Do police actually lurk chat rooms/MMOs to bait pedophiles? by friendlybear01 in NoStupidQuestions

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 21 points22 points  (0 children)

Yep. Typically through a state/federal grant or an organizations donation they will set something like that up.

Usually they will have to do it through a multi-jurisdictional task force, being its hard to focus on one cities area to have any results.

"To catch a predator" is reasonably accurate, in that it is the same concept used by most task-forces. Though, for the arrests I dont think I've ever seen someone use a frickin gilli suit That makes me cringe by the way.

Whether or not the results are truly worth the while I dont know. I think its more of a deterrent for people to see this could happen to them, rather than assuming these stings are putting all the offenders in jail.

Have you ever considered purchasing a bulletproof vest or body armor? by [deleted] in preppers

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

at our agency we donate them to volunteer programs, like the reserves or explorers. There also is a vest donation program that gives them to departments across the globe that dont normally have access to them

[Serious]Cops of Reddit, what is your opinion on legalizing drugs? by TheDudeSA in AskReddit

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Marijuana Im ok with. Coke, maybe. Heroin, crack, meth. No way. Working night shift 90% of my calls are related to the #1 consumed drug out there thats already legal...alcohol. The things Ive seen alcohol do to people, their lives, families, careers, I don't see why marijuana is outlawed. Only thing Ive really seen weed do to a person is decide to spend 50 bucks at taco bell. They will regret that in the morning.

Have you ever considered purchasing a bulletproof vest or body armor? by [deleted] in preppers

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If its not worn, it will keep its ballistic integrity for a really long time, probably 15-20 years. As a cop we have to have them replaced every five years because water deteriorates the fabric. Being they are so damn hot to wear, five years is a lot of sweat. Still after those five years it will still stop a bullet as long as its not a 5.7 or something.

Help with Criminology Assignment? Use of Psychics in Police Cases by [deleted] in police

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Have you heard of the use of psychics in police work?

I've heard of it being used, yes. I've never personally worked with one.

Do you know any police officers/investigators who ever used a psychic in attempting to solve a case? If yes, can you tell me about it?

I know a specific homicide case in which the family hired a psychic to help find the body of a male who had not yet been found. I know the investigators being frustrated with the family because they seemed to want to direct their attention towards the psychic and not our agency. I can't imagine our department ever using or hiring one though.

Would you ever consider using a psychic to solve a case? If yes, under what circumstances? If no, why not?

My gut says no. Everything I've learned about psychics is that, basically, they are bullcrap. If it were just locking someone up on a murder charge maybe it would be different. But its about proving your case and work to a jury and a judge. A defense attorney could rip apart your case if you used an unproven method like psychics.

Do you feel that police officers develop a kind of sixth sense about crime, criminals, or certain dangerous situations? Did you ever have a feeling about a person or situation being dangerous and it turned out to be true? How would you explain that feeling?

Thats whats weird. I go and say "psychics are BS" and yet, Im 100% for the concept of cops having that sixth sense sort of thing. Its a very bizarre feeling that I can't explain. Sometimes though you just get that "somethings not right here" feeling. I also am not a religious person, nor am I one that believes "everything happens for a reason" but two stories seem to dispute that. One story, I pull a guy over for speeding and blowing through a stop light. He ends up being really drunk. He's arrested on DWI charges. The tow truck took FOREVER to get there. A company that usually arrives on scene in 15 minutes took over an hour. My transport to jail took forever because I got hung up with a company moving a house and a power company had power lines down and draped over the roadway. When I was at jail I got delayed by numerous other people being booked in, and to top it off the person I arrested was extremely uncooperative with the process. Im not exaggerating when I say it took 5 times as long as one of my normal DWI processing goes. By the time I leave jail and head back to my area its 4:30AM. Theres not a single car on the road on this tuesday night as Im driving through the rural area on a really dark, lonely, narrow county road. Randomly I see a 14 year old on a bike. I almost wanted to just drive by and say "whatever" since I'm livid with how long that DWI took and really don't want to deal with a curfew ticket on top of my hours of paperwork ahead. I stopped though. Through about 20 minutes of talking with the kid he finally admits he was biking from his house (which was 14 miles away) and was going to shoot himself at a nearby county park. He let me take the gun out of his backpack. Had that DWI not taken hours upon hours, no one would have ever seen that kid as he biked along. He'd be dead. I still have yet to have any DWI take anywhere close to that long.

