Hypothetically, if I do a large amount of psychedelics, can I get arrested for being high? Hypothetical. I get it. I'm an active duty police sergeant, and today I'm going to be answering your questions. We'll start with the simplest questions first and work our way up to the most hard-hitting and bizarre questions that you guys have. I also just want to take a moment to thank you guys so much. Just hit 100,000 subscribers on the channel, which I didn't even imagine would happen. I'm so grateful for that. So, thank you guys. I truly appreciate it. Let's get to our first question. Jane Abbott asks, "I live in Australia. We haven't done field sobriety for years. Why do you still do them instead of using a breathalyzer?" Well, Jane, we actually do both. In the US, at least the region I work in, we offer field sobriety and then later get them back to the station and offer the breathalyzer. If you're referring to the PBT, which is a portable or preliminary breath test, we also have those, but those are not admissible in court. It's more of just another field sobriety test we can use to gauge their intoxication level. So, we try to collect as much evidence as possible to get a guilty conviction in the arrest, if that makes sense. Ashley Domingo asks, "When you first start out and have to go through someone's purse or bag, how awkward is it? It has to be one of the weirdest things to do in front of them while they watch." Correct. It is super awkward and weird. You know, depending on what they're keeping in their their purse or their bag, there's all kinds of stuff in there that people get embarrassed about. you know, feminine hygiene products, drug paraphernalia, even sometimes toys. To be honest with you, it can be weird, especially because you're taking it out and you're not just going through it looking for weapons if they're being booked, you're inventorying it. So, you're kind of yelling out to another officer who's writing it down to list it in property. So, yeah, it can be pretty awkward, but you do get used to it. Karen asks, "Do people really have to tell you where they are coming from and where they are headed?" No, they don't have to do that. So, you don't have to tell them where you're going, where you're coming from, anything like that. A lot of cops ask, but you don't have to say. Just Becky asks, "What is the funniest non-violent stop you remember?" I do recall one stop where it was for an OUI or DUI, depending where you are, or DWI. The gentleman I ended up arresting had a trunk full of toys and a bunch of other narcotics that go along with different kind of play stuff. That was pretty weird, especially when we had to do the inventory and list them all out. My sergeant wasn't super psyched about it, but uh that was definitely a strange one. Ames Dixie asks, "Have you ever had to arrest someone you know? How did you handle the situation?" Unfortunately, yes, I have had to arrest people I know more than once and it really depends on the person. It is pretty awkward and you do feel like more empathy for those people cuz you know them, you know their backstory. I'm just as nice as possible. I try to downplay it as much as possible and give them as much help as possible navigating the booking process in court and all that. But yeah, it's pretty awkward. And you know, the first place I worked was the same place I went to high school, so it did happen more than once. The adventurous Christian life asks, "Why don't police use tran darts?" For a lot of reasons, and actually in my law enforcement career, I did use tran darts at one point as a natural resource officer. We used to have a local zoo that would getow deer would get loose and get hit by cars. So, we did have a tran gun that we were not really super proficient at, but did attempt to use a few times. The reason we don't use them on humans is, you know, if you use the wrong dosage because it all goes by weight and the size of the person or animal, you could hurt somebody, maybe even kill somebody. And also, they don't work right away either. Like, you can shoot an animal and I presume a person with a tran dart and they don't go right down like the movies. It's not really something that I don't think we'll ever do. And those are the reasons I can think of that we're not doing that currently. BL Creations asks, "Have you ever been injured by a suspect? If so, were the charges dismissed? And how did that make you feel? Yeah, I have been. I once had to tackle somebody who had a mental health issue going on and they were armed with a pair of scissors and end up giving me like a small cut on my wrist. Wasn't a big deal. I just got it cleaned out at the hospital and and that was it. There was no charges in this case. The person was really in crisis and wasn't really aware of what they were doing. I did injure myself pretty badly once after a noraster that came through. I went out to the police parking lot and slipped and full like legs over my head onto my back and that hurt pretty badly and luckily I just woke up the next day sore. Didn't have a permanent injury. So, I probably have hurt myself worse than other people have