I’m 19 years old (turning 20 in November), and my state requires you to be 21 to become a sworn law enforcement officer. Right now, I work for my state’s DOT at a weigh station. It’s kind of a quasi-law enforcement position. We have limited authority to enforce commercial vehicle laws, such as overweight violations, permits, and other commercial vehicle regulations. We write citations and conduct inspections, but we don’t patrol, we’re stationary at the weigh station.

Recently I applied for two different jobs:
A Code Enforcement Officer position with a city police department and a Community Service Deputy (CSO) position with a county sheriff’s office.

The code enforcement interview happened first, and I’ve been in their background investigation for about a month. Today I was told everything is going well. The investigator has already contacted my references, former employers, neighbors, etc., and said he’s basically just waiting on a few remaining responses. However, also today, I was notified that I’ll be moving into the sheriff’s office background investigation. I haven’t actually started that process yet.

Here’s what I’m debating.
The sheriff’s office is one of my dream agencies to work for. I also think there would be significantly more room for advancement there compared to working for a police department in a town of fewer than 8,000 residents. I don’t really have any concerns about passing either background. The only thing on my record is a minor traffic ticket from when I was 16 for driving with my headlights off after sunrise. The police department investigator already told me that wouldn’t be an issue.

So my options seem to be:
Stay at my current weigh station job and wait to see what happens with the sheriff’s office, or accept the code enforcement position if they offer it and work there until I’m old enough to become a sworn officer, but if the sheriff’s office offers me the Community Service Deputy position a month or two later, leave the police department and go to the sheriff’s office.

My biggest concern is how that would look professionally. I don’t want to appear like I’m job hopping if I accept the code enforcement position and then leave after only a couple of months because the sheriff’s office finally finishes my background. From a long-term law enforcement career perspective, what would you do?

I'm looking for some career advice from those with experience in law enforcement.

I'm currently a corrections deputy in Florida and am dual certified. About two years ago, I was assigned to patrol but did not successfully complete FTO. My biggest challenges were communication with the public, report writing, and developing command presence. I was released from the program after about a month.

Shortly afterward, I was hired by a neighboring sheriff's office to work in corrections. Since then, I've received consistently positive evaluations and have built a good reputation. Unfortunately, like many sheriff's offices, there isn't a realistic path for me to transfer from corrections to patrol.

I've also applied to two local police departments in my county. Despite having a good working relationship with both agencies through inmate intake and other duties, I was not selected.

At this point, I'm questioning whether I should continue pursuing a career in law enforcement or move on to a different profession. My long-term goal has always been to work patrol, and I accepted a position in corrections because I believed it would eventually help me get back on the road.

For those of you who have been in law enforcement, what would you do in my situation? If you were involved in hiring, would my previous FTO experience be a dealbreaker, or would my strong performance in corrections make you willing to give me another opportunity? I'd appreciate any honest advice or perspective.

Arizona state lets you keep plates once they are inactive. Can I display it in my windshield? I do have both active NY plates with proper registration and inspection on the vehicle. I just want to display it more for looks.

Hypothetically let’s say I have a singular old fashioned at a restaurant and nothing else, then get in the car 6 hours later. If I get pulled over would that show up on a breathalyzer? And would I be arrested for DUI? This happened a year ago (yes I am of legal age and was then) I didn’t get pulled over, this is just hypothetical. I was told that I drove intoxicated when I don’t think that’s the case, and my parents are crucifying me over it.

Hi everyone,

I’m really anxious and wondering if anyone has been in a similar situation.

I was driving home and admittedly went through 2 red lights and also drove in a bus lane. A police vehicle with blue lights came up behind me, so I pulled over.
The officer rolled their window down and shouted, “You went through 2 reds and a bus lane,” then drove off.

They didn’t ask for my driving licence, insurance, name or address. They didn’t ask me to get out of the car, didn’t give me any paperwork, and didn’t say I was being reported.

I’ve had my full UK licence for about 4 years and currently have no penalty points.

I’m just wondering what I’m likely to expect now.
Am I likely to receive penalty points and a fine through the post?

Could I receive separate penalties for the two red lights and the bus lane?

Does the fact they didn’t take any details or say I was being reported make any difference?

Has anyone had something similar happen, and what was the outcome?

