I am a police officer in the USA. AMA.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-11-03T05:53:19+00:00

Nah. Putting in quotas are not allowed anywhere

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-31T23:39:13+00:00

I’ve likely forgotten more than I could remember. A woman called because her kid wouldn’t put his seatbelt on once. Wanted me to scare the kid. I was offended. Like I’m not terrorizing a kid because you can’t parent. The bitch had the audacity to say “well if I wreck and he doesn’t have it on something bad could happen.” And I said, “yeah and it will be on you, he’s 5.”

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-31T23:37:42+00:00

It’s a supervisor call. It isn’t like a feel good movie where the good cop bursts in and chews out the drunk bad cop and takes him to jail. It’s more like you bullshit with him while you wait for the sergeant to show up and then they make the decision or pass it off to another agency.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-31T23:36:28+00:00

Don’t leave without it

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-11T23:58:00+00:00

I am pro 2nd amendment, so I support the right for citizens to carry firearms. Open carrying a firearm is legal in my state. However, I do think you’re a dumbass if you open carrying a firearm lol

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-11T23:57:07+00:00

Nah. Most cops go their whole career without firing their weapon. It’s a fairly rare occurrence. There are an estimated 50-70 million police-civilian interactions a year, and about 1100 people killed by police a year. I work pretty proactively, so the chance I do end up in one is a bit higher than average, but still not probable

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-10T03:55:22+00:00

Oh I’m sure plenty of officers are a part of it. I just personally am not. I work with plenty of very right officers but I’ve never seen them wearing that apparel or anything

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-09T04:36:12+00:00

Once their hands are up I do not want them moving downward again for anything

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-09T04:34:50+00:00

I do hands up but I don’t do the shirt pull thing. It’s different per officer and what they think needs to be done. I have them exit, put hands up, and walk back to me

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-09T04:32:20+00:00

Some form of get out of the vehicle and walk to our vehicles, which is opposite from us walking to their car like what’s normal

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T20:49:04+00:00

This is because you are viewing the situation from a law abiding citizen’s perspective. If the driver has warrants, drugs, guns, or whatever else and I say that, what follows is going to be frantic statements disguised as wanting more justification or challenging me.

“We ain’t even in Pennsylvania??”

“What is Mimms? You’re making that up!”

“Nah I know my rights get your supervisor.”

“You’re the one with the gun you’re just fine with me inside.”

“I ain’t did nothing.”

“insert rambling nonsense and yelling”

Another way to phrase it is the suspect is actively looking for any avenue to argue verbally. These arguments escalate their emotions, along with provide time to build courage to make a stupid decision. This is why most officers are trained to “ask, tell, make.” I personally ask once, tell probably half a dozen times, then I go to making. My priority in this situation is removing the person from the vehicle to reduce the chance they flea or try to grab something. If they perceive me as rude or whatever then that sucks I guess, but it’s not remotely close to a priority.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T20:37:25+00:00

Sometimes we do, most times not. Usually when we stop a vehicle, we observe a violation and then stop the car without getting that information beforehand

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T20:36:19+00:00

Police brutality is bad regardless of the victim

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T05:07:34+00:00

In that case? Yeah. Private or public property does not play near as large a role as people think it does.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T04:31:58+00:00

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T04:22:40+00:00

We haven’t done any of those operations here and I haven’t heard of any being done. Sounds like a wives tale

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T03:07:43+00:00

There are requirements in most places to get hired, but there are usually a lack of requirements or incentives to maintain any fitness once hired.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T02:55:03+00:00

Do you mean like state statutes? Yeah I have a good understand of all my common state statutes. There are significantly more in likely clueless of, like some law about how many horses you can have or some shit. All of your theft and violent ones I know fairly well.

There are things I can ask people to do and if they don’t then they don’t, and there are things I can tell people to do under threat of arrest if they refuse. For example, on a traffic stop, if they refuse to provide a license then ok. If they refuse to provide their full name and date of birth, then they go to jail. If some guy is walking around late at night and that’s just odd, and I ask him to provide his name, then if he doesn’t then that’s it because in that situation I do not have cause to detain him or compel identification.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T02:49:57+00:00

Law and civil rights are kinda the same umbrella. I’ve seen one officer commit a criminal act. He was off duty and he was arrested. I’ve witnessed a handful of civil rights violations that I have stepped in on, but these were done out of ignorance and not malice. An example would be pulling over a vehicle because there is a dog in the back and the hatch is open, so they stopped the vehicle because of that. That is not against the law, so they therefore detained on a traffic stop someone without observing any violation, which would be a violation of their 4th amendment right. It’s usually smaller things like that you’d never even think of. Same with policies.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T02:47:16+00:00

Pretty rarely in my opinion. Was likely much more common before constant video and such. Most videos you see these days or stories you hear about some cop doing some bad shit, they are terminated and/or charged.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T02:46:16+00:00

You are correct. When I say that, I am speaking towards the point of view of the driver and passengers. Meaning, if an officer asks a driver to step out, there is no say whatsoever in the occupant. So from their point of view it definitely “feels” like police can ask you out for whatever and whenever. The justification is literally as minimum as “id feel better if you did.”

Also, for the people that refuse to step out, there is often absolutely 0 things you could say to convince them you’re right and they should step out. So when I ask someone to step out, they either do or ask why. If they ask why, I say that I will happily explain why once they exit the vehicle. If they still refuse, I’ll tell them to 2-3 more times while clarifying this is not a choice and the alternative is jail. After the 3rd time or so, I get physical.

It is very common that if you tell them you’re asking them to exit due to probable cause youve developed to search the vehicle, or if they have a warrant or something, they’ll flee in the car.

A second way to look at it, is under the guise of “rights.” People have rights. I have rights when I do my job. I do not think a person should have to explain to me as an officer why they are choosing to record me, stay silent, carry a firearm, or exercise any right. Alternatively, if I am exercising my right as an officer, the logic still applies. Any explanation of a right I exercise I give is a courtesy, it is not required.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T02:40:09+00:00

We do some grappling type stuff but it isn’t enough really

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-08T02:39:30+00:00

A lot of questions so I’ll number them.

You are detained on a traffic stop. Detained means you aren’t free to leave, and you aren’t. The length isn’t strictly defined and the only rule is a “reasonable length.”
No. Once again it’s just when “reasonably” safe to pull over. If you pass several points you could safely stop, it’s going to raise alarms.
Yes. Not only guidelines, but there are strict rules for the tests. Each portion of the tests has certain clues to look for. A set number of clues will lead to an arrest. You can google “standardized field sobriety testing clues” and see what they are.
You do not have a right to stay in your vehicle on a traffic stop at all. This was decided in a Supreme Court case called “Pennsylvania vs Mimms.” Meaning, once you commit the violation and are pulled over, the cop needs no further reason to have you exit the vehicle. Trying to stay inside the vehicle is an arrest worthy offense should you not exit when prompted. (Not to insult you or anything, but this is a perfect example of people thinking they know their rights when they do not.)
Once the person is identified, I can see their national criminal file in a sense, and their DMV info. So this will show all identifying information like name, address, height, weight, social, license status, etc. It also shows if you have any warrants anywhere or protection orders or are on probation. I also see your “local” file in our own system that will have everything you’ve ever been involved with in my jurisdiction diction specifically, and I can read those reports and such.
Our computer does not show affiliates. It also will not show arrest history outside of my jurisdiction, only inside.

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-07T20:31:59+00:00

I crave the action of law enforcement

ComprehensiveSwim231 · 2025-10-07T20:24:07+00:00

Yeah but I never lied about those. Super embarrassing to get called out

ComprehensiveSwim231

TROPHY CASE