Barney Fife found job as Campus Cop

Burning Petard · Post by **Burning Petard** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 11:39 am

But now he has been terminated due to injury on the job.

https://www.yahoo.com/news/texas-tech-c ... 34656.html

1. Campus cop doing his job and making dorm 'welfare check' observes student in room with drug paraphernalia

2. Barney takes student to campus cop Hq, where

3. student pulls gun, shoots Barney in the head, and flees the scene.

And this in Texas, where I thought every half-way alert police officer assumes everyone has a gun until proven otherwise.

snailgate

BoSoxGal · Post by **BoSoxGal** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 7:13 pm

Any suspect taken into custody should be searched for weapons - that’s Policing 101. What a tragic error with horrible consequences.

ex-khobar Andy · Post by **ex-khobar Andy** » Tue Oct 10, 2017 8:00 pm

BoSoxGal wrote:Any suspect taken into custody should be searched for weapons - that’s Policing 101. What a tragic error with horrible consequences.

Genuine question. Given this quote from the item:

According to a university statement, campus police made a student welfare check Monday evening and — upon entering the room — found evidence of drugs and drug paraphernalia. Officers then brought the suspect to the police station for standard debriefing.

"During this time, the suspect pulled a gun and mortally shot an officer," Texas Tech Police Chief Kyle Bonath said. "The suspect fled on foot and later apprehended by ... (campus police) near the Lubbock Municipal Coliseum."

Was he in custody? I am not sure what 'standard debriefing' means or even if it is some sort of official status. Does it make a difference? Is there an element of 'he has a 2nd Amendment right to carry a weapon' and in fact there might be a reason why a police officer could not search him or confiscate a gun?

Gob · Post by **Gob** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:26 am

Why would anyone sane send their child to a Uni which needed armed cops on campus?

BoSoxGal · Post by **BoSoxGal** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:41 am

The standard of custody turns on a number of factors for legal purposes, i.e., whether a suspect needs Miranda warning prior to speaking to police.

Speaking more generally, most cops would pat down a suspect before transporting him/her in the cruiser, where obviously the cop would be vulnerable to being wounded if the suspect had a firearm. Obviously cops can use discretion - I wasn’t patted down when a cop gave me a mandatory ride home after being caught in violation of curfew as a pre-teen - but any individual suspected of serious criminal activity should probably be patted down prior to transport or entry to the police station. I’ve written legal briefs on searches of the belongings of detained persons under the same theory of officer safety - while that issue can be arguable, searching a person for weapons in his immediate control is standard practice supported by the judiciary in a broad spectrum of circumstances, absent racial profiling which doesn’t apply in this situation.

Really tragic loss of life; I hope this campus police officer wasn’t made vulnerable due to university feel-good policies limiting his ability to protect himself.

rubato · Post by **rubato** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 2:46 am

I suspect that it is more common than not for US state universities to have armed police. Only Tejas is stupid enough to allow concealed carry on campus.

yrs,
rubato

RayThom · Post by **RayThom** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:17 am

Gob wrote:Why would anyone sane send their child to a Uni which needed armed cops on campus?

The University of Pennsylvania Police Department:
http://www.thedp.com/article/2017/10/wi ... il%2010-10

University of Pennsylvania: #8 in National Universities

Gob · Post by **Gob** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 4:15 am

"Private Police"?!?!?!?!?

The security page of the Uni my daughter attends....

MajGenl.Meade · Post by **MajGenl.Meade** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 8:06 am

I think "standard debriefing" is part of a fraternity initiation.

And no, the incident itself is not amusing but tragic (and stupid)

Burning Petard · Post by **Burning Petard** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 3:58 pm

I am part of the 'town' in town and gown at the University of Delaware, where my daughter graduated two days before she married. When we moved here in 1972, the Campus Police at UofD were some sort of private cops with authority only on campus, which was kind of weird because 'campus' was all over town in various pockets, and not many individuals knew where the lines were. UofD itself, then and now, is some legal freak of Delaware law, combining the legal status of both a public education institution, and a private one. That lets them do some strange things with building and real-estate development.

But some time back, at least 10 years ago, the campus cops were merged with the Newark city cops. Both have that same arrest and investigation powers, but wear different uniforms, different paint on the patrol cars, and different budget for their pay. (City cops pay scale is public, University is not) And both carry the same weapons on their equipment belts.

snailgate

rubato · Post by **rubato** » Wed Oct 11, 2017 6:11 pm

University of California police:
Operational structure
Officers 398

But they are a state not a private police force.

yrs,
rubato

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