Police Officer Preparation & Law Enforcement Resource - Archive

The REAL POLICE FORUM is a leading community of police officers and law enforcement professionals. The forum includes police chat and restricted areas for police officers only. The ask-a-cop area allows you to ask questions to real police officers and only verified police are allowed to respond. REALPOLICE.com also features law enforcement jobs, news, training materials and expert articles.




Norm357
12-09-10, 09:50 PM
Or, what a moron.

The ajc.com reports....


A federal police officer will spend more than a year in prison for making illegal traffic stops when he had no authority to do so, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Stephen G. House, of Silver Creek, was sentenced in U.S. District Court on Thursday after being convicted of making illegal traffic stops on eight occasions.

“This defendant abused his authority as a federal law enforcement officer by repeatedly using his official position to make illegal traffic stops and illegally detain motorists,” said U.S. Attorney Sally Quillian Yates.

House, 53, worked as a law enforcement and security officer for the Federal Protective Service of the Department of Homeland Security. As part of his job, House was allowed to drive to and from work in a service vehicle with emergency equipment, including blue lights and a siren, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office.

House had no authority to enforce Georgia’s traffic law, however, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office, he “repeatedly activated the emergency blue lights on his federal police vehicle and pulled over motorists.” He then would call other law enforcement officers to write traffic tickets, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

House was accused twice of telling other law enforcement officers that the motorists he pulled over were “driving aggressively,” causing those people to be jailed and their cars impounded, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

Two other times, House was accused of falsely telling other law enforcement officers that the motorists he pulled over had violated traffic laws, resulting in those officers writing traffic tickets.

House also was accused four times of detaining motorists and then letting them go with a “warning,” the U.S. Attorney’s Office said.

House was sentenced to one year, six months in prison, followed by three years of supervised release. He also was fined $10,000 and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

“House's illicit actions tainted the hard work of the many men and women who serve our country with pride and dedication daily. Actions such as these will not go unchecked or unpunished,” said David P. D'Amato, Special Agent in Charge of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Office of Professional Responsibility for the Southeast.


pac201
12-09-10, 10:32 PM
What a tard...

Maybe they'll let him be a school crossing guard for his community service. :)

MikeG
12-10-10, 01:01 AM
So they gave him lights and sirens and said "don't turn them on."

I want to know the officers who wrote tickets for him without witnessing the violations themselves. I need to give tickets to a few people too. :)


cntryboy0531
12-10-10, 01:34 AM
So they gave him lights and sirens and said "don't turn them on."

I want to know the officers who wrote tickets for him without witnessing the violations themselves. I need to give tickets to a few people too. :)

In Florida, we can write tickets based on another officers observations. It does not have to be a state or local LEO, it can be a federal LEO. I don't have to witness it, just another officer has to witness it. I can't write a ticket based on a random CIVILIAN's (norm) observations just a LEO. Even though Federal LEO's to my knowledge, can't enforce state traffic laws.

Piggy
12-10-10, 09:12 AM
There's always one douche who has to ruin it for everyone else. It won't be too long and DHS will be re-evaluating the need to give take home cars to their folks.

Kimble
12-10-10, 10:19 AM
So they gave him lights and sirens and said "don't turn them on."


Not sure where you read that. Many federal LEOs have lights and sirens in their gov't vehicles, but they aren't there for traffic enforcement. Some federal LEOs do have traffic enforcement authority (US Park Police, for example) but many others (like 1811 agents) do not. FPS' mission is federal building security, so it would make no sense to have their officers running traffic enforcement and ignoring force protection issues with the federal building(s) they're assigned to.

GoDirectly2Jail
12-10-10, 02:01 PM
+1. Traffic enforcement is a specific mission - but just one not tasked to FPS. It doesn't make them any less of an LEO, but it looks like this guy was having trouble on where to draw the line. Now he's screwed himself from the field altogether.

MikeG
12-10-10, 02:39 PM
Not sure where you read that. Many federal LEOs have lights and sirens in their gov't vehicles, but they aren't there for traffic enforcement. Some federal LEOs do have traffic enforcement authority (US Park Police, for example) but many others (like 1811 agents) do not. FPS' mission is federal building security, so it would make no sense to have their officers running traffic enforcement and ignoring force protection issues with the federal building(s) they're assigned to.

It was the take home aspect of the car as well as the quote from the prosecutor. I was being a little facetious. This part of the quote is what made me laugh "“repeatedly activated the emergency blue lights on his federal police vehicle and pulled over motorists."

You can read that as a single combined infraction. Or two separate ones. I know what they meant but it still struck me as funny if you read it as two.