If your brother is a police officer and sees how you smoke weed, does he have to arrest you, or is there a rule that says if it’s in the family, you can overlook it?
Prosecution begins on the street, and it’s always at the officer’s discretion whether to arrest.Few things annoy judges, prosecutors, and public defenders more than a cop arresting someone for the pettiest of offenses. Seriously, go ahead and try your best to get a jaywalking ticket in most municipalities.Things I’ve seen massive attorney/judge eyerolls over:A DUI in a rowboat;A 19-year-old who mistakenly drank alcoholic punch at a party, blew a 0.01% BAC and got arrested for minor consuming when the party got busted up minutes later*;A DUI for someone sitting behind the wheel of their car in their driveway with no clear intention of actually moving the vehicle (they turned on the car to roll up the windows due to an oncoming thunderstorm).All of these cases got dismissed with the prosecutor’s blessing because the cop should never have made the arrest in the first place.Were they all technically against the law? Yep. Could the officer have realized that the court didn’t need that traffic? Yep.So, no, cops don’t have to arrest when they witness a crime that doesn’t threaten others or result in damage or injury (and not even, necessarily, then).My guess in the scenario above: A reasonable cop says “hey, bro, I saw that. Don’t let me see it again.” And a reasonable brother complies.Now, if you happen to be a meth kingpin and your brother-in-law in the DEA finds out . . .*I know what you’re thinking. The girl actually was down to drink and came up with some cockamamie story about drinking something she didn’t actually know was alcoholic to fight the charge. Seriously, though, she was a straight arrow, and I absolutely believed the story after talking with her at length. According to her, once she tasted the beverage and thought it might be alcoholic, she asked the host about it, confirmed her suspicion, and requested something non-alcoholic. Even if you don’t buy it, a 19-year-old blowing a 0.01% is not worth public funds to prosecute or defend (I should probably establish at this point that I was working for a Public Defenders office).
Can a Police Officer have me set up someone to sell drugs to me?
The other night my friend was pulled over for driving like an idiot. There was me and two other people besides him in the car on a non school night. He right away saw our blood shot eyes and started asking where the weed was and what not and who had been drinking. The only person who was drinking was the driver who had about 4 shots of liquor about 3 hours before, but nonetheless he was underage so he got taken in. Long story short everyone got searched and the cop found my weed in my wallet but didnt arrest me or read me my rights, he told me he couldnt take me to jail because he didnt have enough room or some bullshit. But he told me if i want to make this weed go away, i could call him and set it up to have me buy a half ounce off of someone and he would arrest the person saying he is just observing the area. First off i want do i have to do this if i want to be cleared, and 2nd of all i told him to stay out of my wallet, so did he do an illegal search and that is why he is cutting me a break? thanks
Police Officer let me go on a dui for weed?
Okay here's the story, Now i'm not proud of this at all and I don't want anyone to lecture me so only real answers please. Basically I use to be a stoner but i stopped smoking weed for 6 months.. but it was my best friends birthday and he insisted we should smoke so I picked up 2 blunts of some really potent weed. So we smoked it and chilled in a driveway of one of my other friends. Anyway it was about an hour after we smoked but we were still both very high but we got paranoid about sitting in the driveway so i decided i'll drive out since it's a country-type setting. Anyway I'm driving i can barely see anything cuz first off it was very foggy and I was just so high i was just judging by the lines on the road to drive. But then i was trying to find a road to go up, and we missed it so i had to turn around so i go to turn around and turn back on the road.. as im driving on the road i look over and realize that I'm driving on the side of the road (The side where you pull over) So i go to get back in the lane and i see flashing lights, pull over and the cop comes over asks a bunch of questions and asks if we've had a drink I said no, he said no i was trying to be calm came up with a story about where we were going.. Anyway long story short: The cop takes our licenses, comes back and says we're all set we can leave. I don't know how he let us off but God bless that officer because it would have ruined my life and i will never smoke, Do you guys have ideas how he let us go?
Why did the cop not arrest me and let me go from a DUI?
one of two thins. either they're lot was full or the jail was your lucky
Do American police officers always have discretion as to whether to make an arrest, or in certain situations are they legally required to make an arrest?
As others have noted, in most situations law enforcement officers have discretion on whether or not to make an arrest. Whether or not they have discretion is not so much based on the seriousness of the crime as on how the governing statute is worded.Most states have enacted legislation to compel arrests in domestic violence (DV) situations where the officer has probable cause to believe that a domestic violence offense has occurred, and there is a present ability to arrest the primary aggressor. This came from what amounted to a tradition of not making arrests in these situations, even when the offense was aggravated. The theory is that arresting the primary aggressor and taking them out of the situation for a while (many jurisdictions require people arrested for domestic violence to be held in jail for 12-72 hours before they are eligible for bail and release) to "break the cycle of violence." Not everyone agrees that this works the way it's intended, but the threat of having to spend a night or two in jail, no matter what, is certainly a deterrent to people inclined to use physical force against their family members or partners.In every state of which I am aware, there is an exception that allows for an officer not to make a DV arrest if there is a compelling reason to do so. The compelling reason has to be documented in the officer's report, which will almost certainly be examined very closely by the officer's superiors and the community.Officers are seldom required by statute to make arrests for more serious crimes, such as robbery, rape and murder. Obviously, an officer who has the opportunity to make such an arrest and doesn't make at least a real effort to do so should probably consider another line of work, and will almost certainly be encouraged to do so.There are a few surprises in the statutes. One on the Nevada books is CRIMES AGAINST PUBLIC HEALTH AND SAFETY NRS 202.280 Discharging firearm in or upon public streets or in places of public resort; throwing deadly missiles; duties of civil, military and peace officers; penalties. That one makes it a gross misdemeanor (about 2X the punishment of a standard misdemeanor) for any peace officer to neglect to enforce this statute affirmatively.
Can you be arrested for your car smelling like weed?
Can you be arrested for your car smelling like weed?In short, no.The smell of weed forms what is known as “reasonable suspicion” to search the car for weed. He does not need your permission to search your car. The smell forms an exception to the 4th Amendment, called the “plain smell” exemption, which is patterned after the “plain sight” exemption.He can search your car, and he does not have to be gentle. He can call in a drug-sniffing dog to assist with the search.But if he does not find any weed in the car, you cannot be arrested because your car smells like weed. You actually have to be in possession of weed in order to be arrested for possession of weed.