Is Law Enforcement subject to the same laws which they enforce?

Raymond: Is Law Enforcement subject to the same laws which they enforce?
Are there too many cases of leniency for those officials whom themselves have broken the law? Do they expect citizens to obey laws that they themselves will not be held accountable for?
Citicop thanks for your input. I believe that most officials agree with you, however, I think that conviction and sentencing are skewed.

Answers and Views:

Answer by David
Off duty yes they are.On duty no they are not they are exempt from most laws except the really big ones wich are obvious no no’s.

Answer by Citicop
Almost always yes.

There are exceptions (like being able to run a red light with your lights and sired on while en route to an emergency) but other than those kinds of cases, the law applies to everyone.

Answer by Mr.
Not really….

For example….

3 police officers were in a bar fight in my town recently….two people were injured, one was a cop.

Instead of getting arrested, they were put on administrative leave, WITH PAY…. pending an investigation…the progress of which will not be released to the public.

Now if that were you or me…. we would be in jail right now, waiting for first appearance before a judge.

Answer by BOONDOCK SAINT
Not really. I agree with “Mr.” on that. Sounds like he lives in Chi-Town where they constantly have DUI officers driving home and other places and crashing or getting pulled over and most are still on the job. One recently killed a kid cuz he was DUI. SO I really don’t think so. I have also been threatend by Police where I live (Valpo area in IN) and nothing was ever really followed up. So no.

Answer by rickinnocal
Legally, yes they are.

The reality, though, is that unless for some reason the media gets seriously involved, cops don’t arrest cops.

Here is a truly obscene example. Russ Perdock, the Chief Deputy of the Lake County Sheriffs department recently killed a woman. He was screaming across the lake (off duty) in the pitch dark at around 50 miles an hour in a boat whose raised bow didn’t let him see directly in front at high speed, and he smashed into a sailing boat, from behind, that was doing about 2 miles an hour. The man who was sitting at the helm of the sailboat was found to have a BAC of 0.09% – just 0.01% above the legal limit. Despite the fact that there was NOTHING he could have done had he been stone-cold sober and had the reflexes of a cat, the sheriffs are charging HIM with the murder of his passenger. What was Chief Deputy Perdocks BAC? We’ll never know. The investigating officer was setting up to give him a test, when one of the Lt’s saw what was going on, and ordered the officer NOT to test their mutual boss.

Here is the latest news on the case….

Richard

Answer by froghead
Have you ever taken a pen at work? then you have broken the law and we should have you arrested.

People expense dinners as business when they are nothing more than two guys having a meal and or drinks

Every job has perks and everyone takes advantage of those perks, police are no different.

When I worked for the Sheriff’s Department if I got pulled over for speeding I showed my star and was let off. A perk of working in a job where I might be shot and took crap from my customers everyday. Is it fair that I got out of the ticket? No, but life isn’t fair and the sooner you get that the sooner you will be happy.

I know heavy equipment operators who take dirt from job sites for friends and family. People who use work cars for personal use, hell people look at porn while on the clock. It is all perks.

If a law enforcement officer commits a real crime they are held accountable, the difference is that in the actions of doing their duty there is a lot of times a thin line between being on the side of the law and going over the line and sometimes it is not law but public opinion or politics that determines it.

Take a look at the two border patrol agents who spent so much time in prison for shooting a drug smuggler while doing their job. the drug smuggler got immunity for testifying against them. the reason they were charged is because they didn’t report it because they didnt think they hit him not because they shot him. so they let a know drug smuggler who was caught with millions in drugs go so they could put two law enforcement people away for doing their job.

I worked as a sheriff’s deputy for 5 years and I had to put up with people filing false law suits against me at least 2 times a month. I had one guy who decided he wanted to sue me for police brutality even though he had never been touched. He decided to lower his head and run into a cinder block wall then a week latter I was called into the sheriff’s office with his lawyer while they tried to bilk us out of money. his mistake was that he waited until he was at the jail to do it and we had video of him hurting himself which refuted his claim that I beat him while cuffed.

When you put up with all of that crap. the perk of being able to go 15 mph over the limit doesn’t seem so big