Followed home tonight...

[viperphi]

So I'm in my personal car on my way home when the car in front of me slams on the brakes and makes an abrupt left hand turn without signalling so I beep my horn since he almost caused a nice little accident which would have delayed me in getting home.

I look in my rearview mirror and see this car pull out of it's turn and get behind me. Really? I mean really? You want to follow me. So he is flashing his brights at me as I'm getting closer to the turn to my house. That's not going to happen. I turn the opposite direction and black out my car and pull into a driveway.

He goes by and I pull back out and am now behind him. He stops 50 feet ahead of me and jumps out of the car. It looks like I am going to be delayed now. He is approaching my car so I decide we are gonna have to do this on my terms. So out the door I go and now he is staring down my Glock and gets to see my nice spiffy police uniform in all its glory. Unfortunately, it's glory wasn't enough to bow him into submission. I'm giving him orders to show me his hands and to drop to his knees while radioing for backup.

He doesn't want to listen so I get his arms behind his back as I hear the cruiser coming. He got a nice talking to from me about why following me home might not be a good idea, then the cruiser gets there and he gets another speech, then the sergeant gets there and he gets the WTF were you thinking and he tells him how lucky it was a cop that he ran up on and not the normal thugs driving around that time of night.

The kicker is he has his pregnant wife and baby in the car. He is a recent transplant from Florida and apparently isn't afraid of anyone or any bad neighborhood. Great. I think our talk worked.

He is lucky his wife was there because he tensed when I went hands on and he was about to meet the pavement until I realized his family was watching.

In hindsight, I should have radioed right when I realized I was being followed. Live and learn. But no one is following me home.

Which reminds me, in roll call today we learned about www . switchboard . com where apparently people can look up your phone number and address, even if unlisted, by name. So check it out, see if you can be found and then fix it at the bottom of the page. Stay safe.

[Pookie44]

LOL what a dumb arss. Stay safe!

[CCBlueMan]

People are morons! BTW thanks for the switchboard info, I'm gonna have to forward that to the rest of my agency!

[viperphi]

You are welcome. I was thrilled when I typed in my name and there was my address as well as cute little map to make planning that much easier.

[Rlong1985]

The privacy once enjoyed by Law Enforcement and their families is now an up hill battle. This is not the only webpage out on the market, and there are even cell phone tracking software open to the public. ATT has a program to keep track of teens but the same basic idea can be used for other purposes.

[MikeG]

Try www . pipl . com too. I find it has much more information and better search but YMMV.

And you forgot that the best talking to that guy got (I hope) is from his wife in the car.

And that live and learn thing is what keeps you safe. Especially that live part. Nice job.

And be careful too. You never know if some douchebag called his buddies while you were calling yours .

[Switchback]

Yeah, there really are some nice benefits to not living where I work.


I will add a little thing that I do that I would suggest you guys spread around. Most of these GPSes have the option to set our home address and then you can just hit "Go Home". Well, I am all over the map for work and have one in my G-ride. I also have one in my POV (that can do double duty on the cycle). For all of them, "home" is a nearby subdivision. I don't need someone stealing one of them and then knowing where to find me or my house.

[suzanne1020U.S.]

I've had close to the same situation, but I wasn't driving home.

So HAPPY you're ok, and the idiot bully was put in his place pronto. You are a hero, because you most likely stopped this person from doing it to someone else in the future. I commend you!!!!!!!!

Take care of yourself-

[Norm357]

I woulda just gone ahead and shot him.

[counihan]

Ok, so now on a serious note...how to get info on you off switchboard or other websites that share similar data? It doesn't have my newest information on it, but recent enough...hmmm???

[Switchback]

They pool the information from public sources. So, you need to stop associating your name with a given cell phone, address, etc. You can do this a variety of ways. A couple quick and easy ones include: get a PO box. in stead of having an unlisted number, list it in another name, etc..

