Thread: Traffic Stop
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Old 04-24-2013, 09:30 PM
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brokenprism brokenprism is offline
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Quote:
Originally Posted by MaximumLawman View Post
There are state statutes in some states that grant officers the authority to temporarily seize legally-carried guns during routine police encounters with CPL holders, ie. encounters where the police have no reasonable belief that the subject is dangerous. In the absence of such a statute, or case law, I can't see any reason to seize the gun. There is no "officer safety exception" to the search warrant rule or 4th amendment. I see cops do constitutionally questionable things all the time "for officer safety". Unless you have a reason to believe someone is armed AND dangerous, you can't start disarming someone "for officer safety". Nor can you handcuff them "for your safety and mine" without a valid reason. Taking a gun away from someone is a seizure. To seize something you need more than "the guise of officer safety".
I respect the difficulties of the job cops do, but I'm with you on this.

The earlier post about the State Trooper doing the driver a favor by asking instead of telling left a little acid in my craw. What's the harm? Civility suffered severely. We're all citizen equals -- some of us empower others of us to do a unique job, but I think the badge starts feeling like a cape on some cops, hence my use of the Beverly Hills quote.

We've come a long way from neighborhood cops in blue to legions of troopers, with thigh rigs and tinted visors, in black. Some day it's going to be important that we can tell a cop from a DHS soldier. At least I hope it will be important.
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