Quote:
Originally Posted by MPBK
When you're off duty, out of uniform, are you considered a regular Joe and for all legal purposes and intents, required to follow the same rules that we must follow, or is LEO a 24x7 appointment?
For example, do you carry department gun, or no gun (since it's CA).  |
Yes and no. Being a Police Officer/Sheriff's Deputy/State Trooper or Highway Patrolman makes you a peace officer 24/7. Correctional/Probation/Parole Officers fall under a different penal code, and thus, their police powers are not the same. In most cases I'm just a good witness off-duty, however, if I choose to act and display my badge/gun, I am immediately considered to be on-duty (...
and everything I do from that point forward must be in accordance with case law, state law, federal law, and departmental policy; I can also employ only that which I have taught/trained by my department). So in essence, I can effect an arrest any time (...
and in certain/limited cases I am required to act), but.....I also need to take into account that I don't have back-up, a radio, etc. (...
although I do keep my department issued radio with me most of the time when I'm off-duty - mostly because I have to charge it at home - and I keep a spare tactical vest with rifle plates, a cloth badge on the front and "SHERIFF" on the back in my trunk for SHTF moments.......like Las Vegas), I must be mindful from a tactical perspective. I keep the phone numbers to the stations in areas that I frequent most should I need to get in contact with somebody; there's also 9-1-1 for the emergent stuff.
I carry a firearm EVERYWHERE I go; often at least two. I don't even walk down to my mailbox without a firearm in a pocket or tucked in my waistband. The only place I wouldn't/can't take a weapon is into a bar, but I don't drink anyway, so a bar is not a destination spot for me. I don't carry my department issued firearm off-duty because it's too big to easily conceal based on my style of dress, plus I leave it in my work locker. I carry one of 5 or 6 other handguns/revolvers that I have at home; my Smith & Wesson M&P 2.0 Compact accepts the larger 17-round magazines from my full-size department issued M&P. With that said, I most often carry my Sig Sauer P365 with a 15+1 capacity; a rather tiny, easy to conceal package.
P.S. You can carry concealed in California with a CCW. I had a CCW before I worked in law enforcement. The only problem is reciprocity among the states. California doesn't recognize CCW's from other states, so as a result we get a big "
Fuck you!" from every state except Texas and Arizona (...
if I remember correctly) because of our failure to recognize CCW's from other states. The county you live in will determine whether or not you can successfully acquire a CCW here. San Bernardino/Orange/Ventura/Kern counties issue almost all of the time. Los Angeles County
never issues; San Diego county issues sometimes. In San Bernardino and Orange counties, there are thousands upon thousands of licensed CCW holders. Law enforcement working in those counties are used to coming across citizens with CCW's. The last time I checked, there were over 8,000+ CCW permits out of San Bernardino County; 5,000+ out of Orange County. Los Angeles County had less than 250 (...
politicians and friends/associates of the old Sheriff), and I believe quite a few of those have been retracted because of the nature in which they were issued.