Wonderful PA rules of criminal procedure...

[greg72982]

Well at about 0300 I made an arrest for DV/resisting arrest. In the county where it happened you don't take the individual right to jail, you have to arraign via video arraignment, so now I am stuck here babysitting until the magistrate's office opens at 0830.

They do video arraignments in 4-hour increments, 0400 being the last before you have to wait until normal business hours, unless it's the weekend. I got her back here about 0330 and by that time the magistrate on-duty had already called to see if anyone was on the list. There was no way I'd have the paperwork done by then anyway.

So naturally I am on RP since I can't leave her and we only run one a shift. Times like these I wish we had a holding cell or at least someone else to watch her...

[PapaBear]

Seems like a colossal waste of time and money to have you sitting around baby sitting. Perhaps a well prepared memorandum of recommendation would cause someone to re-evaluate the practice and find a more productive solution.

[Joeyd6]

No holding cell???? What kind of town you work for?

[retdetsgt]

No holding cell???? What kind of town you work for?

With the big bucks they pay Greg, they probably can't afford it.....

Seriously, the people around there obviously don't have much regard for their police. And if they have to do an arraignment before booking them, they apparently don't trust them much either.

[greg72982]

What it comes down to is the judges don't want to be woken up early, or at all. This will never change no matter how many letters you write. I mean hey it isn't them that have to sit there and play jail guard.

In some counties during later hours you can type up the criminal complaint then drop them and the complaint off at the jail and leave. Unfortunately this is not one of those counties.

The town is poor, we literally operate out of an office. It's actually not that uncommon around here for departments to consist only of an office. Places are cheap, no two ways about it.

By the way the 0830 arraignment turned into 0930 because the judge didn't get in until then. He set $1500 straight and she couldn't afford it so I then I drove her 25 minutes to the jail where in the process I got stuck beind an oversize load doing 10mph. I was finally done with all of that at noon. Ugh.

[Big Sexy]

Dude, we gotta find Greg some new employment, quickly.

[retdetsgt]

Sounds like they need to change PA law. I never had to have anyone arraigned before I booked them. I filled out a custody report with the identifying info (name, dob, etc.) and listed the charges and the bail if there was a court the next day and I didn't have to be there. A DDA had my report by then and he represented the state.

In Oregon they have to be arraigned within 24 hours of booking and that's it. If it's on a Friday or Saturday, I filled out a handwritten statement attesting to probable cause and left it with the jailer. I think some judge dropped by the jail at some point and read it. Up until just before I retired, I didn't even have to do that and that may have been fixed by the legislature by now. Some lawyer forced us to do the weekend statement thing. I suspect the judges lobbied the legislature to change it so they would be inconvenienced on the weekend at all.

[greg72982]

For most nonviolent misdemeanors in PA we just kick them loose, either at the scene or take them to the station and kick them loose from there.

In this case it was DV and she resisted so I wasn't going to kick her loose. It was obvious she wasn't playing well with her two daughters that she assaulted and I wasn't about to send her back. If the judge wants to do that it's on him. Unfortunately I ended up spending 9 hours on what would be a 2 hour arrest in most other counties.

[retdetsgt]

It's still a shame you have to kick someone loose just because it's such a pain to book them.

[Adrenolize]

What's amazing is that the general public tolerates that. A quick fix would be to just cut them all loose and when problems happen, you highlight the problem. You had to sit with her for 9 hours, taking you off the street. Of course, if you did cut them loose and something happened - I guess it would be on your conscience as well as making you liable. Again, sounds like the lawmakers are heavily treading upon Greg's moral sense of duty. Nobody wins.

[retdetsgt]

From Greg's posts over the years, I'm kind of convinced that whole area is a LE disaster area. Even the people in the little town I live in wouldn't tolerate that sort of stuff. If they call the police, they don't want someone tied up in an office somewhere babysitting a crook.

Even if the people here just heard about something like that, they would raise hell about it. Oregon is a liberal state and some of the politics drive me nuts. They constantly whine about the cops and police are continually being whipped in the press. But at the end of the day, the people make sure the police are paid well and equipped to do the job. If politicians start cutting local LE budgets, people show up at city halls and county courthouses. You can't get a school levy passed here to save your neck, but I've only seen one special LE tax levy fail. And that one didn't pass because it was a ridiculous amount and the sheriff was blatantly lying about what he wanted the money for. But that was an aberration, tax levies for extra patrols, etc. are always passed by the liberal population.

I'm serious when I say, God bless Greg and the other cops willing to tolerate that **** for such an ungrateful population. It takes a special kind of person to do that and I'm afraid I don't reach that level.

[greg72982]

It's still a shame you have to kick someone loose just because it's such a pain to book them.

The jails here just don't have the room. There are times you call the on-call magistrate to arraign someone and he/she turns you down and says kick them loose. DUI's here are not taken to jail. You arrest them, go get blood, take them back to the station and call a sober adult to pick them up.

It's much different than the process in NC when I worked at the county jail

What's amazing is that the general public tolerates that. A quick fix would be to just cut them all loose and when problems happen, you highlight the problem. You had to sit with her for 9 hours, taking you off the street. Of course, if you did cut them loose and something happened - I guess it would be on your conscience as well as making you liable. Again, sounds like the lawmakers are heavily treading upon Greg's moral sense of duty. Nobody wins.

This entire state is centered around not violating the defendant's rights and it ties our hands IMO. I never use the old "If I come back, you're going to jail" phrase because it's totally not true. Some guys do and my question is take them to jail for what??? It's not statewide however. I know in Allegheny County you just take people straight to jail.

After yesterday's fiasco the Chief contacted our local magistrate(my town covers small towns in two different counties, he is in the one where they don't have that 4-hour BS). The magistrate has a small lockup in his office and gave us permission to use it, we would just have to find someone to watch the prisoner and I don't believe by law it has to be an officer. The Chief was thinking one of our volunteer fireman. They get off on that stuff anyway :D

The strangest part of PA is each county is like it's own little world.

[Adrenolize]

The jails here just don't have the room. There are times you call the on-call magistrate to arraign someone and he/she turns you down and says kick them loose. DUI's here are not taken to jail. You arrest them, go get blood, take them back to the station and call a sober adult to pick them up.

It's much different than the process in NC when I worked at the county jail



This entire state is centered around not violating the defendant's rights and it ties our hands IMO. I never use the old "If I come back, you're going to jail" phrase because it's totally not true. Some guys do and my question is take them to jail for what??? It's not statewide however. I know in Allegheny County you just take people straight to jail.

After yesterday's fiasco the Chief contacted our local magistrate(my town covers small towns in two different counties, he is in the one where they don't have that 4-hour BS). The magistrate has a small lockup in his office and gave us permission to use it, we would just have to find someone to watch the prisoner and I don't believe by law it has to be an officer. The Chief was thinking one of our volunteer fireman. They get off on that stuff anyway :D

The strangest part of PA is each county is like it's own little world.

Your job just intrigues the hell out of me! I'm seriously considering submitting you to The Discovery Channel. It has to be up there with the Alaskan Troopers, like your area evolved on its own. You don't by chance follow a white rabbit down a hole to get to work, do you?

Seriously, I'm with Grumpy Sarge tippin' my hat. Wish there were more like you on the job!

[retdetsgt]

Seriously, I'm with Grumpy Sarge tippin' my hat. Wish there were more like you on the job!

Whoa. I didn't say that! If people refused to work for those wages and conditions, the job would be different there.

[greg72982]

I will only work for as little as I do for as long as I see the light of the end of the tunnel. The light is starting to fade however and a career change isn't too far in the future at this point.