Special treatment to Military and Cops?

[Smokin04]

Agreed...it's actually kind of funny when I pull someone over on base and they do the same thing. I usually pull mine out and show it to them just to be a smartass back.

[Cat_Doc]

Agreed...it's actually kind of funny when I pull someone over on base and they do the same thing. I usually pull mine out and show it to them just to be a smartass back.

Seems things have certainly changed.

When I was LE on a SAC base in the mid 70's any military personnel stopped on base were required to hand you their ID card and driver's license. Even other branches would automatically present their military ID.

Back in those days, they were even required to carry any TDY or travel orders on their person and present those upon contact with law enforcement, military or civilian.

[greg72982]

The point is... hand both over.

Just giving the military ID by itself says to the cop, "You don't need my license because you're not going to do anything anyway because I'm military." NOT a good attitude to have.

-Citicop.

Exactly. If you want to hand me the military ID also I don't care. Just give me the three things I ask for first. Then you can explain about the license issue as you hand it all to me. Just don't ONLY give me the ID when I asked for license, registration, and proof of insurance.

[retdetsgt]

Back in those days, they were even required to carry any TDY or travel orders on their person and present those upon contact with law enforcement, military or civilian.

In the 60's, we were required to carry orders or leave papers, but we weren't required to show them to civilian LE as far as I know. I was never asked for them by civilian police. But as I think I said, every major airport had MP's, SP's and (yeah, this dates me) Air Police. They were usually constantly checking all military personnel traveling for orders. Seemed kind of dumb to me at the time, if I was going AWOL, I sure wouldn't have been wearing a uniform.

We also had to carry orders for our ribbons. When a bunch of us came back with our CIB's and dispersed to various airports, I noticed a number of my enlisted counterparts being asked for their orders authorizing them along with other combat related ribbons. I wasn't hassled, but a lot of them were.

[Cat_Doc]

I'm pretty sure the TDY and travel orders (leave) were required to be shown to civilian police because of the AWOL issue.

Do you remember at all, or have you heard from the even older old timers, about young men being asked to produce their selective service cards by civilian police? I was listening (knew better than to interject, just kept my mouth shut) when some old timers were talking about how useful a tool it was.

[MikeG]

we were required to carry orders or leave papers

Are you sure? I thought they called it "papyrus" back then.

[Cat_Doc]

I have a really cool birthday present for you, Mike.

[retdetsgt]

Do you remember at all, or have you heard from the even older old timers, about young men being asked to produce their selective service cards by civilian police? I was listening (knew better than to interject, just kept my mouth shut) when some old timers were talking about how useful a tool it was.

I don't know what they could have done about it if you didn't produce it. The law was that you had to register, not carry the card. It was a federal thing, locals had no jurisdiction with it anyway. Even with AWOL's, all they could do was contact the military and see if you were AWOL. As a rule, civilian police pretty much left us alone. Only MP's, etc. ever bothered us.

Jeez, I can't imagine having to answer to every podunk cop or deputy over things like that.

I just looked at my old card (yeah, I still have it) and it says nothing about having to produce it. It just verifies that I registered and gave my draft status.

[Smokin04]

Seems things have certainly changed.

When I was LE on a SAC base in the mid 70's any military personnel stopped on base were required to hand you their ID card and driver's license. Even other branches would automatically present their military ID.

Back in those days, they were even required to carry any TDY or travel orders on their person and present those upon contact with law enforcement, military or civilian.

What I meant is that people still only hand me a military or dependent ID when i ask them for DL, reg, ins...part of the reason is if the base agencies are doing what they're supposed to be doing, then there would be no individuals on base with expired registration/insurance...and all we would need to see is the license and mil ID. It's just civilians can't be trusted anymore which is why we scrutinize everyone we stop.

[MikeG]

I have a really cool birthday present for you, Mike.

I was driving by a prison yesterday that was next to a sheriff's office and I didn't see any presents. It wasn't 3 hots and a cot was it?

[retdetsgt]

What I meant is that people still only hand me a military or dependent ID when i ask them for DL, reg, ins...part of the reason is if the base agencies are doing what they're supposed to be doing, then there would be no individuals on base with expired registration/insurance...and all we would need to see is the license and mil ID. It's just civilians can't be trusted anymore which is why we scrutinize everyone we stop.

When my daughter was in the Navy, we visited her in on the Naval base at Ventura, CA. There were civilian guards at the gate who made me produce license and proof of insurance before I could even go on the base. This was not long after 9-11 and they were jacking everybody up.

I have to admit, the civilians looked more like rent a cops than anything else. I would have been more comfortable with even young master at arms......

[Aussie George]

At my Army graduation I clearly recall telling my mother over and over again to slow down on base....just before she got pulled over by the MP's. She was only a little over. ;)

She was very embarrassed and they had no power to punish her on base anyway.


We also had a young airman from the local air base who decided after buying a brand new flash sports car, to do a big burnout, lose control and run off the road (ironically hitting a small wall that forms part of the entrance to the local court house). It was all captured on a CCTV.

After the initial Police investigation, and liaison with the young man's OC, it was decided that the Air Force would handle the discipline and Police would leave him alone. The officers involved knew that he was going to get a decent reaming from the Air Force and started to feel sorry for him. His OC would have dealt with it a lot harsher than our weak as p1ss courts.