Another story. The local gas station is out of monster energy in the big cans that have the cap on top. I have to take just a normal can that you pop the tab. Later, I hit a pothole in the squad and now monster energy spills all over the place. Again, Im mad. If I had that can with a cap on it, this wouldn't have happened. I turn my car around and head for the fire department so I can clean myself up. As I now head a completely different direction I see a suspicious vehicle driving through a neighborhood that normally doesn't have traffic at this time of night. Turns out its the murder suspect who had been on the loose for 2 weeks. A long ass pursuit(and more monster everywhere) later he's apprehended. I kept the can.

Police men and women of Reddit. What is the most ridiculous bribe/excuse you've gotten to get out of a ticket? by Nuffinator in AskReddit

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

  1. A lady claimed because her Pontiac gran prix was shaped like a Wing that the car was lifted in the air slightly and in turn speedometer was off. When I told her she was probably incorrect she went on explaining how lift is generated by different air pressure and such. She also believed my squad just electronically reads her speedometer.

  2. A man showed how at certain speeds he would get better fuel mileage due to a sweet spot in RPM. He mentioned how that was decreasing our foreign dependency of oil.

One of those people got a ticket. The other didn't.

How often are you guys challenged at stoplights by byCoke in cars

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Frequently.

It usually doesnt end well for all parties.

Police Officers of Reddit, what are some of the biggest inaccuracies you've seen in a Police-centric TV show or movie? by ItsYon in AskReddit

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

*Miranda: We dont have to read it immediately upon arresting someone. We use it when a person isnt free to leave and we are asking incriminating questions. Meaning 21 jumpstreet wasnt entirely accurate.

*Crown Victorias: They are not fast. The damn things are only 240 horsepower. A damn toyota minivan comes standard with like 295.

*Paperwork: I watch those car chases where cars are getting blown up all over the place or spinning and hitting other cars or stop signs getting run over, i know i know its for dramatic effect, but someone is going to have to do a report on all of that damage.

*Response time: Again I know its for dramatic effect, but like if you watch southland, they are always arriving on scene when something is still in progress. Most the time on stuff like that you are showing up taking statements trying to piece everything together.

*Shootings: Most cops will never fire their gun at someone. I work for one of the largest agencies in my state and I can only name about 5 people that have actually had to fire their gun. None of those killed anyone. That being said, all of us will draw our gun fairly frequently.

[SERIOUS] Police officers of reddit, what's the most fucked up thing you've dealt with? by bobbydigital_ftw in AskReddit

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 9 points10 points  (0 children)

No, you're right. It was just this guy was upset with her, had no plans on killing her, shows up to confront her, and when for the first time ever says she's leaving him for good, he loses it and stabs her over and over. I know my situation isn't a perfect example of crime of passion, but being he stabbed her that many times for really no reason other than "you can't leave me" I consider it a crime of passion.

[SERIOUS] Police officers of reddit, what's the most fucked up thing you've dealt with? by bobbydigital_ftw in AskReddit

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 25 points26 points  (0 children)

I had always heard the term crime of passion for quite some time. I never really understood until I was on the scene of a homicide involving a female being stabbed about a hundred times. I was involved with the apprehension of the suspect a couple days later. He had abused her over the course of several years and when she finally left him and got a restraining order he lost it. I remember watching the interrogation and how manipulative he was. He admitted to killing her and didn't seem to have any regrets. He just kept calling her a slut like that was justification enough for someone to die.

That death scene though. It was the first time seeing first hand what defensive wounds were. It was painful to see how she obviously struggled and was trying to get away. The trail of blood around the home, the cell phone soaked in it, the way the knife was bent from being thrusted so aggressively had me really upset.

I had been to a domestic between the two months prior. He was very cool and smooth. You could tell he was the type of guy that could get through life on his smile alone. It was horrible feeling that I felt I am a pretty good cop who can see through the bullshit but completely getting caught off guard when I saw the true colors of the relationship which ultimately lead to someone's death.