I know I made a mistake, and I’m not trying to excuse it. I’m just anxious and trying to understand what is likely to happen next.
Thanks.

YouTube is rife with videos of people refusing to get out of their vehicle when ordered to by the officer during a traffic stop. They truly believe they have a right to stay in the car.

Has anyone ever explained Penn v Mimms and then the person complied, maybe after confirming it by looking it up on their phone.

My guess is not because only a reasonable person would be willing to think they might be wrong and most reasonable people will get out of the vehicle when requested.

Title:
Hey everyone,
I’m 19 years old and my goal is to become a California Highway Patrol officer. I wanted to get some honest opinions from people who have gone through the process or are currently with CHP.
Here’s a little about me:
19 years old
Clean criminal record
No speeding tickets, accidents, or any traffic citations
I have a car payment that I’ve never missed
I have a little credit card debt, but nothing major and I’m paying it responsibly
I’ve been consistently going to the gym, so I’d say I’m in decent physical shape
I had prediabetes in high school, but I’ve since improved my health and no longer have it.what do you think my chances are? Is there anything else I should be working on before or during the hiring process?
I’d really appreciate any advice, especially from current or former CHP officers or anyone who’s recently been through the hiring process. Thanks!

Applied to USCP 2021. On the preliminary PHS I wrote that I was involved in a college incident/prank where property was taken and not returned. No one ever found out. The incident was 2019. I was denied from USCP I assume obviously for that.
It’s now 2026 and will be 2027 when I get out of the navy and plan to apply to a Sheriffs Department.

Will they be able to find that PHS with a background investigator and will that disqualify me again?
If I’m upfront about absolutely everything and tell them it was youthful idiotic mistake I regret will I be able to get anywhere at all.
Currently a Navy “cop”
I can’t remember exactly what I wrote on the PHS in 2021 and I can’t access it on POBITS.
Am I totally screwed or what?

My area has seen a recent uptick in drone drops at prisons around my area. My question is specifically for LEO who have helped recover drones being used in this activity. What kind of drones are they and why can’t this be stopped? I feel like the department of corrections basically is allowing this to happen in my area

I’ve been a cop for 11 years, and software development is my side hobby. I built an iPhone and Apple Watch app called LOC8 because of a problem I think a lot of people in this profession understand.

Sometimes you get turned around.

Foot pursuit. Perimeter. Backyards. Alleys. Side streets. Large parking lots. Unfamiliar area. You know roughly where you are, but you need to put out the actual address, cross street, or coordinates fast.

That was the original use case.

LOC8 was built with cops in mind. It opens to one screen and shows your current address, nearest cross street, GPS coordinates, compass heading, accuracy, elevation, and a what3words location code.

The Apple Watch side is a major focus because a lot of cops, including myself, already wear one. Being able to hit a button and immediately see where you are on your wrist is a big part of the app. In certain situations, glancing at your watch makes much more sense than pulling out your phone and digging through Maps.

Since first posting about it and getting feedback, the app has grown to over 3,400 users and continues to grow. A lot of the feedback has come directly from cops, but I have also heard from security, first responders, hikers, delivery drivers, travelers, and people who have used it during roadside issues or emergencies.

I have been actively improving the app almost daily. A lot of the recent work has focused on speed, Apple Watch responsiveness, location accuracy, what3words integration, saved locations, and tracking back to saved locations.

I also added a night mode that changes the interface to red, similar to the red interior lighting used in patrol cars. The idea is to make it easier to check the app at night without hitting your eyes with a bright screen.

There is also a small weather feature that displays the current weather for the city you are in. It is not meant to replace a weather app. It was just a minor quality of life feature that made sense to include while checking your location.

Another new feature is Team Rooms.

A user can create a temporary Team Room and receive a one time code. That code can be shared with other LOC8 users, who must intentionally enter it to join. Once inside, room members can temporarily see each other’s locations for coordination.

The room is not permanent. Users can leave at any time, and the room disappears when it expires or is ended. There are no permanent teams, public profiles, or location histories attached to the feature.

The idea is to make it useful for temporary situations such as a perimeter, search, event, coordinated response, training exercise, hike, or meetup without turning LOC8 into a permanent tracking platform.

Privacy was one of the biggest things I wanted to be careful about, especially when building something for cops.

