Well This Sucks......... Officers Charged For Letting Drunk Go

[crescentstar69]

WRGT-TV FOX 45 News :: News - Local News


Officers were criminally charged after dropping a drunk off at a fast food restaurant, thinking he was calling a friend to pick him up. He later walked into traffic, and was killed.


Yes, he was their responsibility, but with many jails full and not accepting minor misdemeanors, it makes it hard. Discuss.

 

[FireEMSPolice]

WRGT-TV FOX 45 News :: News - Local News

Officers were criminally charged after dropping a drunk off at a fast food restaurant, thinking he was calling a friend to pick him up. He later walked into traffic, and was killed.


Yes, he was their responsibility, but with many jails full and not accepting minor misdemeanors, it makes it hard. Discuss.

This is really local to me and know of the Deputy's involved


WSYX ABC6 On Your Side - Columbus Ohio News :: News - Top Stories - Officers Charged After Releasing Man Later Struck and Killed


I dont think this is going to end well. The link below has dash cam footage


New Dash Cam Analysis Shows Possible Misconduct By Deputies, Trooper | WBNS-10TV Columbus, Ohio


Why was he here illegally?

 

[crescentstar69]

No win situation. The video will probably sink them, but honestly, I have had this same situation dozens of times. You roll up on a drunk, and don't have time to babysit or make the arrest. 99.9 times out of 100 the idiot realizes he is getting a break, and calls for a ride. Factor in the pressure to cite and release due to jail overcrowding and the expense of incarcerating misdemeanors, and you can see why they wouldn't necessarily arrest.


The public will NEVER understand, but I have worked shifts where I would have needed a school bus to transport every drunk I dealt with. Besides, if I took 2 hours to arrest and transport, that meant my partners were working without backup because we were so short staffed.


Paying out on a civil suit is one thing, but criminal charges are outrageous. I wish them luck. They will need it.

 

[JohnMarcson]

Intoxicated people are a terrible legal situation..... there is no winning sometimes. I hate it when people have been drinking and don't want to go to the ER.

 

[foxtrot5]

NJ has the ATRA (alcohol treatment rehabilitation act) law (S1969) which essentially says that anyone drunk in public and not also comitting a misdemeanor and/or felony may be transported by ambulance to the local approproiate emergency care facility. My experience is that it gets applied to any drunk who the officer doesn't want to put in the back of the cruiser for one reason or another.

 

[Station 3]

I hate dealing with DWIs my chief of police has a BONER for STATS he always wants us to do DWIs but i rather just call TX DPS and let them deal with them since im the only officer on patrol for my city and i dont have the time or resources to baby sit a drunk for 3 hours. If DPS does not show up i pop them for PI which will take me about 45 min to do or last resort call someone to pick them up CITE and release and have them sign responsability.


When i do run into a DWI i detain for DPS and hand them over any evidence i have "dash cam" footage "affidavit" what ever they want. My chief then usually yells at me the next morning and moans and bitches about why i did not take the arrest. But i have made up my mind and he is not going to make me change my ways.


These officers fucked up but it can easiy happen to any of us that knows what a hassal is it to baby sit a drunk for hours.

 

[ryan81986]

A drunk driving illegal?





Do they not have protective custody there? Just throw him in a cell until he's sober enough to go home on his own?

 

[Fluffy126577]

Honestly, this is a very sad situation for everyone. The first thing I learned when I went through the DWI section of the academy was that person you come into contact with is your responsibility from start to finish. Even if the person had a residence here, and they dropped him off at the house, and the same event happened... The outcome as we have it now would, in my opinion, would still be the same. I agree the dash cam footage will sink them and probably one of the major reasons charges were brought up against them.


I do not wish any ill-will on anyone in public safety. I agree with John, intoxicated subjects are one of the most difficult to deal with. But just like we can not leave an intoxicated subject on their own, these officers should have taken more steps to preserve life. Yes he was illegal, yes he was intoxicated, yes he was driving illegally. The sheer fact that he was intoxicated, involved in a crash (on a highway no less), and the fact that he was an undocumented alien should have sparked that the officers should have done more than just "drop him off at the taco bell" because they figured they figured "they'll have someone there to interpret."


Just a very sad situation all around.


EDIT -


Yes I know I will get flamed for my point of view. So I will add, I know everyone is overworked, everyone is on a more stringent budget, everyone is tired at the end of the shift and no one wants to deal with that "one last patient" who might be having "chest pain" that "one last drunk" because you have dealt with them the entire night. But our job is to make sure everyone is safe. If we don't provide the appropriate care to a patient, and that patient dies, we would be in the same boat as these officers not taking care of an undocumented immigrant, driving illegally, and intoxicated that was just involved in a traffic collision.


