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Coservation Police Officers
Captplaid
Member Posts: 20,296 ✭✭✭
Stupid question of the day
I have been reading the basic reports of arrests made by the CPO. Many of them are made after the person talks to the CPO. The person says something and the CPO nails them for a violation.
Now I am not planning on doing anything illegal. I am no poacher, but as I read these stories the same question comes to mind.
WHY DO THESE PEOPLE TALK SO MUCH?
Just because the CPO asks question, does a response have to be given? If the person isn't knowingly or obviously doing anything illegal, why doe the person engage in a "pop quiz" with the CPO? Why does the person tell the CPO about anything that has happened earlier in the day? Why tell him anything?
I've heard stories how the CPO has more power than any other police officer. I have heard stories who he can go on anyones land or enter anyones house. I have heard how he doesn't need a search warrant, but what is going to happen if these people kept their mouths shut?
Again, I am a law abiding citizen, and respect the challenge and apperciate the job law enforcement officers do. However, I think it's common for most people to get nervous when interigated.
I have been reading the basic reports of arrests made by the CPO. Many of them are made after the person talks to the CPO. The person says something and the CPO nails them for a violation.
Now I am not planning on doing anything illegal. I am no poacher, but as I read these stories the same question comes to mind.
WHY DO THESE PEOPLE TALK SO MUCH?
Just because the CPO asks question, does a response have to be given? If the person isn't knowingly or obviously doing anything illegal, why doe the person engage in a "pop quiz" with the CPO? Why does the person tell the CPO about anything that has happened earlier in the day? Why tell him anything?
I've heard stories how the CPO has more power than any other police officer. I have heard stories who he can go on anyones land or enter anyones house. I have heard how he doesn't need a search warrant, but what is going to happen if these people kept their mouths shut?
Again, I am a law abiding citizen, and respect the challenge and apperciate the job law enforcement officers do. However, I think it's common for most people to get nervous when interigated.
Comments
In today's world with cameras and video recorders and heightened security concerns, I accept the fact that most leos of any sort (including game wardens) view anyone they approach in an official capacity as a potential threat and the relationship from their perspective is almost always adversarial. I guess that's the best way they have to deal with their jobs considering the very real risks to them everyday - my leo son gives me this impression when we visit or I see him interact with other people, especially strangers.
In short, I tend to agree with you. Why would one give up one's rights so willingly? Generally, "I have nothing to say without an attorney present" ought to be a satisfactory response to the state's agents' curiosity.
This is coming from a LEO of over 25 years and has been reinforced by my two very close friends whom both are attorney's !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
If you are not doing anything illegal : Dont worry !!!!
Thanks !!!
d.a.stearns
Gunsmith / LEO
Niota , Tn
My dog is the best person I know...
If only more people could be as loyal and honest as my dog!!!
I love guns & Shooting!
When we are hunting and a game and fish officer comes by, we are always glad to see them and tell them so. We see so many people road hunting and poaching that it is discouraging to be a legal, sporting hunter sometimes.
I have not been arrested yet, so I guess I have not said anything too stupid, nor been doing anything illegal.
Walte
The officer watched him leave the bar with his wife, and he showed proper "probably cause" or whatever to be pulled over.
Anyway when the officer approached him, he new he was busted. Therefore, he declined to say anything. He was polite. He gave the officer his license, but he refused to say a word. He answered any question with a nod or shaking his head. He also refused the breath test.
I think he was also charged with obstruction.
Even while he was guilty as sin, his lawyer got him off. The "Don't-Say-a-Word" stategy helped, but it cost him a small bundle in lawyer fees.
But what I remember, is every question the warden asked me, I answered it without answering the question.
"How long have you been hunting here?"
answer "I just married his niece"(I married his niece 6 years earlier).
"How many others are in the woods?"
answer "Only relatives hunt here."
"How many guns do you have in the house?"
answer "There is a 35 in the cellar"(didnt mention the 12 guns in my uncles closet).
I had recently watched a political debate with Joe Liebermann, and I found it remarkabgle how he would answer a specific question by not answering the question. I kept thinking "I am JOE LIEBRERMANN", everytime he asked me a question. I couldnt give him a straight answer if I wanted to.
"Waiting tables is what you know, making cheese is what I know-lets stick with what we know!"
-Jimmy the cheese man
This is because i have been fishing and hunting in areas(Canada is the worst) where Fish and Game officers assume everybody is guilty of something and they keep asking questions until they trip you up. I'm not kidding. I have had wardens ask me twenty mintues of questions about everything i have be doing since i got to theirjurisdiction days before. Where did you go, did you get out of your vehicle at all. did you fish? did you have a fishing pole in your hand when you stopped to take a whiz? was the fishing pole ever within ten feet of the water while you were stopping to take a whiz etc. etc. etc.
____________________________________________________
I'm not apologizing, I am what I am
There is no compromising, I don't give a damn
Ozzy Osbourne - Lightning Strikes
col elect1mike Illinois
volinters RRG
I am a man but I can change if I have to,I guess.
