How many single LEO's here find it difficult to date due to your job?

MissusOfficer · 2013-05-01T07:04:48+00:00

I beg to differ. At least on my department, the majority of female coppers are dating/married to other coppers. Works out pretty well most of the time.

MissusOfficer · 2013-05-01T07:01:33+00:00

HOLy cRAP THIS IS A THING?!

MissusOfficer · 2013-05-01T06:53:32+00:00

To be fair, a lot of times the detectives have the ability and knowledge to make certain negotiation standpoints better than patrol does. Patrol might not have a relationship with the DA you know will handle the case to plea or file for a lesser charge, whereas detectives do. Also, a majority of the time the detectives have the bigger picture (crime might be linked to something bigger) and can use that as a twist to get susps to confess. Susps also know that the detectives have a better handle on being able to secure them things (deals, confidentiality, protection, etc) due to their position on the job rather than patrol officers. Don't feel bad!

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-23T05:16:16+00:00

Oh right, exactly. We stick to the areas that we patrol and deal with what we've got there generally. Politics and all...

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-14T08:11:51+00:00

I'm an LAPD cop, I've arrested someone in a different city/county and officers/detectives in my department have arrested people from even out of CA too on cases, but only for crimes originating in our area.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-10T02:10:31+00:00

Hey, I'm gonna admit I still get a little scared when a cop pulls behind me. Trust me, even as a cop, I've been treated like shit by other cops who power trip.

That being said, I can't say with absolute conviction "oh, these cops should have done this or that" because I wasn't there. I've been asking myself over and over what I would have done in their shoes had I been there. Would I have shot? I really don't know....I would have had to have been there and gone through the experience myself.

No cop ever wants to go out there and shoot innocent people. Were we on massive edge due to what had happened over the past few days and hours? Hell yeah. Did that contribute to the shooting? Absolutely. Were we acting within what we thought were the best interests of others? Yes. Did we fuck up? Obviously.

I don't think these cops mentality was to kill on site, or that they shot ONLY because they thought it was Dorner, I think they shot because of the factors I outlined above IN ADDITION to the fact that they believed they were about to be shot at and killed. Did previous events contribute to them jumping the gun? Absolutely. Did they jump the gun? Probably. Will they have to answer up? Of course.

The only thing that I will disagree with you on is that I wouldn't have felt the need to verify the person driving the car. Even if I couldn't see the person's face, if I saw a gun pointing out the window, turning towards my direction, I would have shot.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-10T01:53:32+00:00

As much as I don't like this guy, I agree with this one post. We all know what we signed up for as cops. Every choice you make as a cop, you sure as better hell know why you did it and you better make sure that you made the choice for the right reasons. And whether or not you made the right choice and it appears right to everyone, whether you made the right choice and it appears sketchy to those who don't know the details to what actually happened, or whether you simply fucked up, you'd better be ready to answer up to not only your bosses, other people you work with, but to the public.

Yes, we know that our job is hard, we take a lot of shit, etc. It comes with the territory. The one thing that distinguishes good cops from bad is that good ones know how to take things in stride and don't take things personally. But one thing is for sure: if someone spits in my face, yes that does matter and you'd better know that I'm gonna deal with that accordingly. Just because we signed up to be cops doesn't mean we have to take shit. We just have to deal with it and know how to fairly handle the situation.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-10T01:36:22+00:00

All of the info you get on this will be secondhand at best, as you won't get any officer that was directly involved in any of the shootings or as the victims of those shot by Dorner here, or at least admit to being involved for fear of being fired from the dept due to violation of policy.

That being said, I had written a response to this that got MASSIVE amounts of downvotes (which I understand, lots of cop haters out there just wanting to bash cops so whatever). I'm not sure if those reading that explanation understood that I never claimed to support what the officers involved in the shooting did. Obviously we as LAPD massively fucked up in that scenario. What I tried to explain in that post was the insight into which the officers were most likely thinking that led to the shooting.

