This has bugged me for decades. In an episode of Hill Street Blues, Officer Andy Renko wins backstage passes to meet his favorite country music idol. He is so excited about the concert that he annoys everyone around him. He’s as giddy as a kid meeting Santa Claus.
So, the day finally comes and Andy goes to the backstage dressing room to meet the singer. The two men hit it off and are talking. The singer eventually reaches for some sort of illegal drug (marijuana?) and offers some to Andy. When Andy suspects that illegal drugs may soon be in the offing, he starts mumbling things like “please, please don’t do it…” When the drugs finally appear, Andy reluctantly busts the guy.
One has to know that Renko is the cop’s cop. He is the sort of guy who goes all in on everything. He loves being a cop and he is passionate about the obligations and responsibilities that go with the badge. He is a flawed person, like everyone else, but he is a good beat cop.
So, my GQ: Andy was off duty and out of uniform at the concert. When the crime was committed (possessing illegal drugs), was Andy required to make an arrest? Could he have ignored the drugs? I’m sure we all agree that Andy could not have partaken of the drugs, but that isn’t the issue. Did he have to arrest the guy? If Andy had been on duty and being paid by the taxpayers, I can see the argument that he would have had to make the arrest simply as a matter of being a good employee. But, off duty?
I know we have a few police officers on this board. Have you ever had to make an arrest that you really didn’t want to make? If you can discuss it, how did you handle it? Maybe you have a personal or familial relationship with the potential arrest-ee. I can imagine that Thanksgiving would be rather uncomfortable if all your siblings and cousins know you’re the cop who busted Grandma for weed. What do you do?
I’m going to ask a similar question. I recall one time when Furillo and Davenport met a lawyer buddy of hers. He started to offer them cocaine and Furillo told him to get out. Davenport started to rag him for being a hardass and he said, “Hey, we’re all officers of the court,” or something like that.
Same question. Was Furillo obligated to bust the lawyer who flashed a bag of coke in front of him? Was Davenport required to report him to the Bar association?
My reaction to the OP is that the music star was putting Renko’s career on the line.
Imagine the headline if some disgruntled person in the star’s entourage went to the media: “Star-struck Police officer gives music star a pass on drug possession! Free tix buys music star immunity from drug laws!”
Renko had to make the bust to maintain his own standing as a cop who enforces the law without fear or favour.
I don’t buy it. I’ve smoked weed around off duty cops, they don’t care. They’ve stood by and watched underage drinking also. I don’t believe an off duty cop is going to care about a couple of lines or joints. And it also sets up a possible search warrant defense.
The answer is it would depend on what his departments written policies mandate. My current departments policy does not mandate I take any action on any crime when off duty. But if I do I am required to have both my badge and ID on me, my duty firearm, an extra magazine, and handcuffs. If I don’t have all of that I cannot take action even if I want to.
The agency I retired from required me to take action on anything above a traffic offense unless I’d been drinking.
You could contact Pittsburgh PD ask them what their policy was back in the early 80’s.
Except Hill Street Blues took place in an unspecified fictional city, so Pittsburgh"s policies wouldn’t necessarily apply. Any policy the writers chose to apply would have driven Renko’s actions.
Yep. Although I try to be discreet, there have been a couple of times when evidence of my cannabis use has been obvious to a cop-friend. He’s never said or done anything.
On a different note, I once convinced a rowdy group of horribly drunk guys (one of whom was a friend of mine) to finish their beers and head on home (in their cars). The owner of the bar thanked me profusely; the five guys were cops and the owner didn’t want to call 911.
How often do off-duty cops carry all that stuff? Is this policy written specifically to keep off-duty officers from getting involved in crimes they witness? Are you still allowed to take actions that a reasonable civilian might make, like intervening in a mugging? What if you don’t have stuff and you witness something super serious?
Looks like you’re extrapolating beyond what pkbites reported. Sure, he could take action, and probably even arrest the perp, if he could manage it. But by the rules he described, he might have to make it as a citizen’s arrest, just like you would, were you to find yourself doing something [del]heroic[/del] civic-minded.
One of my cousins is a cop (in Pennsylvania), and he’s urged all of his relatives to not discuss their marijuana usage in his presence (and certainly not actually partake), because he really, really doesn’t want to take action against any of them. Though I don’t know how much of that is his department’s policy, vs. his own peace of mind.
In my state, when I was a law enforcement officer, the only “mandatory” arrests I can recall were domestic violence related. Theoretically, you could write someone a simple citation for murder, with a date to appear in court.
We were not mandated to take any law enforcement action when off duty at all.
I hadn’t thought of it that way, but it is important to note that the music star didn’t know Renko was a police officer at the time. They had just met and were talking, but hadn’t got to the “So what do you do for a living?” part of the conversation. The singer was just being stupid. Of course, this was well before legalizing pot and other items became fashionable in the mainstream.
That’s interesting. Are those items typically carried while off duty by you and your colleagues? I suppose your department wants to make sure you are properly equipped to take action before you insert yourself into a problem. Surely, however, the rules of common decency would still allow you to intervene in a situation unfolding before you that required very prompt action, such as a shooting in progress. In Renko’s case, a crime was being committed, but no one (other than the drug user himself) was in immediate danger. (Were I Renko, I think I would have noted the incident, backed off and allowed the concert to happen, then found on-duty officers to effect the arrest. Then I would just be disillusioned about my idol.)
I also thought that the city looked like Chicago. I’d never thought of its being Pittsburgh.
Nope, the producers of Hill Street Blues were from Pittsburgh and the Hill District is a notorious area just northeast of downtown near the river. I lived in Pittsburgh in the early 80’s and everyone there was quite aware of the slightly vague references to Pittsburgh landmarks and happenings. Been to the Hill District as well and it was (and most likely still is) a very scary place.
But to your point, they purposely kept the city vague in order to increase it’s appeal.
No, it doesn’t. The defendant voluntarily showed the drugs in plain view. That establishes probably cause for an arrest, after which the suspect may be searched incident to the arrest without a warrant.