[MikeG]

I will add a little thing that I do that I would suggest you guys spread around. Most of these GPSes have the option to set our home address and then you can just hit "Go Home". Well, I am all over the map for work and have one in my G-ride. I also have one in my POV (that can do double duty on the cycle). For all of them, "home" is a nearby subdivision. I don't need someone stealing one of them and then knowing where to find me or my house.

Turn off the trackback and memory features too (or set them to clear on power on if your unit can do that.)

[viperphi]

As far as the switchboard site is concerned, at the bottom left is a link to remove your information. I did but don't know if it works yet. The confirmation page said it could take up to 5 business days for removal. But this seems like an uphill, losing battle with the information as it stands. This is a site we know about. What about the 15 other competing sites?

Norm, shooting him would have been hard to explain when the sergeant showed up. After I had him on his knees and had a cruiser on the way, I heard that shift's captain chime up and demand that a sergeant go. Either they thought I was going to shoot him or beat him. I just wanted to make friends. Bond a little. Pass on some worldly wisdom. Save his unborn child's life maybe. Any other car on that street at that time of night would have been rolling 5 deep in a cloud of smoke with a Hipoint (which as we all know is good for 1 or 2 rounds).

Switch, when I got on here, it was required that we live in the city so I picked the nicest part I could and near some family. The only problem is that no matter where you live here, you have to drive through some hood. Since, the law was struck down by Ohio's supreme court. Now I'm just stuck with a mortgage I can't offload because the housing market tanked leaving me with more debt than house. Shoulda rented!

[Creeker]

Viper:

Devils Advocate Question: How is your situation much different than this one:

Arrest warrant issued for Dallas police officer accused in off-duty confrontation | News for Dallas, Texas | Dallas Morning News | Latest News

Arrest warrant issued for Dallas police officer accused in off-duty confrontation

By TANYA EISERER/ The Dallas Morning News
teiserer@dallasnews.com

An arrest warrant was issued Thursday for a Dallas police officer who is accused of illegally pointing his gun at a man and ordering him to his knees during an off-duty confrontation in July.

Senior Cpl. Mike Jones, who joined the department in 1999, faces a Class A misdemeanor charge of deadly conduct, an offense punishable by up to a year in jail and a $4,000 fine. Jones was placed on administrative leave on Wednesday. A conviction would cost him his job.

Jones, 42, was expected to turn himself in at the Dallas County Jail. He told police investigators that he ordered a man who was urinating on a wall at an apartment complex on Washington Avenue in Old East Dallas to stop. He said that when the man didn't follow his commands, and after he identified himself as a police officer, he drew his weapon and ordered Brandon Schroder, 23, to his knees.

more...

Ya'll caught that this was done in DALLAS, TEXAS, right?

[viperphi]

Creeker, we were actually discussing this last night while we were tagging evidence. Let me first off just say that I think the decision to charge Jones is ridiculous. He identified himself as a police officer and from the moment on, he was acting under color of law. So unless there is something not disclosed in the article... As it is written though, I think that Jones will be fine as long as he has good representation. Dallas PD members have a good reason to be up in arms.

As for my situation vs his... Not very different. But, I was a uniformed officer and I did not initiate the contact. My preference was to have a marked cruiser do it. Prior to the vehicle stopping in the middle of the road, I had already attempted to call out to get a cruiser out there, but was ignored by dispatch and another unit keyed up with their traffic.

After the guy stopped his car in the middle of the road and started to approach mine, I could either sit in my car and let him come up to mine giving him control of the situation and an advantage or I could get out.

I got out with my weapon out and loudly identified myself as a police officer and shined my light down showing my uniform and gave him verbal commands to find the street with his knees. Once he was there, dispatch decided to acknowledge my traffic after my second attempt and then I had a cruiser and a sergeant showing up.

I wasn't going to lead this guy to my house. Either way, both were officers lawfully acting under color of law (sounds redundant).

Now in Dallas, officers apparently won't have a duty to act any more off duty if it hits the fan.