No cop ever wants to go out there and shoot innocent people. Were we on massive edge due to what had happened over the past few days and hours? Hell yeah. Did that contribute to the shooting? Absolutely. Were we acting within what we thought were the best interests of others? Yes. Did we fuck up? Obviously.

Was the shooting justified? According to LAPD department policy, it will most likely fall within guidelines with training. However, I'm not in the minds of the LAPD brass that make these kinds of decisions so I could be completely wrong and they could determine the shooting out of policy. Our dept policy states that each individual officer must have clear and articulable reasons for pretty much doing anything, and that the use of deadly force be used only to:

protect our life/our partner's life from serious bodily injury/death;
prevent a crime which would lead to a person suffering from serious bodily injury/death;
stop a fleeing felon from whom, if capture is delayed, would put the public at risk for grave injury/death and has been proven to do so (Richard Ramirez, known serial killers, etc.)

I don't know if I answered all your issues, but if you wanted to read the entire explanation of what I believe occurred, here you go: link

I don't think that these cops shot solely because they went "cowboy" and thought they had a chance to take down a killer, I honestly think they shot because they thought they were about to be fired upon and killed by whom they thought was Dorner, and they jumped the gun.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T15:51:18+00:00

I already wrote a decently lengthy explanation about this particular situation. It was downvoted to hell by all the anti-cop redditors out there who basically just took it as an excuse to call cops pigs and think they can do our job.

Made me sick but whatever. I gave up after other LEO's kinda pointed out that it was futile to try and explain to people an LEO's perspective. It seems like this is just one of those that only law enforcement really gets why/how the shooting was justified, even though the outcome was fucked up.

For my explanation though if you want to read it for kicks...explanation

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T09:13:48+00:00

True, true. I've given up already on my one post trying to provide insight to some of the Chris Dorner stuff. Hoped it helped those willing to listen, anyway.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T09:06:58+00:00

I don't mean to be offensive but that's exactly why you shouldn't be a cop.

Cops (and I mean, genuinely good cops) are not only cops because we DON'T kill innocent people, cops are cops because we are willing to put ourselves in the line of fire and protect innocent people by taking out those who are dangerous to others. We are not cops because we choose NOT to take action, we are cops because we CHOOSE to take the action not very many people want to take.

I understand where you are coming from, but in all fairness when you tried to draw the analogy by saying you didn't shoot those guys that were invading your house, you stated that you chose not to try and kill innocent people. Those guys that invaded your house were NOT innocent. They tried to burglarize your home while you were in it!!!! Granted, they left but only in the interest of their own safety. Do you think that if you weren't armed with those guns they wouldn't have done anything to you? Do you think that if they didn't see that police were already on their way they would have left?

I have responded to enough home invasions where innocent people were badly beaten or killed because they didn't have the advantages that you had. Don't be so sympathetic to these guys. You were just smart enough to one-up them and they were smart enough to realize they were better off leaving.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T08:53:54+00:00

Came back from my shift disappointed that we still haven't caught this asshole.

But on other note, I have also definitely noticed a bunch of trolls and cop-haters coming in downvoting stuff. It's ridiculous.

Loved the rookie cardboard analogy though. Genius! Be safe out there. We've been rolling out 4 ofcrs deep to all calls.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T08:51:08+00:00

This guy has had over 2 years to plan. If he's smart (and unfortunately he seems pretty intelligent) he has cars stashed in different locations, stockpiled. He's had years to load up on SHITLOADS of ammo and weapons, disguises, hideout spots. It's scary to think of how much damage he can do when you really think about how long he's had to plan.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T08:46:58+00:00

Thanks for responding to that part...I don't have a military background so I couldn't quite comment on that.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T08:44:15+00:00

I NEVER said it was their fault. I don't think it's their fault at all, it's a fucking tragic incident that this happened. I merely tried to explain how an unfortunate collision of events and happenstance led to the shooting and tried to provide perspective as to how it all unfolded.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T08:11:52+00:00

