“Turn in your gun and badge”. When the Chief’s had enough of the hero’s antics, or a cop is under investigation for wrongdoing, they always have to toss their gun in it’s holster and a badge onto the bosses desk and storm out.
Does this ever happen in normal, big city police departments? Even if a cop needs to turn in his gear, does he really toss it onto the Chief’s desk, or does he have to go to supply like in the Army?
“Welcome to the force son, here’s your gun and badge”. Chief pulls a (presumably loaded) firearm out of a desk drawer, and a shiny badge, and hands them to the newly minted deputy.
Again, does this ever happen?
The Chief of police has a firearm in his desk drawer, just in case. So does the commandant of a military academy. In fact, virtually any authority figure can be expected to have a .45 caliber pistol in their desk drawer, standard issue.
This is totally against policy, right. Are guns even allowed in the offices part of the building in a major police department?
This is the only one I can speak to, as I’ve known several chiefs of police, although not in “major” cities.
I have never seen one of those police chiefs in uniform without a pistol, whether they were in their office, their car, the bathroom, or the City Council chambers. One of them, in fact, was required by his employment contract with the city to be armed any time he was out in public.
What might be an issue is the desk drawer. I don’t know if that’s considered a “secured” location for the weapon.
25 years on one of the largest agencies in my state full time, retired, currently working for another of the states largest agencies=31 years. YMMV to the extreme depending on location. But I’ll tell you what I can from my experience.
Yes. Upon termination/suspension an officers badge, ID card, and weapon are usually collected immediately. Where it ends up is irrelevant, the goal is to get it off of him/her ASAP. Many agencies, including the ones I work[ed] for, allow for officers to carry their privately owned weapons as long as they’ve qualified with them. In that case the weapon is still taken in safe keeper status and secured until the officer is escorted off property.
No, but it can. It almost never does, but it can. In the early 90’s I was the elected constable for a small township (this was a side gig to my full time sheriffs deputy position) and I had the legal authority to swear in anyone I wanted at anytime.
I didn’t, but could have. there are other times this could happen too, but almost never does anymore.
Can’t speak for the military academy, but in my state an on duty peace officer can carry/store a weapon anywhere he wants, with very few exceptions, including buildings that are posted no weapons. This is almost the same for off duty peace officers too. There are some restrictions for off duty, but not many.
“Turn in your gun and badge”. Yes, pretty much exactly like that as far as the badge is concerned. If you’re suspended or quit, you have to turn in your badge and ID.
Guns are somewhat different in prisons than they are for the police. We don’t use guns on a normal basis. So nobody would normally be carrying a gun that they’d have to turn in. All weapons not in use are kept in a secure arsenal. Nobody would have one sitting in a desk.
Some employees own a personal weapon. There’s two ways to do this in NY. You can apply for a permit like everyone else or you can carry a firearm “on your badge” (which basically involves notifying us that you own such and such a weapon). Carrying a gun on your badge is considered better than carrying it on your permit because you can carry a wider range of firearms on a badge and you can carry them in places you can’t carry them on a permit. Plus it’s less paperwork.
The downside is that if you quit or get suspended or fired, you lose your badge and any firearms which were carried on just a badge are confiscated. Plus you have to notify us if you sell or lose a firearm you carried on your badge.
Badges are not issued at the local level. They are issued by the state when you start the job. You get a new badge and ID when you get promoted. Lower numbers are considered “cooler”. The only time I ever “issued” a badge is when somebody lost theirs and had to pay for a replacement. If you lost your badge or ID, you had to report it to me and I reported it to the police and we all made fun of you or chewed you out depending on the circumstances.
As a [retired] Sheriffs Deputy I can say it’s pretty much the same in a [large metro] jail. I only ended up worked in the jail for about 2 years of my career (after campaigning for the wrong guy, i.e. loser, during the sheriffs election :rolleyes:)
but there were firearms involved, even for non-sworn correction officers. But where they were and when was very strictly controlled. This is one of the exceptions I mentioned in my previous post. Even sworn staff (like me) could not carry a firearm in a pod that contained cells. NO-MATTER-WHAT!