at this point. What thoughts and expectations did I have about being a police officer that were immediately and completely proven wrong in your first week of actually becoming a cop and doing the actual job? probably the fact that I thought people would just listen to me because I had a badge on. Like I grew up a pretty, you know, pretty good life. Didn't get in trouble a lot. I kind of did what I was told. I was a pretty good kid. And to me, I thought you wear the uniform. You're a police officer. Like people are going to respect that authority and obviously are going to do what you ask because you're a cop. You will respect my authority. Yeah. Right. Well, you learn pretty quick that that's not the case. Especially when you're like in your mid or early 20s and you're a police officer. There's a lot of people out there that aren't going to take you seriously and are not going to do what you tell them to. Jay deadlade, sorry if I butchered that, brother. How often do suspects try flirting their way out of trouble? I have experienced this before, believe it or not, and I know a few officers who have also experienced this. For me, I did a motor vehicle stop and it had a a bunch of young ladies in the car and I was walking up. They were kind of talking and and whispering. And as I approached the driver's side window to speak with the operator, the operator was kind of pulling her skirt up and pulling her top down, if you know what I mean, trying to gain some favor by showing a little skin. That's probably the most obvious time that someone's tried to like, I guess, flirt with me to try to get out of a speeding ticket and uh it didn't work. If the situation is right, can't you shoot at the tires if someone is trying to drive off? In most policies and procedures for most departments, I believe you're not supposed to shoot at moving vehicles. But there are are caveats to everything. If you can describe why you're doing it, like if you can have a really compelling and good reason for it, like there was risk of imminent death or serious bodily harm if that vehicle were to leave. If you can paint the picture of why you did it, you might be okay. But largely, they don't want you shooting at moving vehicles. Jazzcat F. Is it hard to trust regular people in your personal life after dealing with people who lie to you with perfect sincerity during work? Not really. Not for me anyways. It's just human nature to lie when you're being cornered or the walls are closing in and you you could get in trouble. So for me personally, it's not difficult. I try to give everybody the benefit of the doubt. And honestly, it is still shocking to me when people like convincingly lie to me and then it's discovered later that they were being untruthful. It still always shocks me. I've never never gotten used to it. But no, it doesn't affect me in my private life or people I meet outside of the police work. Server Sovereign asks, "Have you ever encountered a new officer who starts working and then decides that they're just not cut out for police work?" Yeah, I have seen that. I know of a kid that did like a whole 4-year college program where at the end of it, you do a police academy and become a certified police officer. So, it's a big long commitment. And he did some ride alongs with us and ended up not liking it. So he still, you know, still had a bachelor of science in criminal justice, did the police academy, but in the end he decided it wasn't for him. And I think that's admirable. I think that if it's not for you and you know that, don't do it. You know, go do something else. Use your talents for another profession, but definitely don't force yourself to do the job cuz it is pretty stressful. You're not going to like it if you're going in with that with those feelings. What happens to the pets of people you have arrested? Usually, we try to get a loved one or maybe even a neighbor if they're around to take the animal. If it's on a traffic stop and that's not an option, then animal control will take the animal into the holding until it can be recovered by the owner or someone the owner knows. Puppy Love Cutie asks, "Hypothetically, if I do a large amount of psychedelics and don't have any drugs on me, can I get arrested for being high?" Hypothetical, I get it. Where I work, no. Like, where I work, we have what's called PC or protective custody. So, if you're drunk or high, I can take custody of you, even place you in handcuffs and take you to the holding cell, but there'll be no criminal charges, and it's a limited booking process, like no photos or prints or anything. You're just held until you're sober and can either go on your own recgnissance or be picked up by somebody who's sober and responsible. Further, the area I work in, if we go to an overdose and there's like a personal amount of drugs at the scene and other people there at the scene, no one can be charged with the narcotics, even if it's like a class A felony to have them. And the reason they do that is they don't want people to be reluctant to call us for help if somebody's overdosing. Another one from the adventurous Christian life. Why