You’ve known your best friend since you were in kindergarten, but one day you catch him in the act of insert the crime here and they just look at you with a “you caught me” face. What would the act have to be before you put your own best friend behind bars?
It would have to be something illegal that warranted arrest.
Jaywalking? Littering? Give him a chewing out, same as most people who aren’t repeat offenders. Theft, burglary, assault, etc, he gets arrested. Hopefully he’ll thank me for it in the long term.
My opinion as well. I would do my duty as a police officer despite any personal feelings I had.
If I will not get in trouble by not arresting him, it would have to be pretty damn bad. I don’t think any theft would do it. Murder and rape would.
I do not see a debate on the ethics of busting one’s friends, only a poll on what various members of the SDMB think they would do.
Off to IMHO.
[ /Moderating ]
I would do my duty as a police officer by not becoming one. This sort of thread is an example why.
I’d not be corrupt in the sense of taking bribes, but I might bend the rules a bit too often (in both directions). For example, if a woman (stranger) was pulled over by me for speeding, she’d just get a ticket. If she got pulled over by me for speeding and started the heavy flirtation routine, she’d get full licence and registration checks, breathalysed, tyres checked, asked to pop the hood, asked where she’s going, where she’s been, generally monstered for a couple of minutes, and then ticketed for speeding, and whatever else I can find. On the other hand, if she was cooperative, and I saw that she was simply some poor devil commuter trying to get home to her kids or whatever, and she was only a little over the limit, she might get a caution only, be told to be more careful in future, and to have a good day.
I see my friend commit a crime, the point at which I would arrest him or her would be probably a little higher up the crime seriousness scale than I guess a lot of people here would answer. Most traffic offences? Nope. Shoplifting? Nope (but I’d give him an earful). Tax evasion? Nope. Drink driving? (low range, I’d get him to move his car out of sight and walk home. High range, I’d book him). Assault? Depends on the seriousness. Drug use? Nope. Drug dealing? Maybe (I’d definitely get him to stop). Armed robbery, sexual offences, very violent ofdfences, yeah sure.
So it’s best that I’m not a cop, probably.
The way I see it, cops take an oath to uphold the law. I know that oath-taking isn’t taken very seriously these days but it still means something to me.
Thus, if it fell to me to arrest a friend or even my own mother, I would do my duty. It’s not up to me to decide if they’re innocent or guilty-- that’s for the courts. They don’t get a “free pass” to break the law just because they’re friends or family. They should be treated like everyone else.
My high-school football coach has (evidently) been getting away with DUI’s in my hometown for several years. Seems the local constabulary was looking the other way. He’d not received tickets and often was driven home BY the police IN THEIR PATROL CARS.
Recently, cameras have been installed in the police cars and, now, the officers don’t have the luxury of letting the coach slide.
I have to agree with Antinor and Lissa. I’d try to treat everyone equally. I guess I’d warn my friends and family not to expect any favors, and if they still choose to do something illegal then they can’t be surprised when I have to do my duty.
I would never become a cop in the first place. I have a lot of the respect for cops who try to do a good job. It’s such a hard job with so many dangers.
You people who would turn your friends in:
Why does it make a difference that you are a cop? Even as a civilian, you are still obliged to inform the law about lawbreakers.
I think that’s more of an implied obligation rather than a deliberate decision to enforce the law, mr. jp. As a civilian, I can afford to be selective in who I do and don’t report - I would be legally and morally required to report a significant crime, but I have a lot of leeway for reporting smaller things like shoplifting.
(Probably a bad example, since I’d definitely report a stranger for shoplifting, and I’d make damn sure that if I saw a friend of mine doing it that they’d know fairly quickly that they could either put the stuff back or I’d be reporting them. I can’t think of any really minor crimes at the moment though, so that’ll have to be the one I go with for the moment. )
Had I chosen a career in law enforcement, you can bet I’d have no compunction about arresting a friend if I saw them shoplifting. No ifs, no buts, no ‘but you’re my friend’ - it would reduce things to a very nice and tidy black and white for me, whereas as a civilian, I’m a lot more susceptable to shades of grey.
