Man, I had a great post all typed out and got logged off & lost it.
If Hennepin Co had taken my knappy old bolt actions, I'd be happy. I'd have them back long ago because they actually seem to follow the law. MPD on the other hand .. . . Well, not sure if Khang got his shotgun back or not, but the city attorney seems sure that state law doesn't mean squat if MPD might be on the hook for another settlement.
I did a line by line expansion of the theme, but it all boils down to
Quote:
When the traffic stop ends, so does the officer's authority. Until then, he's pretty much running the show.
By way of illustration:
Quote:
Given that the purpose of a Terry frisk is to determine whether a person stopped is armed, can a Terry search be conducted when the answer is self-evident (e.g. open carry)
If a person is nude or open carrying, a Terry search can't be conducted under the Terry v Ohio. The extent of a Terry search is a pat down of the outside of clothing to detirmine if a weapon is present. How that plays out though is this: An officer pulls you over while you are roller blading and conducts a Terry on you, he feels an object in your pocket that might be a ___________. Now under Terry he can't go in your pocket to find out what that is, if it doesn't feel like a weapon. It will play out in one of three ways: A. The officer will exceed Terry and go in you pocket anyway. B. You will consent to his probing your pocket and he will find
that it is a cleaning dohicky out of an AK buttstock cleaning kit and not a weed pipe . . . It'll thread onto a cleaning rod, but you couldn't possibly smoke out of it. C. He arrests you based on the probable cause that it feels like paraphernalia & he takes you down to the hokie and as they are checking you in, they find your cleaning rod dohicky and although they have no clue what it is, can tell it isn't paraphernalia so you waste your time . . . have an arrest that shows up on your LEO record checks even though you weren't prosecuted . . . . . so it haunts you. Shoot, that is if you are lucky. If you aren't, they won't bother to confirm it isn't paraphernalia and you'll actually have to stand in front of a judge and explain why you only had part of your cleaning kit and none of the other related stuff. Meanwhile you get to spend time in unpleasant company and wear underwear that doesn't fit right or belong to you under scrubs that don't fit either.
Is it right? eh. . . . it is the way it is.
Now folks I wrote something like that out for each of those line items & I am not apt to try and recreate the whole thing. There is a taste anyhow. It boild down to: If you are lucky you'll get a bright cop and he won't handle firearms more than the situation warrants . If you are unlucky you'll get someone stupid or ego-maniacal. . . . but ultimately. . .
Quote:
When the traffic stop ends, so does the officer's authority. Until then, he's pretty much running the show.
IANAL however I do have a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice. Very little of what I have seen in MPD resembles what we learned at one of the best law enforcement schools in the country. Reality and the actual laws are different topics to varying degrees in varying places.