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jmra wrote:Here is the problem I see with LEO responding to every call of someone OCing a handgun...groups like MDA will start patrols looking for people OCing and will flood police departments with calls (this is assuming people actually OC when/if this bill passes). These groups will start campaigns to recruit mindless robots to do the same (there are a lot of mindless robots out there).
No, I believe police departments have to train 911 operators to ask the right questions to determine if a crime is being committed. It is my understanding that much of OK has taken this approach and it has been very effective in limiting unnecessary dispatches of LEO.

That's fine with me. It's called desensitization. As PDs don't have manpower to waste on stuff like this, it'd probably go a long way in terms of how to sort out a legitimate call from a call about legal behavior.

To me, it's no different than a "suspicious person" call. Police should check it out if they have available resources. However, contract should be voluntary... It's not a valid reason to compel ID or stop and search.

Your friend has a reasonable outlook.

We shouldn't need a law that protects us from non-voluntary LEO contact for engaging in legal behavior. I say "shouldn't".

We already have various instances in Texas where LEO contact is initiated due to legal carry of a firearm. I didn't say "smart carry" - I said legal carry. So we've proven that LEOs will demand ID. Unfortunately the burden of proving who is wrong in these cases will fall not on law enforcement, but on the public. That burden is in the form of arrest and associated legal fees - because even a not-guilty arrest comes with some punitive damages. And to some of us (like me) the arrest history alone would likely cost me 100s of thousands in lost employment opportunity over my lifetime. A not-guilty doesn't mean that employers can't consider it. LEOs are mostly indemnified due to qualified immunity - they're solving the problem at hand and in most peoples eyes doing so reasonably.

My take on what will happen: Without specific verbiage to prevent this sort of contact, LEOs will initiate it. A few people will refuse to comply, some will get taken to jail, all will be released (unless there isn't video evidence to support a non-LEO narrative). Eventually, we'll get someone who records such an event and has deep enough pockets to challenge the constitutionality of such a stop far enough up the chain that it becomes case law.... Assuming a DA somewhere is dumb enough to try to make the charges stick. As long as DA's dump the charges, the circle can continue.

Texas case law WILL stop most of it... At least that's my hope.

For 99.95% of the population this is a non-issue.

And I agree with having dispatch educate the public, but I also promise you that LEOs will respond to a MWAG call, even a legal MWAG call - as the political ramifications of not responding and have something "bad" happen are significant to leadership...