My father was a cop until he retired, and naturally I spent a lot of time in the company of cops as I was growing up. I think it’s possible that a bit of the ol’ holier-than-thou attitude does tend to creep in when your role models are all very moralistic and … er, legalistic. (That’s not a word, but it’s late and I need to get to bed, so it’ll do for the moment.) That and the fact that I had neither the opportunity nor desire to do anything particularly illegal growing up…well, other than one underage drinking thing. But I got so sick off that I swore off alcohol for a full six years later, so y’know, I think in my own way I sort of did my time for that one. 
But yeah: I’d turn in a friend or family member if I knew they had committed a major felony (though I’d try very hard to convince them to turn themselves in first), and I’d have very serious words with any ‘friend’ who committed a significant-but-minor crime. Of course, if they were in the habit of committing minor felonies I wouldn’t be friends with them in the first place, nor they with me - so it’s probably a bit of a moot point, really.
I am a cop, and I’ve arrested more than a few old friends. None were extremely close friends as described in the OP, though. That is probably because any friends I had who might do such a thing stopped wanting to be my friend when I became a cop.
The attitude of “I’d do my duty, no matter what” isn’t very realistic, nor is it expected of a police officer. Life and law enforcement just aren’t that “black and white” (semi-pun intended). Pretty much everything is some shade of gray. In the vast majority of situations, we can exercise “officer discretion”. This means that we can arrrest, issue a ticket, give a warning, etc.
To the OP: If it’s a felony, he gets arrested - no question. If it’s a crime that requires an arrest (mostly domestic violence crimes), it’s off to jail. If there is a victim, then there usually is little room for discretion. But if it’s just a traffic offence or a minor crime, I might give a warning. However, I would probably a little less likely to give a friend a break, because I wouldn’t want to appear to be corrupt in any way.
Of course, the best course of action is to call another officer and ask him to handle the call for you.
From a couple of cop best-friends of mine, this is exactly correct. For example, police selectively pull over speeders and issue tickets based on individual discretion (as long as they are meeting quotas).
Otherwise, they would be overworked into ineffectualness as they would supposedly be morally required to cite every speeder, jaywalker, panhandler, low-tire-pressure, burned out light, noisy speaker, smoking too close to an entrance, tinted window, suspicious activity, loiterer, dirty license plate, improperly aimed headlight, etc that they viewed. We are publically saturated with potential violations that are selectively ignored by police.
For the OP question, that is simply one more selective enforcement that may or may not occur. I mentioned my cop friend? His mother has firmly made him aware that should he ever ticket any friends or family, he would be disowned fully from the family. The “How’s your mom doing?” card has saved me when I’ve been lucky enough to be pulled over by him, and a couple of friends as well 
Except the question wasn’t about issuing tickets. It was about putting them behind bars and if your friendship would affect your decision making.
I feel sorry for your friend. It must be hard to have a mother that interferes in your professional life.
Really. I would be inclined to say “go ahead and disown me now, if you think so little of my integrity.”
It would depend somewhat on my friend’s history.
If I know that he’s been steadily sliding into a life of crime (rumors around town, signs of drug use, amounts of cash or cool stuff that seems out of line with his known line of work, etc.), then I probably would. It doesn’t seem likely that a lecture and a threat of arrest would get more than an empty promise, accompanied by accusations that I was betraying a friend.
On the other hand, if everything I know about him says that he’s been living a productive, law-abiding life, taking care of his wife and kids, and generally being an upstanding person, things would be different. I wouldn’t look the other way, but would try to give him a verbal smack upside the head and find out what the hell was going on. Make him undo what he did and try to scare him straight by threatening him with arrest and the loss of everything he’s spent his life building up that would accompany it.
Note that this would be for crimes where nobody is physically hurt or endangered. Theft or drug posession, for example. If we’re talking assault, rape or murder, bets are off.
Actually, for something like pot posession, I’d probably just tell him to be more careful about letting people see him, but then I’m for legalization.
Yes! That’s the sort of minor thing I was looking for when I posted last night. There’s no way I’d dob someone in for that as a civilian, and unless they were growing it in quantity for sale I don’t think I’d do it as a cop, either.
The main reason I have never considered myself fit for any law enforcement position (police/FBI/state’s attorney/etc.) is that I could not bring myself to enforce all laws as instructed. Yes, cops and prosecutors have tremendous discretion in how they select to enforce laws. But not enough that I could personally do it.