Questions for LEO's only

[mlk18]

What kind of gun is that? Do you use special bullets? Did you have to get tased? Did it hurt? Why don't you carry pepper spray? Have you ever shot anyone? Has anyone ever shot you? Do you wear a "bullet proof vest"? How fast does you car go? How much training does it take to become a police officer? How bright is your flashlight?

Just in case you haven't had any school groups tour your agency lately.

We had 5 groups come through last week and I am pretty sure each group asked the exact same questions. You could almost pick out the future felons.

[mlk18]

Oops, I see there are two LEO groups. Might need to move this to the other one. Thanks mods!

[dx_caliber]

5 hours ago, mlk18 said:

What kind of gun is that? Do you use special bullets? Did you have to get tased? Did it hurt? Why don't you carry pepper spray? Have you ever shot anyone? Has anyone ever shot you? Do you wear a "bullet proof vest"? How fast does you car go? How much training does it take to become a police officer? How bright is your flashlight?

Just in case you haven't had any school groups tour your agency lately.

We had 5 groups come through last week and I am pretty sure each group asked the exact same questions. You could almost pick out the future felons.

That's kind of a legit one, though.

[Maccabeus]

I switched careers 20 years ago and I still get asked most of those questions by grown adults if they find out about my first career. Ugh!

[mlk18]

3 hours ago, dx_caliber said:

That's kind of a legit one, though.

Pepper spray is about as effective against an aggressive person or someone doped up as singing a nice show tune and tap dancing for them. Plus Tasers take up a lot of duty belt real-estate and a Taser is 95% more effective than OC.

[dx_caliber]

22 minutes ago, mlk18 said:

Pepper spray is about as effective against an aggressive person or someone doped up as singing a nice show tune and tap dancing for them. Plus Tasers take up a lot of duty belt real-estate and a Taser is 95% more effective than OC.

Respectfully disagree.  Against some, sure, and I generally don't like to use it, but I've seen it completely melt some dudes.  I spent 4 years in a state prison, a good chunk in confinement where we didn't have tasers, so I've seen and used OC more than what a patrol officer probably would (at least in my experience working as both).  It has a place and I could see someone not affiliated with this field being genuinely curious why you don't have it.  The rest of the inquiries are nonsense for sure.

Edited July 3, 2018 by dx_caliber
Grammar

[mlk18]

Just now, dx_caliber said:

Respectfully disagree.  Against some, sure, and I generally don't like to use it, but I've seen it completely melt some dudes.  I spent 4 years in a state prison, a good chunk in confinement where we didn't have tasers, so I've seen and used OC used more than what a patrol officer probably would (at least in my experience working as both).  It has a place and I could see someone not affiliated with this field being genuinely curious why you don't have it.  The rest of the inquiries are nonsense for sure.

Interesting. I have used it about 25 times on the streets and about 20 of those times it resulted in a jujitsu style ground fight matching and most of the time the baton had to come out to finish the job. Only seemed to make the situation more tumultuous. Of course then both of us got to be decontaminated from the stuff along with everyone else in the area. The only time I have ever seen it work well was a passive aggressive and completely sober office worker who refused to leaved after his employment was terminated. My agency stopped carrying it the second we bought Tasers and we couldn't be happier. Officer injuries went down, suspect injuries went down, use of impact weapon went down, use of force complains went way down, and so on. The only people who still carry OC around here are security guards and highway patrol.

[dx_caliber]

11 minutes ago, mlk18 said:

Interesting. I have used it about 25 times on the streets and about 20 of those times it resulted in a jujitsu style ground fight matching and most of the time the baton had to come out to finish the job. Only seemed to make the situation more tumultuous. Of course then both of us got to be decontaminated from the stuff along with everyone else in the area. The only time I have ever seen it work well was a passive aggressive and completely sober office worker who refused to leaved after his employment was terminated. My agency stopped carrying it the second we bought Tasers and we couldn't be happier. Officer injuries went down, suspect injuries went down, use of impact weapon went down, use of force complains went way down, and so on. The only people who still carry OC around here are security guards and highway patrol.

I generally don't like to use it, but I've seen enough of those intermediary situations where I'm glad it's a tool we had.  Better to have and not need than need and not have kind of deal.  OC and Taser/Baton are different levels on our use of force matrix so it bridges the gap between when those tools can be used.  I have a 32" waist so being able to drop something would be nice.  Decon for us is a wet wipe wipe-down.  I always thought it comical that, while working in the prison, when we sprayed an inmate we had to get them cleared through medical and into a decontamination shower within 20 minutes of the use of force, but any affected staff pretty much had to fend for themselves and were sent back to their post . 

[Exit Plan]

I don't care for all the mucus that. O.C. causes to erupt out of the most unpleasant people

[The Hawk]

I retired in 2008. I remember when we first qualified with pepper spray. I used it a few times to take the fight out of folks I was arresting. It usually worked, but not always. I used it on dogs several times with very good results. A quick burst in front of the dog would send them running the other way.

[Fyrtwuck]

On 7/2/2018 at 10:15 PM, mlk18 said:

What kind of gun is that?      Glock 21 .45 caliber semi-automatic.

Do you use special bullets?   No, just the hollow points the department issues.

Did you have to get tased?   No, I retired before they were issued.

Did it hurt?    See above.

Why don't you carry pepper spray?   I did use pepper spray. 

Have you ever shot anyone?   Yes.

Has anyone ever shot you?  No, I shot them first.

Do you wear a "bullet proof vest"?   When I could afford to buy one I did. 

How fast does you car go?  I’ve had it up 115.

How much training does it take to become a police officer?  My academy was 8 1/2 weeks. 

How bright is your flashlight?  1k lumens. It will fry your eyeballs if you look into it.

 

Just in case you haven't had any school groups tour your agency lately.

We had 5 groups come through last week and I am pretty sure each group asked the exact same questions. You could almost pick out the future felons.

 

Edited July 25, 2018 by Fyrtwuck