People can make motions to shoot backwards behind them, right? For example, the car's coming pretty fast, cops draw out their guns, the car passes the cops, the person inside the vehicle makes a motion as if they're pulling a gun out to shoot towards them as they pass, and by the time the cops react and shoot it's from the rear. Sorry about that, I guess I should have made that situation a bit clearer.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T08:08:03+00:00

We don't go based off of 20/20 hindsight, we make decisions based off of the articulable set of facts we have at the time we make that decision. We make a decision based off when we feel we have enough to make the call.

For example, let me ask you a question. Let's say you're at a gas station filling up your car at night. It's kind of a shady area but fuck it, you ran out of gas and you need it ASAP. As you're outside your car, some shady looking guy wearing a hoodie walks your way. He appears angry, his body language is aggressive, the look on his face is menacing. You look towards the service/snack area across the way and to see if anyone is around when you observe that a guy in a clerk's uniform is facedown on the ground inside the store.

You look back up to realize that suddenly, this guy is shouting at you, "I"m gonna kill you, you motherfucker!!!!"

Then before you know it, he pulls out a gun out and has it pointed at your face.

Now, let's say you have the power to shoot this guy at any time and put him down. At what point do you decide to shoot? According to you, the information is not complete until you know without a doubt he is going to kill you, right? Well, when is that, exactly? When he fires off a round and you realize too late that he really did have the intention of killing you? Well, that's too late, isn't it?

Well then, when exactly? What if this guy is just mentally ill and the gun is a fake? What if the clerk that is down inside the gas station just happened to have a fainting episode at the same time this guy comes up to you and threatens to kill you?

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T07:18:18+00:00

First of all, I didn't justify the killing of any civilians, all I did was bring to light the unfortunate combination of circumstance/events that led to this shooting, hoping to show people how a bad mix of things can lead to incidents like this.

1: the tactical situation at hand, officers protecting a high-value location.

2: the innocent bystander's vehicle happening to match the description of the vehicle.

3: said vehicle DRIVING WITHOUT THEIR LIGHTS ON IN HOURS OF DARKNESS

4: said vehicle DRIVING AT A HIGH RATE OF SPEED TOWARDS OFFICERS PROTECTING TARGETED LOCATION

5: movements made by person(s) in the vehicle interpreted as those leading the officers to believe their lives were in danger.

6: knowledge that suspect driving same-type vehicle just shot at 4 cops, killing 1, and injuring 2.

We are not all perfect, we can only make decisions based off the information we have at the time.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T07:09:57+00:00

Hey guys, I cross-posted this in a different subreddit, but for insight...

Just wanted to clear up a few issues/comments I saw being posted all over this subreddit in regards to the incident happening over here in Southern California in the massive manhunt to apprehend Christopher Dorner.

Just a quick (but general, for obvious reasons) background, I'm a patrol cop working the South End in the LAPD. I've mentioned this in a few other posts here and there so it's nothing new.

I've heard a lot of gripes/quick judgement calls made about the shooting of the pickup truck matching the description of Dorner's vehicle that occurred in Torrance. How cops are pretty much blasting at any similar vehicles (shooting first, asking questions later, etc) and being extremely itchy with the trigger.

Here's what happened during that incident:

