One of the best things about being a cop is knowing you did a good deed. Someone had a laptop stolen and it gets recovered and returned? Mmmm, good deed. Someone had a bike accident and we got them home okay? Mmmm, feeling good. Helping a little old lady across the street? Nice feelings!
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[/media-credit]I wish I could say that’s all we did but we also have to do things that don’t instill such nice feelings. Last week, for example, I had to arrest a young lady for being drunk in public. In reality, this was a good deed (making sure someone who needed help was being taken care of) but it’s not a great feeling knowing that she was in for an unpleasant night. Sure, sometimes we get to arrest a violent drunk for smashing side view mirrors, but we often have to make a tough call on good people.
Q: I was arrested for being drunk and was less than a block from home. I wasn’t hurting anyone and wasn’t acting up, so why couldn’t the officer just get me home instead?
A: Unfortunately the distance from your home doesn’t really change anything. An officer still has to make the same judgment call. We have to ask ourselves if you are intoxicated to the point you cannot take care of yourself, even after you get home. Once the officer makes contact with you, we have a responsibility to ensure you will be okay. This is why if you have sober friends with you, we are way more likely to have them get you home and keep an eye on you. If you are by yourself, or your friends are intoxicated, we can’t be sure.
Q: I had some friends over for a poker game and one of them said I could get arrested. Is having a home poker game considered illegal gambling?
A: If a home poker game was illegal, I would have to change the title of these articles to “Question Authority, but Help Pay My Bail First.” I love poker and have friends over all the time. Is poker illegal in California? No. It is strictly regulated, but these rules only apply to “controlled games,” generally casinos which run the game for profit. As long as the house does not profit from the game by charging a fee, taking a cut or rake or using any of the poker funds to pay for the event, then it’s a home game and not regulated. Oh, I’m getting the warm fuzzies again. Time to shuffle up and deal!
Q: I got a Minor in Possession ticket. Do I have to go to court or can I just pay the fine?
A: In Santa Barbara, if you get the dreaded MIP, you are required to show up in court for the first hearing. As frustrating as that is, it actually is a good thing for you. The court uses that opportunity to educate you about the court process and explain your options to you. After you learn about the process, you have the opportunity to plead either guilty or not guilty. Hopefully you will learn enough to make the best decision for your specific case and be able to consider all of your options.
That’s it for today’s article. As I sit here writing this, I am holding my daughter’s favorite bunny in my lap filled with that warm feeling of doing some good deed. Wait, that warm feeling is now in my lap and it’s wet and… good feelings gone.
Got caught by a cop? Your party popped by the popo? Ticked by a ticket? If you have questions, don’t let it eat away at you, question authority! E-mail me anytime at: QA@police.ucsb.edu or call UCPD at 893-3446.
This is why I could never be a cop. I would have a lot more respect for this guy if he just said, “We have this BS policy where we screw drunk college kids out of $400 a pop for being a block from their house. It sucks, but someone has to pay for my captain’s cigarette boat.”