do some people get warnings and others get tickets? Well, it's called discretion. So, the police officer who pulls you over, it is their job to decide whether you're getting a money find or just a warning. And that's the discretion we use. It's controversial. Some people don't like it. They go, "Why did I get one and this person didn't?" Usually, we look at driving history tickets in the past. And I know it's also controversial with the public, but attitude also gets in the mix as well. You know, I was taught in police academy where you would write somebody a money ticket if it was the only way that they were going to understand or take it serious. So, it's kind of used as a a punishment for someone who's not taking it serious or it seems like they don't really care. A lot of people don't like that because it seems like at that point the cop is being the judge and the jury, which you kind of are with the traffic stop, but it's a civil fine, so they allow it. That's kind of the roundabout answer for that. I hope it satisfies the question. Angel Designs asks, "What happens to the officer's firearms that are used in officer involved shootings? Do officers maintain possession of those firearms afterwards or do they get resold or disposed of?" Great question. And that is going to be kind of agency specific. From what I understand and from where I've worked, the gun would immediately at the scene be taken into evidence to be processed. And then, believe it or not, it's common practice to immediately issue another firearm to that officer. Has partly to do with the trauma of the event and taking something away from them makes them feel like they've done something wrong. If the gun's taken for evidence, they're usually issued another gun right away. They're made whole. They're still police officer. They're still certified. And then that other gun is processed. Steve 8992 asks, "I am a paramedic and a fellow Steve." Hello, Steve. Why do police always ask arrestes if they want to be checked out from the EMS side? It's so annoying, particularly at like 4:00 a.m. Doesn't the jail have medical personnel? Yeah, brother. I get it. It's liability. We're in a very latigious world now, and it's all about liability. So, if someone mentions that they're hurt or injured or might want an ambulance, we'll just ask for one to come. I'm sorry for the bad news, but I personally don't offer it on every stop or every incident I go to unless it like really looks like it's warranted, but if they ask, then you can't really deny them. You have to call for you guys. We have to wake you up out of the bunk and drag you out onto the street with us. Thanks for the question, brother. Frog 9009 asks, "Do officers have to buy their own handcuffs and equipment? If it's issued to you, are you allowed to supplement it with your own?" Depends on the department. Like where I work, I was issued two pairs of handcuffs and I bought a third just to have a third for like private duty or or road details and stuff just to have another pair. As long as they're in line with what you're issued and it's okay with your supervisor or the chief of police, you're good to go. Same with guns. If you want a second gun, a backup gun or maybe an offduty gun, write a letter to the chief of police, get them to approve it, qualify with it, and then you're good to carry it on and off duty as a police officer. Thank you so much for the question, Frog, and thank you for all the comments you've put on the videos. I see that you're in there in the comment section a lot. I really appreciate that, man. Thank you. Just Becky asks, "Would you want your kids in law enforcement in today's environment?" Woo, tricky question. Um, I think if I saw in them that they had the aptitude for it and they wanted to do it, I wouldn't discourage them. I wouldn't really suggest it to them or push them into it if I didn't see that in them because I don't want them to be put in that situation and live that lifestyle if it's not something that they're ready for or would be good at. I hope that answers your question. It's kind of a hard one to answer, but that's what I have to say about it. This one's from Michelle EMD, I think it says. What are the top misconceptions/misunderstandings that people have about police procedures that you wish more people knew? I would say that we have to follow them cuz you'll notice on these videos sometimes people are always saying, "This is BS. You don't need to do this. Why are you doing this? Just let me go or just let me do this. Let me do that." No, there are procedures and we have to follow them. So, it's not personal. Sometimes we have to ask questions that are very personal and offend people, but it's part of our procedure and we have to do it. So just understand these aren't coming from us. It's coming from established and approved procedures that we have to follow. MK Ultra 42 asks, "When police enter a dark home, say to search for a suspect or do a welfare check, why do they always use their flashlights instead of just flipping on the light switches?" That's a good question, man. Actually, I have done the thing where you just