Generally speaking, from municipality to municipality…
Firstly:
Can I openly videotape my engagement with a police officer, whether it be a traffic stop or other confrontation? If the officer tells me to turn it off, do I have to comply?
Secondly: Do departments issue a list of things you MUST do when asked by an officer (or a list of things you do not have to do)? There must be a whole segment of Law pertaining to officer engaging a civilian, RIGHT???
Where can I read the laws on what an officer is ALLOWED to require of me, and what I am REQUIRED to do to assist in justice being served? I live in Florida, Broward County.
For instance, if I am walking down the street on my way to the most important job interview of my life, and an officer is about to make me late because of simple questioning, what is the best course of action? Will the department compensate me for my lost time and opportunity (potentially $90,000 a year until 55 years old)?
For instance, if I feel that I am in the midst of an incident that will probably go to court, since my confrontation with the officer is “his word against mine”, I would rather it be his word against my video camera, so can I legally tape the whole engagement, since the jury will never be able to see this engagement otherwise?
I know you can’t live a life with 0% defects here, but how fair can I make it? thanks.
Be polite and courteous (even if the officer is being an ass).
Simple as that and about all you can really do.
Can you video tape your encounter? I suppose so but expect to annoy the cop with that and likely they will ask you to put it down while they talk to you which you had better do (so prop it up somewhere pointing at you with autofocus engaged).
Bottom line if a police officer really wants to mess with you, even if for no legitimate reason, they can do so without doing anything illegal on their part. I suppose if you have Johnny Cochrane and Jeb Bush standing next to you when the officer is doing whatever it was you could expect to get the officer to lay off but most of us cannot expect that.
I have personally seen an officer go completely overboard on a friend of mine. That despite my friend literally having done nothing wrong and remaining absolutely polite (I was not the only witness…four other friends were there not to mention a crowd in the immediate vicinity). Upshot of the whole deal was he was charged with resisting arrest and one or two other things. The resisting arrest was pegged a felony and this was a HUGE deal for him as he was close to graduating college and this would NOT be good on job apps. $5000 in attorney fees later and getting me and others to drive 8 hours to court the judge threw everything out. To my knowledge the officer was in no way rebuked or penalized for any of it. My friend sought out two different attorneys seeing if a civil suit could be filed and they both told him to forget it…he’d never collect.
I tell that to show I do understand fully that sometimes you can indeed get a cranky police officer with a bug up their butt about something or other and if they really want to they can be a serious hassle. That said MOST times I have been faced with law enforcement a polite attitude and being as helpful and honest as I could be got me OUT of trouble I probably should have gotten. I have likewise seen friends who get all bent out of shape at an officer if they think they are being treated unfairly and it goes downhill fast for those guys.
Bottom line be nice and hope the officer is reasonable.
I’ve seen both those two before, and I’m glad their respective organizations have made them available. However, they are particular to the laws of the United States. Does anyone know of any similar documents applicable to other countries, such as Canada and the UK?
Be polite. Ask if you are being detained. If you’re not detained, explain to him you’re in a hurry and that if he’ll give you his card you will call him and speak to him later that day. If you are detained, then you are not free to go. But for him to detain you, he has to have reason to believe you are committing, have committed, or are about to commit a crime. Otherwise, he’s just asking you questions about who knows what and you are free to leave. So just ask.
Nope.
Even if you work hourly, they wouldn’t even compensate you for the hour of work you missed.
Better to have a friend do it, or have it mounted somewhere. If you’re spending your time looking through that while he’s trying to talk to you, it may start to interfere with his investigation. It’s not the actual act of taping the cop that is the issue, it’s how you go about it. If you can do it in a non threatning, nonintrusive, and nondistracing way, then you’re okay. Keep in mind that it’s the officer who decides what is nonthreatning, nonintrusive and non distracting. If it’s up in his face and distracting him, then he can make you put it away or arrest you.
There are whole segmentS of law pertaining to that. And they’re in the form of statutes, constitution, and case law. So actually compiling a comprehensive list and putting it all in one place would be exhaustive. I wonder if someone has done such a thing.
