Quote:
Originally Posted by BearTitan
Philadelphia, I agree with most of what you wrote, except for the insinuation that criminal law is a small volume of knowledge. I think that we are all very aware of situations like PA Patriot's arrest which was absolute total BS. The cop made a judgement call that was wrong. Other than admitting that and learning from it, I don't know what we can expect him to do.
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In fact, it quite possible to know the Crimes Code very well indeed. Anyone making an arrest should be able to cite, at a minimum, the title of the statute they allege was violated.
In Patriot's case, I would argue that the problem goes well beyond bad judgement.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BearTitan
Most of the times, though, cops deal with criminals. That is the job we have put them in. The reason they treat everyone like a criminal is that they spend 60 hours a week dealing with them. Should they understand the law better? Yes. Can we expect the $10 or $20 per hour cop on the street to know the laws relating to an issue that may come up once in his career? I say that it is not reasonable to expect that.
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Not everyone I deal with is a criminal, though a fair share are. I'm pretty good at telling the difference
What you can expect, and what you should actually demand, is that when an officer is unsure of some obscure law, that they obtain counsel before taking action. It's not that hard to make a phone call, or to load a CD of the Crimes Code onto the computer in the car.
Quote:
Originally Posted by BearTitan
IMO, when we, as citizens, are OK with the taxes to support $200K per officer per year police compensation, then we can expect those folks to be experts on the entire criminal law.
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I gladly accept that burden. When do I get my raise?
