Responses
Daryl: I can understand where both sides are coming from. Officers hand a variety of calls while they are working, and can maintain an air of professionalism that may even come off as cold while they are responding to a victim. Moreover, some officers are unprofessional, and have a God complex, allowing their personal views to dictate how they handle a call. To a victim, however, it is always personal. An officer, depending on how long they have been working that night or throughout their entire careers, may have seen hundreds of domestic abuse calls and may be a little jaded, or have defense mechanisms set in place so they do not become too attached to the situation in order to continue doing their job while on shift. The victim who made the call will obviously be more rattled and attached to the situation. Somebody who is emotional and rattled like this may not be thinking clearly and may not want to hear whatever lawful reason the officer brings to the situation. For instance, if not physical altercation was had and the officer simply asks if the verbally aggressive individual can leave, the victim may become emotional or angry because they are not being taken to jail. Having seen aggressive individual being taken to jail on television, they may have assumed this would happen, but it is an officer’s job to ell and enforce the law. It’s difficult to do this in many situations, of course, but more empathy could be had.
Michael: While I am not by any means attempting to advise a person on how to commit a crime, it is clear if officers are searching random cars and a criminal leaves contraband out in plain sight, they are asking to be caught. One might even say they deserve to be caught. The Plain-Sight Doctrine advises all individuals who know of it to basically hide their contraband because though an officer is allowed to search your home or car based on the circumstances, and without a warrant, it is likely they are looking for a certain set of evidence. Therefore, if your contraband is unrelated, they will not notice unless it is in plain sight. To leave it out in such a manner is seemingly sloppy. Some argue officers should not be able to search a car or home without a warrant, no matter what, but there are certain situations wherein it is necessary, as you have mentioned, to ensure the safety of those around us.
