Cheating death and fighting communism: that is how a fellow officer once described our job. It was meant to be funny, but as time went on it seemed all too true.
I spent more than ten years in law enforcement, all of it on the street in uniform patrol. I've been a patrol officer, instructor, sergeant and lieutenant.
Do not report crimes here. Nothing here should be considered legal advice. All opinions are my own.
The deployment of one or two officers to a car is largely dependent on the ingrained culture of the department. Many years ago a study suggested officers were no less safe patroling solo as they are with a partner.
I assume your roommate is underage. If so, you can still get in trouble, but probably only if he/she does something stupid such as gets alcohol poisoning, gets hurt while intoxicated, is DUI, etc. There could be some pretty heavy reprecusions for that.
If you believe he is doing this, and that it is not part of an official investigation, you can file a complaint with his department or with the Utah Peace Officer Standards and Training council: http://publicsafety.utah.gov/post/inservice/decertify.html
I don't know the circumstances of the case or the laws that might apply to your case. I do know what the right thing is, but it is up to you to do it.
Toll Collector
What happens when a car blows past a tollbooth without paying?Claims Adjuster
Do you ever feel bad for the people whose claims you deny?Flight Attendant
What's the scariest flight you've ever been on?
Offering protection from liability for people making a good faith effort to render aid at the scene of an emergency is a good idea. There are a lot of dirtbag attorneys who will sue anyone, including good people trying to do the right thing.
Requiring people to act, such as calling 911, when they observe something that is obviously criminal in nature makes sense - but, I always have reservations about these kinds of laws. In my opinion, they need to be narrowly written.
It is impossible for me to tell you where you might like to work. If you've never lived in a large city, you might love - or hate- it. Same thing about working in a smaller area.
From my personal experience, I would prefer a smaller department of 50-75 officers if I was starting all over. Ideally, it would be suburban to rural. I've worked for a very urban area and for a smaller department in a suburban bordering on rural area. You get a lot more of the exciting calls in a short amount of time in the urban areas, but you can also burn out much quicker.
The upside to a large agency is you get a lot of opportunity to work in specialized units that you don't have in smaller areas/departments. For example, a marine unit, aviation unit, SWAT unit, etc. But smaller areas will sometimes pool resources for multi-jurisdictional units (like SWAT teams formed with officers from several regional departments.)
I'd suggest doing a few ride-alongs with different departments in different areas and get a feel for what things are like.
If no arrest was made, then there is no arrest record (at least regarding this incident.) Without the victim's cooperation, the officers probably were not able to establish probable cause to make an arrest.
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