flip the light switches on. I was actually clearing a house with a a partner of mine. It was a bigger house. was just like an a false alarm type of thing. We didn't know that yet. It was an alarm and we were clearing the house and we just started turning on the lights cuz it was just easier to than like, you know, going around with her flashlight. But really, it's probably more tactically sound to use your flashlight cuz as soon as you shut it off, it's blackness again. And you can get cover and hide or do anything you might need to do if someone's, you know, shooting at you or trying to attack you. So, tactically probably better to leave the lights off, but it is easier to just flip them on. Triny 203 asks, "Can you please provide an example for the ride along process where I'm at now? You just have to sign a waiver saying that we're not responsible for anything that happens to you at all when you ride around a police cruiser." And I believe you have to be 18 or 21. I'm actually not 100% sure about that. Probably 18. Sign the waiver. You have to wear a bulletproof vest with us. And you have to stay in the car. That's another thing. um like if we go to a a hot call or a call with a fight or you know whatever you need to stay put in the car and not come out and wander around uh crime scenes. So that's that's basically it. MIK90 asks, "How has your work as a police officer influenced your role as a father? It's made me very grateful for everything that I have." Honestly, you know, when you go to a bad domestic on Christmas Eve or on a holiday or any night and children are involved, it hurts you. It hurts you on the inside and it's sad and it's really hard to see those things and then your shift's over and you come home to your nice little family and they're well cared for and taken care of and not abused or whatever else. It just makes me so grateful for what I have. And it also makes me have empathy for families out there that are struggling and don't have it as good as I do. From Nobody Knows Me 911, what was the most memorable incident you ever dealt with? Something you'll never forget. Well, there's a bunch of those. Um, I'll go with one from early in my career. I was a natural resource officer. I responded to a plane crash in the ocean. That was crazy. I was 22 or 23 years old. Luckily, I was with a senior officer who was on board with me. We responded in a patrol boat and I showed up and it was just a slick of fuel and magazines and like backs of seats floating around in the water. It was pretty nuts. This plane was only the pilot and the co-pilot. They had a problem with their um trim tabs and they couldn't get them up. So they just nose dived into like 12 ft of water and beyond that in the water they hit a boulder. So it was a really bad scene. They both passed away from the crash and it will always tick with me. I remember flying there in the boat going like 45 mph not knowing what to expect. It was just nuts and it's definitely burned into my mind. Candace Bergstrom 4490 asks, "Do officers receive counseling to deal with the high level of stress and traumatic orals that you experience?" Yeah, if you want it, it's there for you for sure. It's a lot more available and acceptable than when I first started. I used to have a sergeant that say, "It's it's a $10 copay. Go talk to somebody if something bothers you." We also do what they call debriefings where if there's a traumatic incident, loss of life, or terrible injuries, or a big situation that happens with your shift, they'll do a debriefing and if it's serious enough, they'll bring in crisis teams that are usually made up of other police officers and firefighters to come in and everybody just kind of talks it out. It's a very cathartic thing. We all sit in a room, we talk about how the experience affected us. You know, some people get emotional, but by the end of it, you're happy you did it because you kind of got it out on the table. You know, other people have been through it and you have these resources you can reach out to if you're feeling like it's starting to cause you some trauma. Jazzcat F. Do police get frustrated when defendants charges are dropped? I used to, you know, when you're new and you're out there and making an arrest for the first time and really into it, you know, and really um excited to go to court and make sure your arrest goes all the way through and you get that guilty used to be disappointing. But I think once you get in the rhythm of the job and you realize, for me personally anyways, I'm just there to keep the public safe and to get people in custody that need to be in custody to restore the community to a peaceful state, let's say, like I get a a drunk off the road who's driving and he gets pled down to negligent operation or something. I don't really care. You can't really get bothered by it, otherwise this job will drive you nuts. Michael Wilson asks, "Have you ever worked with another officer you felt wasn't doing something the correct way?" Yeah, totally. And I don't mean like they were violating anybody's rights. I just mean there's a lot of ways to skin a cat, let's say. There's