Also, why didn't they think to call a medic?? I think in general they should have been able to have them transport to the hospital... EVEN if they were in protective custody and then released them there. I know hindsight is 20/20 and we all make bad choices in our career... But in my honest opinion, from the dash cam footage, this should and could have been avoided.

 

[ff168577]

Most of the cop's in my area, will hold him(no detained, just for his safety) till somebody comes and picks him up, or they will just drive him home(with the supervisiors permission.)

 

[FireEMSPolice]

A drunk driving illegal?

View attachment 40685


Do they not have protective custody there? Just throw him in a cell until he's sober enough to go home on his own?

Its officer discretion here. Yes, they can throw you in the cell but they dont have to. Everyone was just eager to go home as it was shift change.

 

[rwo978]

Imagine that, another anti-LEO OH incident....

 

[mcpd2025]

I couldn't get the article to open to read it. In my little corner of the world, it is not against the law to be drunk in public. If I happen across you and you are impaired, there is nothing that I can do to you, unless you appear to be so drunk that you cannot take care of yourself, in which case you get medical attention. You can be a .30 and if you stumble and mumble fine, you get to stumble about your business. We don't have drunk tanks and like I said before, no charge for PI.


As far as a DUI is concerned, once you have been cited and released, I am no longer legally able to detain you, unless you become a medical condition. Our directives state that anyone over a .30 (***IF*** they elect to provide a sample) needs to be cleared by fireboard. If you don't blow, or if you check out medically, you walk out the front door of our station. I can request you call someone to pick you up, I can request that you stand by until someone shows up... but I cannot force it.


Thankfully in 10 years and around 300 DUI arrests I have never had someone die immediately there after. I'm sure some blood sucking attorney would file suit one way or the other, but the 4th amendment prevents me from forcing anyone to do anything unless they are under arrest or it is a medically neccessity. Unless there is a state law requiring arrest for DUI or public intoxication, or unless the attorney can prove that the officers should have known that failure to arrest (or otherwise secure) this guy would immediately lead to his death... this is another toothless lawsuit that will probably get settled out of court cause its cheaper than fighting it.


Now, stupid and RECORDED racist comments are another issue. I'm sure that they can find a sympathetic jury somewhere who might find that this a civil rights violation simply because of the ignorant comments the officers allegedly made.

 

[emtanderson51]

A prime example why the dash cam should be disconnected at the beginning of each shift....They are not allowed in MA....

 

[mcpd2025]

A prime example why the dash cam should be disconnected at the beginning of each shift....They are not allowed in MA....

Negative... I love my dash cam. This is a prime example of why every officer should do his job correctly, within the law and within department SOP's. When you do that, the camera catches you doing your job the right way. FYI, I volunteered for the camera. It has helped me out with stupid courtesy complaints and it makes court SOOOOOOOOOO much easier!

 

[car54]

Negative... I love my dash cam. This is a prime example of why every officer should do his job correctly, within the law and within department SOP's. When you do that, the camera catches you doing your job the right way. FYI, I volunteered for the camera. It has helped me out with stupid courtesy complaints and it makes court SOOOOOOOOOO much easier!

I agree the dash cam stays and officers do there jobs. Sorry about their jam but if they would have at least taken him in and the jail released him because of it being full then the liability would've been off of the officers involved. Anyways here where I'm from no city jail only county and they're always full so the city officers only choice is cite and release to the local hospital or to responsible party. Come to think about it here not to long ago a couple of officers got fired over taking a drunk local official home instead of jail.

 

[crescentstar69]

Dash cams are very effective, you just have to remember it is on, and you are the star of the show. I swore under my breath once when we first got them. The asshat I had pulled over was in his car and I was in mine. Of course, that tape got played in court. The judge laughed out loud, and later told me in private that he agreed, the guy WAS acting like a, well, nevermind.


Point is, it never happened again! The good outweighs the bad, in my opinion. I have seen dash cams save careers.

 

[calebsheltonmed23]

Dash cams can either make or break somebody. Do your job correctly, and it usually plays in your favor. A lot of agencies around here only have the dash cams programmed to come on when the pursuit switch is either engaged or goes to level 3 (pursuit). My current dept. has web cams hooked up to toughbooks, and that's it. They are not required to be turned on ever...and some cars don't have them. But it can save a career if accusations are made, and the camera shows different. The camera does not lie.


And regarding the incident: the subject should not have been dropped off if there was an collision. In MO, that's another charge... Especially with all the other charges that could have charged, with him being here unlawfully...I would detained him on a possible ICE hold at the least.


****I could not open the link, so I'm basing my comment off of other comments made in this thread****

 

[Bonanno]

In NJ if arrested for DUI, mandatory hold for a predetermined time decided by what was blown on Alcotest, or someone picks you up and signs for you and they are responsible 100% for that subject.