Good and Bad Leo contacts.
Posted: Thu Dec 04, 2008 12:37 am
I have had a VERY large number of LEO contacts, too many to count, remember, or otherwise make note of. I can count on one hand the number of contacts I have had that I would classify as negative. If asked how what percentage of my contacts were negative I would honestly have to say far less than one tenth of one percent. Just for the record I tend to consider any unprofessional, negative, or questionable behaviour/statements to be a negative encounter.
My most frequent form of contact is the type where I bump into an officer in public, have a small conversation and we go on about our business. The Second most common form is where one or more come in to where I work to buy groceries for the county jail. The third most frequent contact is work related meaning I am in communication with an officer in regards to shoplifting, counterfeit/forged checks, accident in the parking lot, customer locked their keys in the car, ect. Even more rare is where I get a warning or a citation. There have been five of those, all were warnings with no citations. Two warnings (Pre-chl) were by city officers for failure to stop. With two stops (one being pre-chl) being with state troopers for speeding. The only negative contact (Also pre-chl) I had that was not work related was for no LP lights and it was negative only because the officer lied to me about the reason for the stop. One final encounter with no warnings/citations was due to a minor automotive accident that had no damage to my vehicle or the lady who stayed with me at the scene, we never did find our if the car that pushed me into hers had any damage or not as they fled the scene and was never found.
I will choose the worse case of ego and attitude as an example of poor law enforcement. I had an employee come in and ask me what to do because a customer had locked her keys in her car with the baby inside. The customer had paid for their product, and we had an employee carry it out for them. The lady popped the trunk of the car so our employee could load the product for her, then unlocked the right back door of the vehicle secured the baby in the seat. She went around to the other side of the car, got her eggs and bread as our employee shut the trunk, opened the rear door on the left side placed them in the seat, locked the door, and went to open the drivers door only to realize that her keys were with the bread and eggs locked in the car. We called Law Enforcement Center and they dispatched two LEOs to our business to assist the lady. One was a city officer and the other was a Deputy from the S.O. Unfortunately it was the one person from each department with the worst attitude in their department. After getting the lady's car unlocked they were looking to arrest her for leaving the child in the car while she shopped, and I would have been all for that IF that was the case which it was not. Both officers demanded that someone tell them that the lady did not have the child in the store with her, we explained that she did have the child with her and the car had been unlocked since she had shopped as evidenced by the groceries in the trunk and back seat. One officer stated "I don't care, I want someone to tell me she didn't have the baby in the store." After realizing they were not going to get what they wanted they left the store and went about their business. Unknown to them at the time, the sheriff's son was in the store and heard their statements. He advised his dad about the incident, I also communicated with the Sheriff and Police chief my displeasure in regards to the encounter.
Overall there are good people, bad people, and good people having a bad day. The same applies to law enforcement and in my experience the bad is extremely rare AND more likely to be noticed/remembered. Even the officers who attitudes are the worst in their department are doing a very stressful, dangerous, and unforgiving job and they are doing that job well enough to keep it. When you have a bad LEO encounter you need to contact that officers supervisors, learn why the encounter was negative (poor attitude, poor training, bad environment, actions by the subject, ect.) and help remedy the issue(s) that led up to the problem. In my experience less than one tenth of one percent of my LEO encounters have been negative and I know most of the officers in my county on a first name basis. I think most people need to remember that LEOs can have a bad day just like anyone else, but if you treat them professionally and with respect they will almost always return the favor. If any of the warnings I received had been citations I would have accepted it, admitted I was in the wrong, paid the fine, and would have thought nothing different of the officer.
My most frequent form of contact is the type where I bump into an officer in public, have a small conversation and we go on about our business. The Second most common form is where one or more come in to where I work to buy groceries for the county jail. The third most frequent contact is work related meaning I am in communication with an officer in regards to shoplifting, counterfeit/forged checks, accident in the parking lot, customer locked their keys in the car, ect. Even more rare is where I get a warning or a citation. There have been five of those, all were warnings with no citations. Two warnings (Pre-chl) were by city officers for failure to stop. With two stops (one being pre-chl) being with state troopers for speeding. The only negative contact (Also pre-chl) I had that was not work related was for no LP lights and it was negative only because the officer lied to me about the reason for the stop. One final encounter with no warnings/citations was due to a minor automotive accident that had no damage to my vehicle or the lady who stayed with me at the scene, we never did find our if the car that pushed me into hers had any damage or not as they fled the scene and was never found.
I will choose the worse case of ego and attitude as an example of poor law enforcement. I had an employee come in and ask me what to do because a customer had locked her keys in her car with the baby inside. The customer had paid for their product, and we had an employee carry it out for them. The lady popped the trunk of the car so our employee could load the product for her, then unlocked the right back door of the vehicle secured the baby in the seat. She went around to the other side of the car, got her eggs and bread as our employee shut the trunk, opened the rear door on the left side placed them in the seat, locked the door, and went to open the drivers door only to realize that her keys were with the bread and eggs locked in the car. We called Law Enforcement Center and they dispatched two LEOs to our business to assist the lady. One was a city officer and the other was a Deputy from the S.O. Unfortunately it was the one person from each department with the worst attitude in their department. After getting the lady's car unlocked they were looking to arrest her for leaving the child in the car while she shopped, and I would have been all for that IF that was the case which it was not. Both officers demanded that someone tell them that the lady did not have the child in the store with her, we explained that she did have the child with her and the car had been unlocked since she had shopped as evidenced by the groceries in the trunk and back seat. One officer stated "I don't care, I want someone to tell me she didn't have the baby in the store." After realizing they were not going to get what they wanted they left the store and went about their business. Unknown to them at the time, the sheriff's son was in the store and heard their statements. He advised his dad about the incident, I also communicated with the Sheriff and Police chief my displeasure in regards to the encounter.
Overall there are good people, bad people, and good people having a bad day. The same applies to law enforcement and in my experience the bad is extremely rare AND more likely to be noticed/remembered. Even the officers who attitudes are the worst in their department are doing a very stressful, dangerous, and unforgiving job and they are doing that job well enough to keep it. When you have a bad LEO encounter you need to contact that officers supervisors, learn why the encounter was negative (poor attitude, poor training, bad environment, actions by the subject, ect.) and help remedy the issue(s) that led up to the problem. In my experience less than one tenth of one percent of my LEO encounters have been negative and I know most of the officers in my county on a first name basis. I think most people need to remember that LEOs can have a bad day just like anyone else, but if you treat them professionally and with respect they will almost always return the favor. If any of the warnings I received had been citations I would have accepted it, admitted I was in the wrong, paid the fine, and would have thought nothing different of the officer.
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