a lot of different ways to do one thing. I have definitely worked with guys that they'll do something that drags something out, takes longer, is unnecessary, is overly worried about liability, so is like overly cautious with the steps they take, and it just takes forever. I work with people like that before. It's a stylistic thing. If that's the way they are, and as long as they're not violating somebody's rights, what can you really say? Just give them a hand where they need it. Jazz RN38. Why don't more officers stop bad ones or turn them in? I'm a nurse and you can bet I'd stop a doctor if I know they're causing harm. I would definitely turn them in. We do. The misconduct on police officers is really overstated in the media. It's really not that high a number and it's a lot more rare than you think. Cops do intervene all the time. But to address the question directly, I don't know why someone wouldn't step in or say something. Maybe they're they're junior to that person or it's their supervisor or they feel uncomfortable saying anything or like they might look bad or get in trouble. All things you need to overcome if someone's really doing something wrong, obviously, but those might be some reasons why they don't. Tina Marie, CPP, are cops happy about having to wear body cams or would they rather not have them? Yeah, most cops I know like having a body cam. You know, I've worked at places that have them and places that don't. And the biggest thing for me is just getting used to it. Once you're used to using it and operating with a body cam, it's not a big deal. Just once you get in the rhythm of using it. I was a background investigator. I used to do backgrounds for LAPD officers when we live in California. There was a lieutenant or some similar rank I was told this one of his assignments was just deleting cops going to the bathroom because of the body cam. You forget you turn it on by mistake or you forget to turn it off and you go and use a urinal or or the toilet. There's a lieutenant out there just his job is to take care of the bathroom takes. So that's what I mean about getting used to it. Once you get used to turning it off and on appropriately, they can only help you. They're great for evidence. They're really great for drunk driving. They collect so much evidence and video of someone stumbling and bumbling on the side of the road is really hard to refute in court. Mad Dog94, do you notice a difference in people's reactions to finding out you're a cop now versus when you first started? For me personally, not really. People always go with the classic and hilarious joke of it wasn't me or they're here for you when they find out you're a cop. But it's about the same. I don't have people sneer or snicker or recoil. Most people are pretty polite and they go, "Oh, okay. Oh, interesting." or oh, I bet you've got some good stories, you know. So, for me, it's it's been fine. Dreamcatcher 33316. Do police officers live in a bubble where they don't like civilians, per se? Definitely not per se. No. Actually, personally, most of my friends and people I hang out with are not police officers. A lot of cops I know are like that. I have some police officer friends, but u most of them aren't in the profession. It is something that can kind of get a hold of the younger generations when they get in because the job's exciting and it's stressful. You want to be around other cops because they understand what you're going through, that type of thing. You kind of get these little clicks of young coppers that hang out a lot, but it's never really a us versus them type mentality that I've ever seen. John Frank 9343. Some police are rude right back to rude suspects, which I get. Are there any rules or repercussions for swearing or being a jerk back to them? Well, yeah, you got to be careful and it's okay to do. It's fine, but you can't do it wildly. You know, there's always that behavior unbecoming a police officer that kind of hanging over our heads which they can kind of fit almost anything into. So, you can't go over the top, but no one expects you to just sit there and be a punching bag for somebody verbally. You can shoot back at them. You can say things back, defend yourself verbally. I've done it before and it was fine. I just think you got to be careful. You can't you can't be over the top. Ames Dixie 7863, what do people think will automatically rule them out of becoming a cop, but usually doesn't? Good question. Um, drug use. I think they don't think that we have much tolerance for that, but really there is a thing that we use when we do backgrounds called time and distance. So, even if you use recreational drugs, if there's been a substantial amount of time and you've matured and not used them, depending on the drugs and how much, you still stand a good chance of becoming a cop. I won't name them, but I know some cops that had some recreational drug use in their youth and they were fine because they stopped doing the drugs. They matured and they were honest about it. Always be honest, cuz what will disqualify you immediately is any kind of lie or omission on your application. Hold