No one could possibly list all the possible encounters and what you can/should do. But if you have any other “for examples”, then go ahead and ask.
You do realize the term “rules of engagement” is a military term which means under what circumstances are you allowed to kill someone. Not a good title for your question. There is no reason why you can’t video tape some openly. There is a good chance you are being taped by the officer. Of course holding a video camera on someone may change the encounter for the worse. How would you feel if someone shoves a camera in your face? Expect the officer to not like it very much so be a little subtle if you really feel that strongly about it.
When being detained for questioning there is a “reasonable” amount of time you can be held before it is considered an arrest, even if there has been no physical arrest. The time I have heard the courts arrive at is a half hour. There is case law but I can’t remember the name right now. If your encounter is going on for too long in your opinion ask to speak to a supervisor. Spouting off about how much you know about the law and how the cop should be doing his job won’t get you very far. If you got all your knowledge from a message board and not a law school you are probably wrong.
Bottom line, be polite and cooperative. Except under very rare circumstances your encounter will be quick and easy if you cooperate, unless you are a criminal. If you have a complaint keep it to yourself at the time. Find out the complaint procedures of the department, most have websites now. If you don’t feel comfortable complaining to the department bring it up to the mayor or town council
As a result of a number of recent ugly incidents in which the nature of the interactions between citizens and police officers has come under public scrutiny, the state of Illinois is reviewing this very question. A lot of us would like to have a clear, well understood and well publicized code of expectations that we could all follow, be expected to follow, and expect each other to follow. The widely varying “standards” that are in place now, only serve to increase distrust between the public and the folks who are sworn to protect us, precisely because they are not standard. Think of the movie Crash. Complex issues and situations that could possibly be helped by a uniformly agreed to set of policies. At least that’s a goal here.
When stopped for suspicion of DWI, you do not have to perform the field sobriety test (walk the line, etc.) You also do not have to submit to the field breath test. You do, however, have to submit to the the breath/blood/urine test at the station, or your license can and usually will be suspended, whether you are ultimately found guilty or not.
If I were to take your threat title literally, I’d point out there are two sane modes for handling police encounters.
One is to be very polite and treat the officer with the same respect you would treat your mother, father or good friend who has entered a career in law enforcement.
There is no sane reason to be anything but nice.
The other mode of interaction is homicidal. I’d reserve that for times when I am an escapee from death row, since your odds of killing a cop and getting away with it are very, very low.
You can substitute the above advice for any encounter with anyone carrying firearms.
Several years ago, my friends were at an In-n-Out, in theory to get milkshakes. The fact that their cars (some with legal issues, ie: no front plates) were in display, along with a great deal of other cars, caused the police to arrive and demand everyone to leave. Despite the fact that my friends weren’t planning on loitering in the parking lot. They intended to buy milkshakes, and leave.
One friend did not want to get back in his car, as he had not purchased his shake yet. The police insisted. He insisted he didn’t want to leave without his shake. The officer threatened to arrest him for disrupting the peace. At this point, my friend got in his car, started it, and began to pull out of his parking spot.
The officer immediately lit him up, and cited him for no front plate.
He was in the wrong, he shouldn’t have had his plate off. Acknowledged. Maybe he should have gone somewhere else for his shake. Acknowledged.
It wasn’t even entrapment. The cop did not make him take the front plate off. The cop didn’t make him drive away. He could have walked. As soon as he was driving on the public roadway he was fair game.
I am not aware of any states in which either the field sobriety test or the preliminary alcohol screening test are mandatory. Do you have any cites for mandatory tests?
I do not know every law in every state. That is why I said the laws vary greatly from state to state. In the ones I do know about the implied consent laws are very different. In some states you need a court order to get blood without consent. In some they don’t even do a breath test, it’s all blood. Some states don’t allow preliminary alcohol screening test at all. Like I said the laws vary greatly from state to state. I would not make any over reaching statement about the subject for all 50 states, specifically for DUI cases.