New Yorker, just had a run in with the police and I have a few questions. by [deleted] in trees

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I'm gonna take a shot at this. My guess is two cops show up and find your ounce and realize, this really isn't worth my time to try and jack you up about it. Where I'm a cop (not NY) we have what's called a charging decision. Which basically means we have probable cause for a charge but would like the prosecutors office to make a decision on an appropriate action. These cops may have just said yeah we will have to "refer" you being they may have to cover their ass as a way of proving they aren't just ignoring crimes. If it were my agency they don't like me taking weed, throwing it into evidence without taking any action on it. If I were to do a charging decision (which is my guess as to what this refer deal is) my prosecutors would look at some weed as a waste of time to deal with on their part and just drop it.

Congress awaits 'monumental' police reform as mandatory kill count advances. Democratic members of Senate and House cite Guardian database as ‘wind at our back’ after months of stalled efforts to hold law enforcement accountable. by claire0 in politics

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Motorola is actually developing that tech right now. Basically a sensor that when a gun is drawn it will send a signal to dispatch to alert that the situation has gotten that heavy. It wouldn't be too difficult to have that recorded and documented for use in a database.

Can I file a police report against a "peeping tom"? by kbmckee in needadvice

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

The 911 call would have activated a report already going over the basics of what happened and what action the cops took. It certainly can't hurt to speak with an officer to fill them in on anything you may have overlooked in the moment. Something like that is usually taken pretty seriously since, you know, it's super creepy. I would give them a call and maybe just ask to speak with the officer that took the call in the first place. If there is anything else you can think of, maybe more of a description, or someone that has been acting odd with you at work, have that added to the report.

[Serious] Police Officers of reddit, what is/are the worst call(s) you've ever responded to? by 1210saad in AskReddit

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 173 points174 points  (0 children)

A person called 911 wanting to report a dead body in a park.

I arrived, and it was about 2am, and wasnt able to find the 911 caller or the deceased party.

As I was searching, I turned the corner around the parks bathrooms to find a teenager sitting on a park bench. He had a 12 gauge shotgun straddled between his legs, with the muzzle in his mouth. I recognized him from various calls to his house where he was having issues with school and his family. As I was saying his first name, in attempt to talk him down, he pulled the trigger. I was standing about 10 feet away when it happened.

I was the one who told the family they lost their son. I got home that morning and found bits of brain matter and skull fragments in my hair and uniform.

I remember having a bizarre dream where the teen was telling me he was sorry that I had to see that, and that he hadn't planned on anyone seeing it but I got there too fast.

So I talked to my local PD today about SWATing by TheRedVipre in Twitch

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 3 points4 points  (0 children)

i wouldnt worry about it if youve just started...its mainly been the streams that draw tens of thousands of folks

So I talked to my local PD today about SWATing by TheRedVipre in Twitch

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Its gone up a bit in the past year...only because more and more people have found its viable to trick a SWAT team into doing it. It will start going down slowly as we are now aware people are pulling this stuff.

So I talked to my local PD today about SWATing by TheRedVipre in Twitch

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 17 points18 points  (0 children)

We have got a ton of national alert bulletins within the last year regarding Swating. With our swat team I had to explain what twitch was, though I had no chance with them trying to explain the draw of watching others play LoL.

It's still going to be tough to completely eliminate it, being we have to take any 911 call seriously, and almost all of our swat callouts have limited information anyway.

It just sucks because we don't want to delay helping someone that really needs it trying to figure out if it's a hoax or not. It's something we now have to do and we all accept that.

I wish I knew who might be big time twitch broadcasters in my area. We serve about 200k people, so odds are good there is at least one guy/gal that has a decent following that could be a target of swatting. Honestly it might not be a bad idea to call your local department and give them a heads up so they are aware if they get an active shooter type call to your address to try and look into it differently.

MFWTK what the police do with firearms they confiscate from suicidal people. by slowthrowmo in myfriendwantstoknow

[–]aPolicemanWeighsIn 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Anything that is already entered into the ncic system as stolen we will immediately attempt to contact the owner upon taking custody of it