on. I think there's a follow-up to this. And what can actually get someone disqualified that most people don't realize? I got one for you, buddy. When I was doing backgrounds for LAPD, I had a kid that had a huge gap in his work history because we want to see that you were steadily working or you were working somewhere. He worked for his uncle. He got paid under the table. So, he didn't have any record of working for him monetarily and he never did his taxes. So, believe it or not, the department did not want to hire him because he owed taxes. So, the disposition was pay the back taxes for those four years and reapply. I had never thought of that, but you know, you got to pay your taxes. JM Doula, can you describe what happens after an officer discharges their weapon while on duty? Sure. So, it kind of depends like why did you discharge your weapon? If you shot a deer or a raccoon or what other animal you have in your district that gets hit by a cars, it's just a report. Write a report that you discharge your firearm, why you did it, and you send it off to the supervisor and then top off your magazine cuz you're down around. That's an easy one for animals. If you're in a shooting, we kind of went over this a little bit earlier, your gun's taken as evidence. Usually, you're taken to the hospital if you're involved in a shooting just because of the traumatic nature of it. And then you would talk to like your union representative. You would give a statement about what happened. You know, you'd write your report on it. All those things follow afterwards. And then, you know, you're put on paid administrative leave until they figure out the shooting was good and or bad. And then you come back to work and you're good to go. BL Creations asks, "How do officers handle the really hard cases such as murders emotionally?" Great question. Everybody's different. You know, on the podcast, I've had people on before and asked them this exact question like how do you deal with like being a homicide detective and seeing this stuff just all the time? And there's a lot of different answers. A lot of them just try to unplug. They go home, they put the cell phone away, they don't think about the job. They spend time with their family. They kind of disconnect. A lot of them kind of hang out with other cops who have been through similar things. You kind of get this feeling of, "I'm not alone in this. Other people have dealt with this." I think having good support groups that way, your family, and then maybe some people in your profession to help bounce things off of. Seems to be a combination of those two things that people use to kind of cope with it. From Solace_16, I don't have a left arm. How do you handcuff someone missing an arm? I'm a law-abiding citizen, so I've always wondered. So, you've never been arrested. That's good. I would maybe handcuff your arm to your belt or maybe to a belt loop. And if that didn't work, we could just put shackles on you. Just shackle your feet and let your arm be free. That's one way you could do it. There's probably a lot of creative ways you could do it. You know, we also have like leather transport belts that you put the cuffs through so it's more comfortable when you're cuffed in front. You could put a transport belt on and try to fashion it to just cuff that one arm to the loop. So, that arm is at least has restricted motion. A few different ways there. a few different options, but those are some I would think of. How do police keep so calm with insulting, demeaning, nasty defendants? You just don't take it personally. They're mostly reacting to the situation and to the uniform and to your authority. They don't know you personally. They couldn't possibly know you personally in most situations, unless they do. You just don't take it personally. You just kind of let it like a water off a duck's back. You just kind of let it go and don't think about it. Chuck McGuffin, how had your outlook and ideology changed from rookie officer Steve to Sergeant Steve? I don't know. I'm probably a little bit more empathetic than I was before. I think I probably used to write a lot more money citations for motor vehicle stuff. I kind of gotten a little bit softer in that way. I would say I think I don't get as stressed as I used to when I would go to calls and I think I had to have everything figured out. What am I going to do in this situation? I got to cross all the tees out all the eyes. I think I've realized over time you have time when you're doing investigation. You don't always have to make an arrest right at the moment. You can always summon somebody later after an investigation's done to your liking. So, I think I've chilled out a little bit in both those ways. Thank you guys so much for all your incredible questions. I've got to stop. I'm sorry if I didn't get to yours, but this video is already too long. If you like this video, you liked me answering the questions you asked, leave a comment, let me know, and we can do it again. Thank you guys so much for all the support, and thank you for the 100,000 subs. Unbelievable. All right, guys. I'll see you next time.