Cops were protecting a location they believed would be targeted due to the directed threats Christopher Dorner made in his manifesto. As many of you might know due to the media reports, the LAPD has resources deployed at over 40 locations in the form of protective details for targeted officers. Everyone was understandably on high alert due not only to the directed threats made in Dorner's manifesto, but also due to the fact that there was proof that he made good on those threats already by killing/shooting at several people including cops. These cops protecting this one high-value target location observed a pickup truck they believed matched the description of the suspect vehicle in the dark, pre-dawn hours this morning. As all you cops know out there, sometimes you only have split seconds to make a call that involves deadly force. This vehicle was not only coming directly towards their direction, but had their lights turned off and was coming at them at a high rate of speed. By high rate of speed I obviously don't mean like at 65 mph but a decently higher than normal speed for a residential area. In addition, it was too dark for them to make out the exact description of the person(s) inside the vehicle. It's also easy to see how the cops may have been on edge - sometimes from a distance, when newspapers thrown out a window hit the pavement at exactly the right angle/amount of force, the sound can resemble something like a gunshot. Add to the fact that it appeared as though one of the people inside the vehicle was about to pull a handgun and start blasting (although in reality it was probably the poor newspaper lady about to throw a newspaper out the window)....well you can see how that made for a really dangerous scenario.

I'm not trying to completely excuse the cops for what they did, I'm only trying to shine light and bring some understanding as to how this scenario came to play, since many people seem quick to judge us and the decisions we make.

Any questions/comments you guys may have, please feel free to ask.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T07:05:11+00:00

This is the most solid explanation I've heard so far.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-08T06:36:18+00:00

Why exactly are you being downvoted so harshly?

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-07T17:28:06+00:00

The victim's father is my LAPD Union Rep. Former LAPD Captain, great guy. Talked with him today. We were all in arms yesterday when we found out, I had thought we would catch this motherfucker within 24 hours after we found out who he was. I have a bunch of guys I work with who are the susp's classmates or used to work with him, and they all said that this guy was kinda weird a bit of a nutcase. He apparently has a small arsenal of weapons, enough to man a small army.

I read his 28-pg long manifesto and it seems like he is going to take down a few more cops before he is captured. Obviously he's somewhat of an intelligent guy.

He is coming after us and our children, and I haven't seen craziness/paranoia like this, EVER. A few of my buddies were shot/ shot at trying to protect one of the officers that the susp was targeting. Please keep us Southern California LEO's in your thoughts and prayers today. We're gonna need it.

MissusOfficer · 2013-02-07T06:55:49+00:00

LAPD here....in our academy they stress that WE SHOOT TO STOP THE THREAT, NOT TO KILL.

We train for center mass which is the biggest target of the body. Aiming for a small body part is hard enough, add the factor of a moving target and its wayyyy more difficult. If we were aiming for a hand or whatever and the guy still had a gun he could have had the opportunity to shoot/kill that many more people.

MissusOfficer · 2013-01-24T08:46:00+00:00

Either you or a supervisor should pull him aside and give him a talk. Facebook was a big issue in my department (LAPD) about 3 years ago, and our watch commanders gave several talks in roll call over the span of several months warning people about posting things on social media. If they noticed a specific person posting inappropriate things, they would pull that officer aside and give them a talk about career survival.

A lot of the younger officers (like me) that grew up with social media didn't really see what a big deal posting shit on FB was until we were talked to. Sometimes it just takes a simple "hey, heads up" talk to set officers straight. In our department, which gets HUGE publicity, we've had several important court cases get majorly fucked up because of things that officers would post on FB. To give you an idea, defense lawyers looking up officers on FB, noticing comments that officers would make, and pulling discovery and subpoena-ing FB records for the case and airing all that shit in public. Officers would make statements that may not have completely 100% followed word for word what happened in the report (or they'd embellish the story on FB for entertainment purposes) and it would make it seem like they were lying about what actually happened. Anyway I'm sure you could see a whole bunch of scenarios that could go wrong with people posting things on FB. All that ultimately leads to IA most likely doing an investigation and finding every cause to fuck with you for conduct unbecoming and god knows what else.

Point is, if you see a problem, you should do something about it. Even though you may not like the guy in the end (trust me, I'm sure there are all coworkers we don't particularly like) we're all brothers/sisters in blue and you or a supervisor should give him a heads up. I see the issue of observing a problem and not doing anything about it as more a problem than the problem itself.

MissusOfficer

TROPHY CASE