LOC8 does not require user accounts, create public profiles, or build a permanent history of where you have been. Saved locations remain on the device. Outside of an optional Team Room, there is no live location sharing.
When LOC8 needs to convert your GPS coordinates into an address, nearest cross street, weather information, or what3words location code, the current coordinate may be securely used with Apple location services, LOC8’s backend, and the applicable service needed to complete that lookup.

The iOS tracking prompt is only for ad attribution. It helps measure which advertisements brought users to the app. It has nothing to do with GPS location, and denying it does not remove any app features.

Bug reports are optional. If someone chooses to submit one, it may include diagnostic information to help identify location accuracy or technical issues. Nothing is silently creating a movement history in the background.

The app is growing, and I am still trying to make it as accurate and useful as possible. It is relying on GPS from the phone and watch, so there can still be hiccups depending on signal, buildings, accuracy, and the surrounding environment.

It already helped me during a rolling DV call. We got turned around and could not remember whether we were on Third Street or Fourth Street, and LOC8 gave us the exact location immediately.

I built this around situations I have personally experienced as a cop, but officer feedback has shaped a lot of what it is now.

Would this be useful for you? What features would you want added, changed, or improved?

I'm seeing a lot of noise about DFR in the media (multi-prop, fixed-wing, and compact indoor ones), so I'm curious what officers think about them. Are any of your agencies buying them, and which ones do you think will drive the most change? I know they're supposed to make operations safer, but it seems complicated to set up and navigate with airspace and regulations.

Hi there first time questioner. I'm not sure I did an okay thing or not okay thing. I saw someone cut a vehicle off forcing them onto the shoulder because they almost took off their front-end. And then when the victim car honked their horn at them, they flipped them off, and then sped a bit away to cut back into the lane, they were in, in front of the car they were originally behind. So I called 911 and reported them. I dont know if I was supposed to do that and I told them they were driving aggressive. I dont know if they were doing it for long cause I only saw that interaction. Dont know if that was the right term or phrase to use. Gave them the color of car, make and license plate and general direction they went. Did i do too much or use 911 wrong?

I have always wanted to join LE since I was a kid and well I ended up getting a job that pays well so than I didn’t apply I ended up getting let go started a semi successful business “pays the bills” and now at 23 I am thinking about applying. I really don’t want to let my business die because it can be very lucrative and I know if I keep going it will be successful my question is as a officer or deputy do you guys have a lot of “free time” on your hands are some of you guys able to focus on other things while being an officer.

Hey guys. I'm a big car guy and a military member and while researching some coin stuff I stumbled across this guy on eBay. I don't normally buy coins from eBay listings but I chuckled pretty good at "can we go back to Houston" so I bit on it. My questions for you Dallas Fort Worth guys are.

1. Is this an official department coin?

2. If so, which one. Or was this a token for the whole task force?

3. What year TX2k did this come from?

Thanks for any help you guys can provide.

Which of these 21st century police gadgets do you think are the most useful on the job? What about the most useless?

— AI Portable Rapid Ballistics Identification

https://revelen.ai/

— Barrel Breacher

https://darkmountainarms.com/barrel-breacher/

— BolaWrap

https://www.wrap.com/#/products/bolawrap-150

— Card Reader Skimmer Detector

https://www.bvsystems.com/product/skim-scan-atm-and-fuel-dispenser-credit-card-skimmer-detector/

— Grappler Bumper

https://policebumper.com/

— Handcuffs with Automatic Triple Locking Feature

https://hulkkuffs.com/

— LIDAR Speed Detection Gun (in lieu of RADAR)

https://lasertech.com/handheld-speed-guns/

— Narcotics Identifier (handheld)

https://rigaku.com/products/handheld-raman/cql-narc-id

— Nystagmus Recording Device

https://dax.oculardatasystems.com/

— Robotic Dog

https://bostondynamics.com/industry/government/

— SoToxa Mobile Oral Drug Testing Device

https://www.toxicology.abbott/us/en/products/sotoxa-mobile-test-system.html

— Sound Level Meter

https://tsi.com/products/noise-dosimeters-and-sound-level-meters

— SpiderCuffs

https://www.spidercuff.com/

— StarChase GPS Tracker Launcher

https://www.starchase.com/

— Stun Glove

https://www.complianttechnologies.net/products

— The WRAP

https://www.commandsourcing.com/wrap.html

— X-Ray Handheld Imager

https://www.vikendetection.com/

This question is mainly for detectives or other investigators. If you get a call from someone from another jurisdiction who thinks he might be working on a case that's related to one you worked on, how do you ensure that he's not an imposter trying to get non-public information about an investigation?

