Background checks for anyone?

[mcsap]

I was stopped for driving indecisively after work late one night. LEO wanted to see if I was drunk. I thought that was good. When he saw I was not drunk, he still checked to see if there are warrants and stuff like that on me. I think that is wrong, because it was unrelated to the reason he stopped me.

I know he had legal rights, but I think LEO checks on people too much.

Another example: my wife and I are parked on the side of a road. Two LEOs come to our car to 'check our safety.' The only safety issue we had was being approached by two armed individuals, approaching us suddenly, nearly giving me a heart attack.

In my county ALONE, there are over 40,000 warrants out for everything from parking to murder. We check EVERYBODY for warrants because it is part of out JOB.

Typical traffic stop.

1. Stop car for any kind of vio or suspected vio.

2. Check out driver for suspension, check for registration, state inspection and insurance AND WARRANTS. Also check passengers.

3. Check for any drugs or alcohol in plain view

4. If no additional vio's found. Issue ticket , written or verbal warning and send them on their way.

I run tags from my cruiser ALL of the time. With the info I get back , I can check to see if the owner has a valid license and if the owner has a any warrants. If all is OK, I move on. If not , refer to my traffic stop info from above.

If you don't like that the police check people for warrants than perhaps you are concerned beacuse you had one ??!!

And you didn't know that the two "armed individuals" approaching your car were police officers. ?? If you could tell they were armed, then I suspect you could tell they were the police.

[tee_ahn_dough]

Guess what? How do you think LE makes alot of their cases? By traffic stops or ID'ing subjects. I suppose you don't know Timothy McVeigh was stopped for speeding and then arrested for the OKC bombing. The police need to know who they are dealing with. That's why they check you for warrants.

Here's an idea: don't park by the side of the road :cool: Kinda silly isn't it? I know, it's hard to grasp. If you draw attention to yourself (drive like an idiot, park on the side of the road) you are gonna come into contact with the cops. Deal with it.

Comments:

1. We were pulled off the road into a turn out. What is there about being stopped in a turn out that warrants police attention?

2. You probably could catch even more criminals like McVeigh if you had more freedom to wiretap, search houses and cars whenever you thought you had reason, etc.. However, those actions are prohibted for the welfare of We the People of the United States of America. It seems to me that police tend to feel that since your jobs would be easier without those rules, you need to find ways to bend and use the rules, instead of abiding by their principles.

3. This thing about doing your JOB is a dangerous slope. It's the old "I was following orders" defense used by certain European LEOs in the 1940s (a.k.a. Nazis, SS, etc).

I was an active duty Army officer (1980-1985), and I never understood that whole thing about justifying our actions with the statement that we were doing our jobs. That "doing our job" idea was popular when we talked about things that in retrospect might not be seen as moral. To me, that is an excuse for not taking responsibility for my decisions, casting responsibility onto a non-present authority who assigned my JOB to me. I am not saying that LEOs in the US are like the LEOs who slammed the gas-chamber doors in the Nazi concentration camps, but the argument that you are doing your JOB when you do something is not valid.

[Metallic4]

Comments:

1. We were pulled off the road into a turn out. What is there about being stopped in a turn out that warrants police attention?

2. You probably could catch even more criminals like McVeigh if you had more freedom to wiretap, search houses and cars whenever you thought you had reason, etc.. However, those actions are prohibted for the welfare of We the People of the United States of America. It seems to me that police tend to feel that since your jobs would be easier without those rules, you need to find ways to bend and use the rules, instead of abiding by their principles.

3. This thing about doing your JOB is a dangerous slope. It's the old "I was following orders" defense used by certain European LEOs in the 1940s (a.k.a. Nazis, SS, etc).

I was an active duty Army officer (1980-1985), and I never understood that whole thing about justifying our actions with the statement that we were doing our jobs. That "doing our job" idea was popular when we talked about things that in retrospect might not be seen as moral. To me, that is an excuse for not taking responsibility for my decisions, casting responsibility onto a non-present authority who assigned my JOB to me. I am not saying that LEOs in the US are like the LEOs who slammed the gas-chamber doors in the Nazi concentration camps, but the argument that you are doing your JOB when you do something is not valid.

1. Hmm, I wonder, it's late at night, you see some car parked on the side of the road. You could have had a heart attack, could be dealing/using drugs, could be murdered, could be a criminal, could be homeless, could be out of your car in the area up to no good, could be a stolen vehicle, could be abandoned, could be a disabled vehicle, etc. Now do you see why people get suspicious about people parked on the side of the road at night? The police aren't necessarily assuming you are a criminal, they are also concerned for your welfare. Again, if you don't want police contact, don't bring attention to yourself by parking on the side of the road at night. Get a room.

2. You're missing the point. If you get pulled over for a traffic violation, you are opening yourself up to getting ID'ed, whether you like it or not. You wouldn't have this problem if you didn't violate in the first place.

3. I don't know where you got this "doing your job" rant, but it seems to me that you get pissed when an LEO has a valid excuse for making contact with you.