I was going fishing in southern Illinois and when I got to the lake I opened the trunk of my car which had a barreled action in it I planned on useing. A female ( not that that matters) cpo walked up and asked for my fishing lic. which I gave her. She seen the action and ask for my FOID which I gave her. At that point she said the barrel on the action looked short and asked if she could mesure it. I said sure. She took it to her suv and took a tape out and put the end at the front of where the bullet would end. Now it is true this barrel was only 20 in long but with where she placed the tape it came out to 15 and 7/8 in. She tells me the barrel is too short to which I tell her it was made that way by the barrel company. She made me send it back to them, called them to make sure I did and told them it was to short to meet Illinois law. I ended up having to buy a new barrel and prove the old one was distroyed. Now if you are only suppost to give name rank and license where the heck did I go wrong???
I'd say you went wrong when you said "Sure, you can measure it." Maybe she could legally measure it without your permission...........but I guess we'll never know [;)]
This thread reminds me of all the STUPID people shown on episodes of "COPS". Almost always, the cop pulls someone over for a traffic violation or maybe just cause they happen to be "out of place" in a "drug area." The cops always ask for permission to search the car. And the MORONS -- who know they've got a crack pipe under the seat or a bag of weed in the glove box -- always give them permission. And sure as poop, they end up going to jail when, if they had simply said "I'd prefer if you didn't search," they would most likely have gone free.
Now we don't have anything to hide, but I always tell my wife that if she ever encounters the Cops at the house or in the car and they ask to come in or to search, the answer is "No you may not," no matter how many times they ask.
"I have good news and bad. Make it through, you don't have to prove anything to anyone the rest of your life. Bad news- you have to prove it to me first." CSM, US Army Ranger School.
elect1mike : where @ in So. Ill were you at ???and when ??? I grew up and resided there untill apx. 7 years ago , dont miss it at all !!!!!
Thanks !!!
d.a.stearns
Gunsmith / LEO
Niota , Tn
My dog is the best person I know...
If only more people could be as loyal and honest as my dog!!!
I love guns & Shooting!
Did you ever think that some of them are just bored and/or just like to talk with sportsmen since they don't get to do much hunting themselves?
You mean they might actually be people too?
I guess I kind of thought of them like the OSHA inspectors. You don't really want to talk to them and raise their suspision (sp).
I supose their is some truth in what you say.
I also lived in Southern Illinois for two years, (Carbondale)
I never met such a large bunch of miserable whiners in my life. The are constantly complaining about what handouts the rest of the state gets, but they get nothing from Springfield. I think the communist party is still active down there in local politics.
It was funny how you can cross the river and go into Kentucky and the people are happy. They are just as poor or poorer, but yet they are some of the most happiest folk I have even met.
My wife says Southern Illinois' slogan is "Never worker! Never will!" There is a lot of truth in that.
The known poachers here who boast of trophy deer sickens me. They know who to circumvent the law. They have caught few and those still active are being shadowed so their day will come.
I'll get off my stump but it kills me when I invest hours and days in the field and see some poacher go out at dark oclock and bag a nice nocternal monster.
"Save the Whalers, they need jobs too."
The cousin agreed. Why tell them anything more than necessary. The friend pulls out his copy of the hunting rules from the IL DNR he keeps in his bibs. He says he has nothing to fear. He is totally legal and even keeps a copy of the rules with him at all times.
Guess who got a $75 citation Friday morning?
Oops, got to follow the rules when traveling back home also. Shotgun wasn't in the case. It was wrapped in a blanket. Apparently he got tired of breaking it down to fit it into the case.
This dosent mean you aren't going to run into the most big headed power crazy little short officer with a chip on his shoulder. I have never broken a conservation law in 45 years of hunting, but had a bad experence a season ago. I was deer hunting during shotgun season and had taken a break on the tail gate of my pick up off the side of the seasional road, eating a sub and glassing the area watching four people pushing a plot of land not fifty feet off the road and within five hundered feet of a cabin. Ok along comes the DEC officer, he asks: what are you doing? ahhhhh eating a sub, my shot gun and ammo were in the cab of the pick up, no cap, guns action clearly open in the rear window gun rack,he searched me and my truck,harresed the crap out of me for quite a while.Well he found nothing,kind of felt sorry for hin, considering he didnt notice the four guys breaking the rules in full view of our position as he drove off to the next guy eating his lunch.
Phew! Im done.
opening day with a large group
some I did not know very well
First he make you unload and wants to search
back packs ,FINE then starts with empty
your pockets, I draw the line what
would we have bird breasts in our
pockets?Thats to far
Cuts open some shells checking that we had steel
He found a film container of weed on
someone and Walked us all 3 miles back to his
truck to write the guy a $280 ticket
for disorderly conduct I think??
If you break the Law they can take everything you have while breaking
that law