you can’t seriously believe that you are “making sure someone who needed help was being taken care of” by making a drunk in public arrest. i realize that there are a lot of drunks on the streets and some of them behave like assholes and deserve to be arrested. but i feel like most of the people that get arrested in i.v. for drunk in public are harmless drunks that had a little too much. the author clearly recognizes that most of these arrests are completely unnecessary and is trying to justify his actions. but to act like you’re helping… Read more »
I think the author has a good point, and the comments above are a little too harsh. Consider that the drunk girl does get home, but she has alcohol poisoning and no one is home to take care of her. Consider that she could get assaulted on the way home because she is drunk and vulnerable? It may not be enjoyable for her to spend the night in the drunk tank, but at least she is safer that way. Not all of the people they arrest are harmless drunks or drunks that would be completely fine to walk home and… Read more »
I recognize that nobody likes getting arrested. It sucks. Plain and simple. Saying it is a good deed is an over-simplification of why I do what I do. The point I was making is that the reason I do it is because I have a responsibility to make sure that young woman, or guy, is going to be okay that night. Are they going to thank me or stare doey eyed up to me like a knight in shining armor? Get real. They usually are pissed, angry and are would probably like to give me a nice kick in the… Read more »
Signa, that’s pure cockamamie horse shit. The premise of the question was “I wasn’t hurting anyone and wasn’t acting up, so why couldn’t the officer just get me home instead?” Now, what you probably should have said was, “I don’t know the specifics of your case, but we usually don’t go around arresting people who weren’t acting up or hurting anyone, so maybe you were a little drunker than you thought.” That would have been reasonable and it probably would have been true. But that’s not what you did. Instead, you made a case that arresting someone who wasn’t hurting… Read more »
Hank, Couple of points: 1) Love the use of “cockamamie”. 2) Your answer is good, but I was trying to explain the reason we make the arrest. The girl I refer to that I arrested is an example of someone who was not acting up or hurting anyone. She was sitting on a curb, head down, and was intoxicated. A random guy she did not know was trying to take her home. Regardless of the good intentions of the guy, this woman was not in a state of mind that she was able to make good decisions. Had I allowed… Read more »
Signa:
Awesome, all of that makes perfect, reasonable sense and if that’s the situation I’m glad you took her in instead of leaving her for some random Romeo. But why did it take two responses from you to get to the core of what really happened?
Whenever I answer cops’ questions that way they get really pissed. Just saying…
Listen to how self-deprecating and intelligent Sgt. Signa is. We’re lucky to have cops like him in IV.
Sgt. Signa,
I agree with Igor- we’re definitely fortunate to have officers like you in Isla Vista. I appreciate the fact that IVFP and UCPD reach out to students and the IV community through these Nexus submissions and events such as the floatopia town hall forum.
Thanks for being there
I do enjoy this column Sgt. Signa, it is a time to take the Law Enforcement/Student and General Population hostilities as what they are – a joke. I have no doubt that the vast majority of Police officers are good people at their inner core, even some while in uniform, just as all most Catholic priests probably do “practice what they preach”. It is unfortunate that those that are power hungry, Cops, Politicians, Industry Men, Clergy Men, are the ones who end up ascending in power and taking advantage of it, such as Male cops making degrading comments to women… Read more »
I’d care more about Igor’s opinion if his column were something other than a steaming pile of shit.
“Had I allowed her to just go home, I bear the liability of anything that happens to her from that point on (vicarious liability). Whether she falls and hits her head, vomits and chokes, or (God forbid) gets assaulted, if they look at the intoxication as a contributing factor, it goes right back on me as to why I let her go.”
Arresting her isn’t your only resource though. Couldn’t you have called a CSO escort? Obviously I don’t know for a fact, but it seems like calling a CSO would have been less work than arresting someone.
@ET, Just like any profession, IE: clergy, politicians, teachers, drive-through voice over artists, all have their good people and bad people. Cops are no different than any spectrum of our society. Yes, I believe, based on faith and experience, that most cops are good in and out of uniform. Are there bad cops? Of course. It only takes a few to paint a bad picture of the profession and taint anything any cop does. But overall, most cops are out there trying to do their jobs to the best of their abilities and actually trying to help people. When we… Read more »
@Daniel S. I agree that calling a CSO for an escort is an easy solution for getting the young woman home. However, what happens after she is there? I have the responsibility that she will be okay and not let her be in a situation where no one is there in case something happens. When I talk to someone who is intoxicated, one of the things I ask is who is with them. Are they sober and will they keep an eye on their friend? This means more than just getting them home, but making sure someone will be with… Read more »
@Sgt. Signa: While I was never personally arrested during my college days (2002 – 2006) I had one friend in particular who got what I’ve always called the “hat trick” of alcohol violations during his UCSB days: MIP, Public Intoxication, DUI and Open Container (in that order). I cannot defend his actions because every time he was arrested it was warranted. 19 years old and finishing your beer while facing, and in clear view of, police officers standing next to the keg? Check. 20 and stumbling down the street unable to clearly say your name, much less explain where you… Read more »
Well said! Like many people I am guilty of creating one site after another and never having the time to properly finishing anything.