Excessive Force?

[lain]

I've noticed that in my city and other cities + the news that whenever a cop is casually talking to a person or has them pulled over they generally (85% of the time) have their hand on their guns. Is this because it's comfortable, paranoia or just a show of who's boss? It's kind of scary that even in a causal conversation the person is ready to pull a gun on the person their talking to at any moment. What are you thoughts on this?

[Samuel]

read

Law Enforcement Deaths Up, Firearms Now Top Cause

http://www.nleomf.org/assets/pdfs/re...EOY-Report.pdf

[retdetsgt]

I've noticed that in my city and other cities + the news that whenever a cop is casually talking to a person or has them pulled over they generally (85% of the time) have their hand on their guns. Is this because it's comfortable, paranoia or just a show of who's boss? It's kind of scary that even in a causal conversation the person is ready to pull a gun on the person their talking to at any moment. What are you thoughts on this?

[Citicop]

Traffic stops are one of the most dangerous things that officers can do.

The violator may know that they are a fine upstanding person, but the officer knows literally nothing about them at all.

Keeping a hand on a holstered weapon is not "force" at all, let alone excessive. I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. And a traffic stop is not a "casual conversation."

-Citicop.

[pac201]

Sorry RDS, I haven't spread any around since I last gave reps, so I just have to do it here, I snorted my tea and it made my eyes water.

[lain]

"shakes my head in sadness at retdetsgt"

Their was an 'or' between traffic stop and casual conversation, and thank you for you intelligent answer Citicop and Samuel. This cleared up my question plus rep for both of you!

Traffic stops are one of the most dangerous things that officers can do.

The violator may know that they are a fine upstanding person, but the officer knows literally nothing about them at all.

Keeping a hand on a holstered weapon is not "force" at all, let alone excessive. I'm sorry if it makes you uncomfortable. And a traffic stop is not a "casual conversation."

-Citicop.

[lain]

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[mcsap]

Do you think that we can always tell who is going to attack/assault us ?

[lain]

Overly nervous/calm, twitchy/figity, monotonous/hysterical, If you pay attention to enough people you can see the warning signs that something will happen. I'm not disagreeing i agree that sometimes you cant see fast enough that the person is crazy or not. Side note do they make you take an in-depth psychology course, or just a basic one? I would think if you were required to take an in-depth one it would help to understand people and keep you safe and the person calm at the same time.

[lain]

Very informative, now lets compare apples to apples with this data.
Google Trends

read

Law Enforcement Deaths Up, Firearms Now Top Cause

http://www.nleomf.org/assets/pdfs/re...EOY-Report.pdf

[Samuel]

Very informative, now lets compare apples to apples with this data.
Google Trends

So?

[Citicop]

Overly nervous/calm, twitchy/figity, monotonous/hysterical, If you pay attention to enough people you can see the warning signs that something will happen. I'm not disagreeing i agree that sometimes you cant see fast enough that the person is crazy or not. Side note do they make you take an in-depth psychology course, or just a basic one? I would think if you were required to take an in-depth one it would help to understand people and keep you safe and the person calm at the same time.

Why do you think that officers in general have trouble staying safe and keeping people calm? Most of us who do this job every day do this quite well. If you find a hand on a holstered weapon as an officer deals with an unknown suspect frightening, offensive, or overly intimidating, you are in a very small minority.

You should read about states of awareness and the Cooper Color Codes if you want to learn better why cops do what they do.

[lain]

Because like you said before, you do not know if the person your going to give a ticket is crazy or not. If you honestly thought you were safe you would not be thinking of the top 25 ways to shoot the person your giving your ticket to (sorry for the exaggerated example) That link you sent me was very informative! When i was a kid i used to go sit and watch people and see how they react to situations. Then I would go up and put another person in the same situation and see how they reacted, it was quite fun.

[Citicop]

I honestly DON'T think I'm safe on a traffic stop. That's the point of the article. Part of staying alert and safe while on the street is playing a never ending game of "what if" and "worst case scenario".

Cops who get complacent and assume they are safe because "everything seems okay" put themselves, their coworkers and the public a risk.

[icu650]

When you play your Xbox 360 or Nintendo games, do you have your fingers on the controller ready for anything? Lain, that is only a game this is for real. You have already asked us about Molle vests and legalities of a civillian carrying a taser. What are you worried about, we have to do stops every day which could put us in a life threatening situation.

It may appear intimidating but you have to realize many cops are dead because the bad guy in the car already had his hand on the controller (gun) and officer still had to take his out of the box.

Simple enough!