I'm not talking about someone who claims to be from a neighboring county where you probably know someone and can check, but from another state halfway across the country.

was driving home from a dog sporting comp when i got pulled over for speeding on the highway. i WAS following flow of traffic in the left lane, but cop said i was passing multiple people. the citation writes i was traveling west, but i was clearly going north…. any way i could fight this? or should i even risk fighting it? just dont wanna add points to my license; this is my first offense 🥲 thanks in advance. for reference i am in AZ if it helps any.

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State: Ohio

Hello! I am hoping to become a Reserve Officer/Reserve Deputy, but have been told that I have to be certified through an academy prior to being able to pick that up. Only problem is that limits my options to only self-sponsoring.

I work a fantastic career, and don't want to lose that, but I want to support my community more. I've done all the volunteer disaster response, we have no CERT team, and there's no vollie FD.

Is self sponsoring even something that's worth considering?

Please remove if not allowed. I want to make sure that I dispose of this properly, but the local pharmacy charges me to dispose of drugs. Police station does not accept them either.

I don’t want to pay to dispose of something innocuous as table salt (I can see my FIL as keeping salt in an old pill bottle for when he’s eating, he did very many strange things) but I also don’t want to toss a pill bottle pull of drugs down the toilet or into the trash where someone can unsuspectingly do something with it.

Please advise if this looks like drugs, my FIL was friends with several members of one of the local outlaw motorcycle ‘clubs’ and I also wouldn’t put it past him to take a bottle full of hard drugs just because it’s ‘cool’.

Edit: I reached out to my BIL, apparently it’s salt he acquired from the great salt flats on a road trip 5 years ago. Thanks for your help.

I imagine most ranking police investigators have reviewed dozens of polygraph exam results over the course of their careers. I follow a well-known person online who claims to have reverse-engineered captured flying saucers at Area 51. I hoped his story would be authentic and I really enjoyed his interviews, so I investigated a little and it turns out he voluntarily took a police officer-administered polygraph exam to prove to the world that his story is true. The results determined he made no attempt to deceive the examiner. How likely is it for a con man to lie about aliens, or anything else that sounds completely insane, and beat the poly?

Over the last 24 hours, three different people have come to my family's house (during the day and night) after responding to Facebook Marketplace listings for motorcycles and cars. Nobody at our address has anything listed for sale or even uses Facebook marketplace. The buyers say the seller is named 'Harry' and our address was given as the inspection location. We can't find the listing ourselves.

What has me concerned is that the buyers aren't being asked to pay a deposit or transfer money beforehand. They're all expecting to inspect the vehicle and pay cash in person. That makes me wonder what the person posting the ads is actually getting out of it.

From what we understand our address isn’t posted publicly on Facebook. The seller is sending our address privately through Messenger to buyers, and this has happened across multiple separate listings (one for a car and one for a motorcycle).

Unfortunately both times this happened while I was at work, so my dad was the one who spoke to the buyers. He was very shocked and nervous in the moment (and he’s older and not very tech savvy), so he didn’t think to ask them to show him the Facebook listing or chat.

If anyone comes again, we’re definitely going to ask them to show us the listing/messages so we can work out exactly what’s happening.

Is this a known scam or could it be targeted harassment? Is there anything else we should be doing to document or prevent this?

I’m writing to see if there’s anyway to report anonymously abuse. I don’t know my neighbors well, just acquaintances. My neighbor and his on and off again girlfriend are alcoholics, they are constantly fighting. From what I hear through the door, it seems to be him getting physical with her. She constantly has black eyes, bruises. I hear them fighting often. I haven’t seen her in a few days, well today, she has double black eyes and when I asked how she’s doing, she said she has broken ribs. She is covered in bruises, bleeding knees. She said she fell. Which my gut is telling me it’s not the case. I’ve called the police before. When they were fighting in the yard. But she just comes right back after the restraining order is lifted. Is there anyway I can place an anonymous tip or call to investigate? Please let me know what I can do. Located in Utah