Here’s an admittedly extreme scenerio: in the middle of a shootout with armed bank robbers, a police officer says “Screw this! I quit!”, goes back to his station and turns in his badge and formally resigns. Could a police officer really do this, or are they in any way legally forbidden to refuse duty? Could they be criminally charged and if so what with?
In the army this is well-documented and will trigger a court martial and jailing. The charge is dereliction of duty, cowardice, or going AWOL.
Wouldn’t they have to work a notice period of 2 weeks or a month or whatever? So they would be on duty for the duration of this period.
I’ve read a lot of books about depression era robbers like Pretty Boy Floyd, Dillinger, and Bonnie & Clyde.
Typically the small town cops were ex-farmers that had lost the farm. Desperate to feed their families, they took terrible paying police jobs. Underpaid, they even had to supply their own rusty weapon.
Dillinger, and Floyd had Tommy Guns. Wisely, these small town cops looked the other way when these criminals were around. They were too over matched (thirty year old revolver vs Tommy Gun). It wasn’t worth getting killed for $10 a month and leaving your family to starve.
Even today, in other countries police sometimes don’t take on the big criminals without help from the army. A lot of police have been targeted and murdered in Mexico just in the past few years.
Here in the U.S. cops on SWAT teams bring military tactics and high power weapons to take on violent criminals. End of the day, cops want to get home to families just like anyone else. They stay safe using overwhelming numbers and force.
It would depend on the country in which you live and, if you live in the United States, in what state you live and probably in what local jurisdiction you live.
What did New Orleans do to the police officers who left duty during Katrina? Some left to take care of their own families, certainly. Is that dereliction of duty? I’d say so, but was it excusable?
Cops are not military. You can’t court marital a cop or send him to Leavenworth.
It’s a job. They can be fired or suspended. Nothing more.
It’s a para-military organization, and I would assume any officer who deserts their post would be brought up on departmental charges.
We’ve got a lot of cops here, though, so hopefully one will be along to offer actual answers.
Present
The OP says the officer “formally resigns”. Civilian law enforcement is a job just like anything else. An officer can quit on the spot just like one who works at McDonalds.
AFAIK There is no legal requirement in statutes for giving notice. Just quit. You’ll have a heck of a time getting a pension, unemployment, or a good reference, but there is nothing to prevent a cop from just quitting. It’s a job.
As far as leaving a shoot out and allowing armed robbers to hurt/kill people may be another matter. Some creative D.A. might find a criminal charge for that under the negligence statutes of some states. I’m not a lawyer so that’s all I can say about it.
Civilly the officer (now ex-officer) might have problems. He may have signed a contract when hired agreeing not to do something like this. Also, the family of the people the robbers kill after the officer walked off might have a civil case against him. But, once again, I am not a lawyer.
That’s what I thought, but I wasn’t sure just what special legal status comes with being formally sworn in as an officer (is that legally still the equivalent of being deputized?). I was wondering if there was an actual criminal (as opposed to civil) penalty for dereliction of duty.
Not that I know of. But, there are 50 states thus 50 different set of laws.
I do recall reading about how getting fired from a state police agency (North Carolina?
) carried the legal equivalent to a Dishonorable Discharge from the military. I have no idea if that’s true.
The department I retired from (about twice the size as the one I work for now part-time) had 2 people quit while on duty during the 25 years I was on. Though not under the circumstances in the OP.
One guy got into an argument with the Chief. He pulled his badge off, threw it at the feet of the Chief, and said “fuck this, I quit!” This officer carried his own gun instead of the department issued sidearm. The Chief reminded him that, no longer being a police officer, he could not leave with his gun as it would be illegal (Wisconsin has no civilian CCW, and municipalities were allowed to ban open carry at that time). The officer said “WRONG! I’m a special deputy with the county sheriff!” and pulled out a badge. Turns out he wasn’t lying.
Then there was the guy who went through the lengthy hiring process, the 8 week (at that time) police academy, and 6 weeks with a field training officer. Then, on his second night by himself, 2 hours into the shift, he parked his squad back at the motor pool, put his badge/resignation letter under the Chiefs door, and went home. Didn’t say a word to anyone. After not answering his status checks from the dispatcher for 3 hours we conducted a massive manhunt all over the city for this dink. They even brought in a small plane from some volunteers at the Civil Air Patrol.
After all the hoopla someone got the idea to go to his house. There the flunky was, in his underwear drinking a Blatz. All his resignation letter said was “I’ve decided this isn’t for me. Thanks.”:rolleyes::smack:
Reminds me of a scene in the recent very good bank-robbery movie The Town:
The bank robbers, dressed as nuns with rubber Halloween masks, have escaped and are just about to transfer their cash and guns to another getaway car on a quiet side street when they realize there’s a Boston Police Department car parked right next to them. The single cop seated in the car stares at them, and their machine guns, for a looooong moment, then slowly looks away. They finish the transfer and roar away. Scary but funny.