Sorta in line with driving drunks home...

[AmarulaCream]

Does someone have to be charged with a crime in order to spend the night in jail... can they simply be taken there to "sober up" for there own safety?

[AmarulaCream]

...what on earth is up with some of the recent threads in this forum... are there really that many wackaloons out there???

[Samuel]

Does someone have to be charged with a crime in order to spend the night in jail... can they simply be taken there to "sober up" for there own safety?

Off the top of my head, I can't think of when we had someone spend the night who was Not charged with a crime... If they are there sobering up, they are usually there for drunk driving or drunk in public... We also don't do 72 hour mental observation holds at our jail...

[drummer-eman]

The wacko losers that come here and ask stupid questions are the same ones who get beer muscles in a bar, Its called Internet Muscles. They can hide behind the anonymity of the web and act tough.

Some places might still have a drunk tank but they are eventually cited for Public Intox. and that is a crime. So I guess NOT we cant just lock someone up for no reason or no charges

[Aussie George]

Here we have a thing called I & D (Intox and Disorderly).

If you get drunk and act in disorderly manner, we can take care of you for the night.

We will drive you to our hotel in a lovely Mercedes van, fitted with brisk and fresh cool air con in the back (lovely in winter) and give you a comfy warm wooden bed for the night and use of our complimentry blankets.

You get a free 8 hours at the tax payers expense and are waited on hand and foot by our lovely watch house staff.

Some special guests get a free massage where, due to their exceptional behaviour, they earn the right to be gently placed on the ground and have a few of our specially trained offiers perform shiatsu massage on their backs. The really special ones get a free facial of a nice warming concoction applied gently to the face and surrounding areas for that warm and fuzzy feeling.

The best part of this I&D (hold and release with no charge) is it gets them off the streets for the night, and no to little paperwork for us, meaning we are not tied up for hours typing a brief and can get back out there and find other valuable clients wanting to share in the experience of Hotel City Station.

But for those who really step over the line, there is usually a substantive offence detected and they get charged. I&D is for those that are just too stupid to realise they should have gone home an hour and half a dozen drinks ago. :D

If someone is just too drunk to look after themselves we cna take them to a sobering up shelter and sometimes drive them home if we can be sure that there is someone to care for them at that location - their wives/mothers (because it is usually either married men or male and female teenagers that get this rare treat) are usually very grateful and happy to get woken up by the Police at 0400 hrs and then left in charge of a husband/son/daughter who has either covered their shirt in their late night snack or urinated/defecated in their finest going out attire. :D

[Aussie George]

...what on earth is up with some of the recent threads in this forum... are there really that many wackaloons out there???

Yes...there are many people out there that are crazier than a box of monkeys.

I work in a Comms centre at the moment and some of the calls we get are mind blowing. There is the nut job that has a fascination with Nicole Kidman and calls us all the time to see if we can call her and see if she will marry him..so far he is stills single, but I can't see why. He seems alright to me.

And then of course there is Karen, who rings constantly all day, every day to say hi, or to read us scriptures, or to apologise for ringing so much over the past hour or so.

Then there is the guy who rings occasionally to report the voices in his head and how you can get possessed by the radiation from your mobile phone...well don't use it to call me then IDIOT!!!! :rolleyes:

The list goes on.

And that is not counting the nut jobs we deal with actually out there on the road!!!

[AmarulaCream]

And then of course there is Karen, who rings constantly all day, every day to say hi, or to read us scriptures, or to apologise for ringing so much over the past hour or so.

OMG LOL!!! I have a Karen who will not stop calling me also... I made the mistake of taking her to bed and now she expects a diamond!!! AHHHH how hilariously ironic :D

[Aussie George]

OMG LOL!!! I have a Karen who will not stop calling me also... I made the mistake of taking her to bed and now she expects a diamond!!! AHHHH how hilariously ironic :D

For your sake, I truly I hope it is not the same person. :D

I forgot to mention the old lady that went bezerk at her neighbours because they watered their plants on their balcony and it dripped down on her patio - didn't wet anything other than the concrete floor.

When patrols attended she abused them and everyone else and stated that they were all racists and everyone was picking on her because she is black.

Weird part is that she isn't black and (confirmed by her family) she is caucasian as you get!?!?!?! :confused:


Very funny report to read though - some creative wording for that one!!

Some odd people out there.

[Piggy]

I've come across a few locations who will arrest and charge with public intox. As long as the person is cooperative and sobers up, they will dismiss the charges. One location in WV I've seen will have the arrested person go through an alcohol screening program to make sure the person isn't an alcoholic. Others will just let the person go. At least by charging them, even if the charge is dismissed, you're not holding someone without a legal reason.

[Aussie George]

In my last dept, the Act was called the Public Intoxication Act (PIA) and was the power we had to detain someone without charge for their own protection due their level of intoxication.

In that dept we had a responsibility to find them safe shelter, wether that be at a house of a friend or relative, a sobering up shelter or the cells.

Once they were sober enough to go home under their own steam they werre out.

My current dept's I&D powers are pretty well the same. We have a duty of care to look after those that are too stupid to do it for themselves.

Of course it is our responsibility to do this and our fault if anything happens to them.

We had a situation in my last town where they picked up a harmless drunk that was just having too much trouble walking home and for his own good they gave him a lift home. He went inside and went to sleep. He never woke up. It was considered a death in custody and our boys got put through the ringer to see wether they were responsible. :mad:

It is a discretionary thing though and is sometimes used to just get them off the street before they make more work for us than we need.

Other times, it is amazing how many substantive offences can be found and charges laid, depending on various factors. In those cases they make it to court, but you have to justify wether it is worth your effort doing all the typing (and with our court system it usually isn't).

[AmarulaCream]

I will never forget a ride-along I went on with Phoenix PD where we got a call from a lady who apparently was a regular contact... she insisted that vampires were out to get her and the officers explained to her that the Vampire division was only available from 8 to 5 on week days... she accepted that answer and went to bed.

I almost threw up in my mouth trying to hold back the laughter...

You rascally cops you... :D

[ChesCopPodz]

We have a public intox law. That's what we use to charge them and keep them in jail for 5 or 6 hours until sober. The charge itself is written out on a ticket and is pre-payable like a speeding ticket.

[DeltaV]

The wonderful Florida Supreme Court ruled some time ago that public intox laws are unconstitutional, so we have no such law down here.

We're allowed to take someone into custody under Florida's Marchman Act and transport them to jail for protective custody, however we almost always transport them to detox or a hospital instead because the jail won't accept someone who is severely intoxicated if they haven't been medically cleared first.

[Legoate]

Does someone have to be charged with a crime in order to spend the night in jail... can they simply be taken there to "sober up" for there own safety?

Not in CA. You can be taken to jail for 647f PC and then released without charges once you are sober.

[Samuel]

Not in CA. You can be taken to jail for 647f PC and then released without charges once you are sober.

AFAIK, we usually cite them out the next day. I'll have to double check - I'm never there in the morning to see what happens... lol :p