In the jail handguns were carried during outside perimeter patrols, in the visiting reception area, or when an inmate was transferred to another facility (prison or a hospital) and shotguns were secured in a safe in the master control area of the jail and not unlocked except during dire emergencies.
As a sworn Dep who got bumped temporarily into the jail I can tell you it sucks and I have no idea how non-sworn C.O.'s work their entire careers there!
Here in Melb (last I knew), Police are required to carry their gun at all times when in uniform in public — and are required to put it in the gun locker when in the station.
That may have changed/I may be wrong.
When guns were first issued to ordinary uniformed members of the police force in Victoria, AUS, (it was only ~30 years ago?) members were not given much gun training, and they shot each other at an alarming rate (and sometimes road signs and clock towers). AFAIK, some time after that they were given gun training that involved putting the guns in the gun locker when in the station.
Here in Georgia, number 1, at least, is accurate, although usually not as dramatic as that scene in the movies. Scenario #2 is theoretically possible, in limited circumstances such as pkbites describes. Number 3 is unlikely for a sheriff or police chief, because his sidearm is on his person, not in a desk drawer.
Hubby is a deputy. The only times he doesn’t carry is in a courtroom, or if we’re out and a few drinks might ensue. He is explicitly permitted to carry in lots of places you wouldn’t expect, including schools and hospitals.
Officers have to turn in their weapons ( and sometimes other equipment) when they are under investigation for certain reasons , when they go on extended leaves , or when they are on sick leave for a reason that calls into question their suitability to carry a firearm. Turning it in usually involves placing ( not tossing) it on the supervisor’s desk.
Nope, we don’t keep firearms in desks. Well, I suppose someone somewhere might have, but if they were caught, they surely would have been suspended if not fired. That’s what safes are for.
Every officer must have their firearm on his or her person while on duty ( with limited exceptions for visits to prisons or jails). The problem wouldn’t be with having the firearm in hte office- as above, the problem would be the desk
This is truly a “YMMV” situation. Where I work Bailiffs and police officer carry in the court room. But I know there are locations around the country where firearms are not allowed by anyone. Many times this is not a law but an order by a judge.
The only time here a deputy would not be armed in court is if he was escorting prisoners directly from the jail or lock up area to the court room.
You are correct: it’s up to the individual judges’ discretion whether Tony carries in the courtroom. And no weapons if he happens to work in the jail. (Which seldom happens - two nights out of the past five years, I think? But he was a CO for a couple of years after leaving the army and before attending the academy.)
Heh. He must have never worked for the wrong side during the sheriff election. 6 days after the election, after 20+ years on, I got yanked off the road and ended up working in the jail with the lowly C.O.'s for almost 2 years. :mad: I was not the only one who worked on the campaign that this happened to.
And then after I got reassigned to the road I almost immediately got promoted as an investigator.:rolleyes:
Heh. Tony didn’t campaign for a loser, he did worse: quit by telling the sheriff “here’s my gun and badge and letter of resignation, and kiss my ass.” In so many words. He’s damned lucky to have a job now. Clyde tried to blackball him, but Tony was smart enough to pass around copies of his resignation letter to several others around the county, and to line up a new job first. Even so, that sheriff tried to insinuate that Tony was in danger of being fired, but quit instead.
(It was personal for Tony: another deputy was killed in the line of duty - t-boned by a drunk driver while running code to back up a fellow officer. The sheriff denied all of the customary honors afforded under those circumstances, not even accepting offers from neighboring counties to cover patrols so the shift could attend the funeral. A lot of other deputies left that department pdq afterwards, but Tony was apparently the only one to spell it out. He’s so not a politician!)
:rolleyes: