Scenario where off duty cop is in a situation with BG's

[CHLLady]

Consider an off duty officer (unarmed) faces down several BG's either in a convenience store or restaurant situation are you allowed to pass him your weapon to control the situation? Or must you step in to defend him and everyone else and remain in control of your weapon?

Has this scenario occurred?

[jmra]

I don't believe that in a situation that I felt a gun was necessary that I would take the time to hand my gun to someone else. If I had a bug, I might try to hand it off once I was behind cover.
That being said, I would suspect that most officers carry and that it would be unusual for them to be unarmed. I have even heard that some departments require their officers to carry 24/7. Don't know if there is any truth to that or not. Would have to ask one of our LEO members.

[jmra]

Got to thinking, how do you know he is an off duty officer? An unarmed LEO would be foolish to announce himself if outnumbered and obviously out gunned.

[sammeow]

Interesting and thought provoking.
My thoughts are how do I know he is an LEO?
The LEO's I know that are off duty, if you carry a badge you carry your bug.

[jmra]

I'm going to give you my thoughts, First, I'm not a lawyer, i dont have the shirt and i havent read the book. This is worth what you paid for it.
Unless you know the officer the chances of you knowing he's and officer(off-duty, no uniform, plain car), even if he says i'm a police officer are slim.
Usually when the things go bad, it happens so fast that the last thing you will want to do is distract the officer. you would be putting the officer and yourself in danger.
now say he was in uniform in the back of a convenient store and 2 bad guys came in (not seeing you or him) and tried to rob the place, if he didnt have a gun and i did, i'd offer it to him.

Now if i knew him and he was unarmed and asked me if i had my gun, I'd give it to him.
I dont know the legality of the last two scenarios but if it was going down i'd take my chances, and be a good witness. In the first scenario even if he said i'm a police officer, without showing a badge you dont know if he might be a BG and just hanging back in case someone steps in with a gun to take them out.
Since my gun doesnt make me a super hero, depending on whats going on, i might would just have to be a good witness.

dedeye

I don't see how there could be a legal issue for you if you surrender your firearm at the request of someone known to you as a police officer. The argument could be made that there could be legal issues with not honoring that "request".

[Amonix]

In this case unless the officer is someone I know, I wouldn't hand anyone my weapon. The only way I would trust that someone is a police officer is badge and seeing their Texas Red White and Blue Card (Tcleose). Just like I disagree with the "Badgers", my CHL did not give me the power to act as one either. My weapon is for my family, my friends, my loved ones, and myself protection. Now I would treat said situation differently if say it was a uniformed officer who was in a fight and maybe lost his weapon some how. I may then go ahead and offer my weapon.

Sadly I know a few police officers (a few very close to me even) that do not carry when off duty. Which I think is silly quite honestly. The chance that they will see a thug at some point and time out in public is far to great sometimes.

[OldCannon]

My daughter always has three things with her at ALL times: Badge, gun, and cuffs. (yes, she's a cop)

[WildBill]

Has this scenario occurred?

I don't think so. At least I have never heard of a similar situation.

[JALLEN]

You wouldn't want a cop to lose his job for shooting someone with a weapon he had not qualified on, would you?

The local LEO's carry Glock .40's or whatever, you hand him a Sig 9mm. He hasn't qualified with that weapon, there is no paperwork.... Good Grief!

I'd hate to think what would happen if I handed this guy my P7M8, a type he likely has never seen or handled! Talk about a monkey with a saxophone, under pressure!!!

[Excaliber]

Consider an off duty officer (unarmed) faces down several BG's either in a convenience store or restaurant situation are you allowed to pass him your weapon to control the situation? Or must you step in to defend him and everyone else and remain in control of your weapon?

Has this scenario occurred?

My first reaction is that this is one of those situations that we can imagine but would be very unlikely to see.

Any officer who created this situation by not carrying his gun and then starting a confrontation with bad guys while unarmed, and then identifying himself as an officer (who the BG's will assume is armed) is clearly not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

If I came upon that situation, my take would be that officer is definitely not be smart enough to disarm myself and trust him with my gun, particularly since that would leave me unarmed in a situation where I might very well need to defend myself and my family.

One dimwitted batman at an incident scene is bad; two dimwitted batmen working together is likely to be catastrophic.

I'll share how a similar situation worked out while I was in law enforcement.

One of our officers prided himself on not carrying his gun off duty because he wasn't being paid to do so during those hours. While he was in his local bank, an armed robbery went down and a teller activated the alarm. A local police officer happened to be a very short distance away and made an entry through the front doors of the bank while the BG was still inside.

What happened next is another illustration of why that isn't considered a real good idea: the BG fired on the officer and hit him in the leg.

The officer went down and the BG exited the bank. Our officer approached the downed officer and asked him for his gun so he could apprehend the BG. The downed officer replied that if he was a real cop, he'd have his own gun and told him to get away from him pronto.

[WildBill]

The downed officer replied that if he was a real cop, he'd have his own gun and told him to get away from him pronto.

[aaangel]

the key words here are "off duty" and several BG's. too many things can go wrong in such little time.... how does it go, " I'm not a superhero, I'm not a marvel comics, i'm however, outta there. just be a good witness.

[NavAir]

In addition to all the other points so ably made already, I am a better shot with my weapon than he/she is...