Ryan Moats and the DPD

He'd been on the force 25 years. It's in the article.

He's actually only been on the force for 3 years and is 25 years old.

He should definitely be suspended for an extended period of time to undergo further training as it's evident he didn't know how to properly handle the situation. It would have taken him only minute at most to have found out from someone if their story has legit especially since he pulled them over in the hospital parking lot.

As far as the gun issue as SBVII has said, officers are trained to watch out for their safety and someone getting out of a pulled over car without being asked for by the officer more often than not results in someone about to attempt to do harm to that officer as evident by the amazing increase in recent years in officer shootings during pull overs for random traffic violations.
He only unholstered his weapon, but never actually pointed it at anyone.

Again, again, again. I'm not defending his actions. Simply saying he handled this situation wrong. but for the officers perspective he has to constantly be looking out for his safety.

Now let me jump on your side of the fence a moment. It should have taken only 1-2 minutes to figure out why they were upset and say "ok, I'll walk you up to the room. If your lying to me I'll charge you with an extra charge."
He would have found out they were on the up and up and apologized and moved on.

I agree, safety first. No dispute there. Once he had established (which he should have been able to do rather quickly) that there was no danger to him then common sense should have taken over. He made a conscious decision to be an ass and as a result he should face the consequences.

Let's give Moats some credit for handling things as well as anyone could.
If that was me? The officer would've had to arrest me.

Yeah I'm pretty sure I would've been shot. They said that not once did Moats say he was an NFL player, or try to gain any special treatment or recognition for being an NFL player. I think he handled it about as good as anyone could honestly. I understand the officer was probably just doing what he thought was best, but the Chief of Police said that he thought one of the most embarrassing and disturbing things was that when the officer saw the replay of the tape, he actually didn't think he had done wrong. I mean whatever, he doesn't sound like the kind of person I want to serve and protect me or my community. The one thing that I really thought was unfair were the threats doled out about how if he wanted to he could really screw Moats over. That is an obvious asshole power trip.

Yea I saw this and read what happened. What an asshole I couldn't believe it when I read it. Damn cops that think they have so much power so ridiculous

I agreed that the officer handled it wrong. Totally. What I was afraid was going to happen was people popping off about all officers with negative comments. Sorry tdSkins for quoting you. I was trying not to point fingers but wanted people to know that there are certain reasons some officers come off as assholes. but also wanted to point out that not all officers have power trips, or are assholes. No different then people on message boards. To lump all officers in one catagory would be unfair was all I was trying to establish prior to this message board turning in to the..."All cops are trash" thread.

Not everyone is the brightest crayon in the box. In the several places I've worked I've found atleast one if not more people who are slow on the uptake and have no common sense. Those people usually have to be told several times exactly what is happening or how to do something and even then they might screw it up. If we lived in a perfect world we wouldn't need the police.

and although Moat may not have been wreckless driving, by law he was. Speeding depending on the speed is wreckless driving. Although he slowed down or even stopped and went through the traffic light could be construed as wreckless driving. but in any case the incident could have been handled a lot differently. The sad part is it wasn't. They fire him, they fire him. It just means his lack of tact will carry over to some other job. Keep him and punish him and retrain him means someone is keeping an eye on him and hopefully he has learned a valuable lesson when dealing with the public in the future.

I saw the apology issued by the head of the police department. He hit the nail on the head, there's an element of common sense that you can't train for. Some people just don't make good cops. The whole shut your mouth, I can make your life difficult thing is blatant abuse of authority. This guy pulled his gun, on Ryan Moats' wife! I realize police officers risk their lives on a daily basis, but it's a high risk fear-factor job. Firefighter is also a high risk job, soldier in Iraq is a high risk job, crane operator, test pilot, quarterback in the NFL, etc.

I don't think the police officer should be fired, but he should definitely be taken off the streets. Before he kills someone unarmed.

It's just like my grand-daddy used to say, "The day I can't show up to work drunk is the day I turn in my pistol and shield".

:lol:A very large % of cops are good, but the ones who are not should be fired instead of all this adminatrative leave BS. I personally know a cop who should of been jailed long time ago but has had his job for years. In fact I just saw him and talked to him a couple of months ago. It's amazing the crap he gets by with.

This guy was just clearly an A-hole, and I don't think the color would have mattered.

Again, again, again. I'm not defending his actions. Simply saying he handled this situation wrong. but for the officers perspective he has to constantly be looking out for his safety.

Now let me jump on your side of the fence a moment. It should have taken only 1-2 minutes to figure out why they were upset and say "ok, I'll walk you up to the room. If your lying to me I'll charge you with an extra charge."
He would have found out they were on the up and up and apologized and moved on.

I think the biggest issue for me is that there were hospital personnel that came out to the parking lot to confirm that indeed Moat's mother-in-law was dying. I think at that point, the cop should've stopped everything and let Moat in the hospital.

Prior to that, I'm sure the cop was just reacting to the situation and following what his training and experience had taught him. I don't think any of us (unless we've had the experience, and I haven't) can say how the cop should've reacted initially. But I think common sense should have told him to let Moat go once the nurses from the hospital came to the parking lot to explain the situation.

:lol:A very large % of cops are good, but the ones who are not should be fired instead of all this adminatrative leave BS. I personally know a cop who should of been jailed long time ago but has had his job for years. In fact I just saw him and talked to him a couple of months ago. It's amazing the crap he gets by with.

..............Mackey.