Police One by Val Van Brocklin 6/11/2020
Should conviction of an off-duty officer for displaying his service weapon chill police from responding to dangerous situations?
Not if they act like a peace officer
Imagine you – a cop – are hunting with your family on public hunting grounds when another hunter shoots in your direction. Despite your attempt to alert the shooter to your presence, two more rounds are fired. In addition to your shotgun, you also have your service weapon.
What do you do?
This is a real case. Officer Lance Bess ended up convicted of a misdemeanor crime of “threatening with or using a dangerous weapon in a fight or quarrel,†after he confronted the hunting group from which the shots were fired with his service weapon drawn and held at his side.
I first read about the case on
PoliceOne, where Paul Cassell, a University of Utah law professor and former federal judge, was quoted,
This is an extremely important case that presents serious issues about how off-duty law enforcement officers can respond when they believe a crime is being committed."
It was a brief article with few facts surrounding the actual incident.
The Utah Supreme Court had accepted the case on appeal. I flagged it to review when the decision came down to see if it ended up having serious implications for armed off duty officers.
More:
https://www.policeone.com/legal/articles/should-conviction-of-an-off-duty-officer-for-displaying-his-service-weapon-chill-police-from-responding-to-dangerous-situations-RuNM78pSxZ3tWvmQ/
