There was an incident here a couple of years ago with an acquaintance of mine where a plainclothes process server from the sheriff's office civil division pulled up to a private residence in a rural area with no other homes nearby and was greeted by the family dog. Nothing menacing initially, just barking and keeping a wary eye on the deputy as he exited the car and proceeded to the door. However, once he approached the front porch, the dog became more vocal and even though it was several feet away and not an immediate threat, the deputy was apparently frightened. The armed homeowner came out about that time and saw the deputy reaching for the gun on his hip but did not see any type of badge or other identification on the deputy, so he told him, "if you pull that gun, I'm shooting you". The homeowner was subsequently arrested for threatening the deputy but it was thrown out in open court. The judge admonished the deputy publicly and ordered him to go through additional training on how to deal with such incidents and now the Sheriff has the servers using semi marked cars and wearing polo shirts with a large identifiable embroidered star for their uniforms. Not surprisingly, many people openly agreed with the homeowner's actions in the local newspaper's online comments.
