The Right Way To Do It.

Received this in an email. I don't know what was justifying this contact, whether it was dispatched, or on site initiated. Regardless of what ever CA law says about on-view OC being reasonable grounds to stop and check the weapon's unloaded status, this officer is a model of professionalism. He told the citizen he would be recovering the weapon to check it, and returned it and went about his business. No different than a Terry frisk for a lawfully carried knife.

Once he ascertained the gun was being carried in a legal manner, the detention ended and the contact became essentially consensual. Hence why he didn't press the guy for his name. He probably could have made the argument that he could have pressed more for the name since the contact started off as a detention, but he made the right choice not to. The nature of the very situation necessitates that the officer makes the contact safe first by checking the weapon. Once the weapon is safe in this case, the reasonable suspicion ceases to exist and therefore the contact has to change gears. An interesting conundrum.

He wasn't heavy handed and remained polite and even friendly. In contrast, I think it's the citizen here who comes off as an arse to an officer who is clearly conscientious and protective of the citizen's 2A rights. I understand not wanting to ID yourself to prove a point. The same point could have been made by saying "Am I free to go? Can I walk away?" By all indications, the cop would have let him and would have told him so. At that point, he could have returned the goodwill and said "Ok, as long as this is a consensual encounter, my full name is Joe shite the Rag Bag."

The poster smacks of being put off by the apparent professionalism and constitutional knowledge of the officer, and doesn't want to tell the officer and the world who he is, even though he's clearly trying to join the Crusade. I think he even explains his refusal by saying, "There's not a Stop and ID STATURE." LMAO The cop, OTOH, knows his job, knows his limitations, and knows how to work within those limitations. He knows he's in the right, and is downright proud to give his name and badge number, because he knows he's bringing credit on his agency and is scoring one back for the good guys. He was a dick, without being a dick, about the YouTube thing too. Just seemed to make the citizen more irritated. "I know you're fishing. I served for 22 years to protect your right to fish. But fish somewhere else because you ain't catching your dinner here, a-hole." Love it. I'm a firm believer that for every one case of the red arse shown in videos like the Canton incident, there are 100+ videos of cops like this handling things absolutely perfect. It shouldn't surprise anyone that we don't see them simply because they probably get deleted right away.

Oceanside PD Open Carry Encounter

An ongoing discussion on a LEO board with some LA officers included here:

LEO Board Discussion