of the kids had to pay the damages and the bragging had to be eventually heard by the police, but it was a small town, and by then it was just water under the bridge. It is interesting, however, how different states handle their drunk driving laws. They were lucky it was in a small town in New York.

Aberdeen is also a small town well to me not them they think it's big they have over 25000 people there to them thats a lot to me it's an undermanned NYC police department. we have 7 million here.

 

[ticklkitten]

In reference to earlier stories I once read an email or thread or SOMETHING somewhere which said that if you get pulled over for DUI you could pull out a bottle of booze, show it to the officer. Throw your keys on the ground and just crack it open and start chugging. Not that I would recommend it but it does provide someone with time to get to the hospital for a blood draw and they would just get stuck with the fine for refusing a breath test.

I've heard other stories too which are certainly interesting but nothing I'd recommend.... they include keeping a jar of "organic peanut butter" and just eating a huge ass spoonfull of it... another is sucking on a mouthful of pennies???

Anyhow, I can see some justice in the first idea but have no clue about the second two. Btw, I do NOT support anyone driving while drinking. One drink is my limit if I am driving.

Kitten

 

[MasterPaladin]

ok this is where it depends what state your in. In South Dakota they do a blood test and it's mandatory, yes they can force you to take one by literally strapping you in a chair. A blood test can determine how much you drank. The story at the scene of the accident it takes the police a bit to get there and the alcohol has a chance to get into the blood. doing it the way you said is almost an admission that you were drinking. In NY it is against the law to do a forceable blood test , it's considered an illegal search and seizure by the state supreme court. I don't know about the others you said but binaca the breath spray used to have over 45% alcohol in it 2 squirts and you fail the breath test.

 

[BostonTickling]

First of all I just want to say I have enormous respect for police officers in general, and always wanted to be ne when I was a kid. My question for you is, of the various police themed dramas that have been on television over the years, which one (if any) do you feel most accurately portrays law enforcement?

 

[MasterPaladin]

The old show Hill Street Blues but as most shows go all the boring stuff is left out. Most shows that show a shooting the cop always goes home lol this is so untrue. first he goes to a hospital for trauma then pab delegate and his lawyer come well to make a long story short it's usually 15 hours after the incident that the officer gets to go home. In addition even in a busy station house 85% of the calls you go on are boring lol like 15 % action this would make for a very uninteresting show.

 

[locker669]

What's the fastest you've ever driven in a cruiser?

 

[MasterPaladin]

135 or so NYC police cars from being in the city are not safe much over that speed lol

 

[taptoematt]

The old show Hill Street Blues but as most shows go all the boring stuff is left out. Most shows that show a shooting the cop always goes home lol this is so untrue. first he goes to a hospital for trauma then pab delegate and his lawyer come well to make a long story short it's usually 15 hours after the incident that the officer gets to go home. In addition even in a busy station house 85% of the calls you go on are boring lol like 15 % action this would make for a very uninteresting show.

Why does it take so long for a police officer to be evaluated after a shooting and go home.
If I was a cop I'd be saying " let the guy go or shoot the bastard and give up my bowling night "

 

[MasterPaladin]

not when your gonna get shot at if you don't shoot first and you have less than a split second to make the choice so you won't get to much passed the word "the" in that quote. to put it bluntly your not going bowling either way.

 

[Mz Chaos]

Do you have a favorite type, model, caliber of firearm(s)?

 

[MasterPaladin]

anything much over a 10mm has to much kick. We were tought to fire in 2 to 3 shots rapid over a 10mm the kick is going to throw the shot off to much and you might hit something or someone you don't want to. I like the 9mm with semi jacket hollow point. You also don't want it to go through and still have enough force to kill that round usually will stop when it hits.