Dallas Police Officer Drunk, Fires Gun Inside Patrol Car

Not sure what forum to put this in so feel free to move.

Article

A Dallas police officer faces a misdemeanor charge of discharging a weapon after she fired a revolver in a squad car during a drunken off-duty incident.

Two on-duty patrol officers, Miguel Jamaica and Zachary Helm, came to the bar to help get Beemer under control, police said. Helm had been dating Beemer, police said.

"I swear you need to stop now," she said just before pulling a revolver from her ankle holster and firing into the floorboard. Helm jumped out of the vehicle, demanding repeatedly that she drop the gun.

Brown said Helm and Jamaica made a "good faith effort to assist a fellow officer" but should have arrested her for public intoxication once it became clear she was a danger to herself and others.

This story is about 10 days old, but I just ran across it a few minutes ago. Im from the area and Im pretty sure I havent seen something like this in awhile.

She was dating another police officer , Helm, and he was taking her home instead of to jail. She apparently didnt believe she was being brought home and starting acting more and more dangerous. She shot into the floorboard of the patrol car, and thankfully nobody was hurt.

Is there any policies on dating officers within the same police department? Plus, why didnt they take the gun from her? Maybe they didnt search well, or didnt search at all. I would suspect any person that is drunk & disorderly would be searched for safety. I believe she should get the same treatment as anyone else would.

I love the DPD, but how did this person manage to make it into the department? Im guessing her and her boyfriend are not together anymore.

edit - more links

Drunk Cop Fires Gun Inside Boyfriend's Patrol Car—On Video

Drunken Cop Fires Gun in Squad Car

Drunken off-duty officer fires weapon in patrol car

[edit on 28-6-2010 by buni11687]

Well let's get the article title correct at least..

Dallas officer accused of firing her gun in squad car during drunken incident

Semper

reply to post by semperfortis


She's accused, and hasnt been convicted yet. But it is 100% true she fired inside of the patrol car. Thats why I didnt copy the exact article title from the original source.

Obviously these two male cops were picking her up from the bar, making sure she was okay and whatever else. They didn't perceive her as being that loony as to pull out her concealed carry so that's why they didn't search her in the first place. This was likely not even an actual call, this seems to have been "male cop messed up" and now the female cop off duty goes into a drunken hissy fit on the way to wherever. Last I checked, young females like this one are likely to be emotional and alcohol tends to sharpen certain details of those emotions.
Simple as that. Their perception was that she was of no harm to them at the time so they didn't remove any weapons from her.

I don't know she can be "accused" when you clearly hear her let one go. And the other officers wouldn't be shouting at her to drop down the gun if she let another type of "1" go

Edited for spelling



[edit on 28-6-2010 by TortoiseKweek]

I wonder what would a non police person would be charged with for doing this.
Misdemeanor?
I don't think so.

There is no denying it now. Police show preferential treatment to other officers. That is what they do. If the person in this video was Joe citizen, this situation never would have gotten that far.

She is hardly able to walk as is evident from the very start of the video. If that was Joe Citizen he would already be under arrest for public intoxication or disorderly conduct. If he was dragged to the car like this women was, he would also have been charged with resisting arrest. After that he would have been searched and handcuffed (for his own protection as well as the protection of the officer)

Now here is where the story gets interesting for me....

If this was Joe Citizen, he would have been searched, handcuffed, and placed into the back of the police car. However, this was not Joe Citizen. Instead it was Officer Friendly. Because this was Officer Friendly, she should have been considered armed. How many off duty police officers do you know who are out in public without a weapon? I myself have never met one. If they do not have their weapon on their person, it is in the car and accessible should that off duty officer feel he/she needs it.

Officer Friendly was not handcuffed. Not only was she not handcuffed, she was also not placed in the back of the car. She was riding shotgun. The part that really pisses me off the most is pretty simple. Drunken Officer Friendly fired off a round into the floorboard of the police car that was driving her home. If that was Joe Citizen, he would have been shot dead. He would have never been given a chance to fire off another round or to realize he just did something pretty stupid. For Joe Citizen, the ride is over.

Officer Friendly however will get to live another day. It is just one of the extra benefits to being a cop. Sorry Joe Citizen, next time get a job in Law Enforcement /sarcasm

reply to post by MrWendal


While I don't totally disagree with your Joe Citizen scenario, you can't discount the personal dynamics going on in this case. I imagine the BF really just wanted to get his GF home and in bed to sleep it off. It's a little rough to decide to slam your GF against the wall, search her, then throw her in the back of your patrol car handcuffed (unless it's one of those nights, If'n you know what I mean). I actually feel rather sorry for the guy, a really terrible situation to be put in too. Of course, it would be nice if LEO's also had the same empathy for your average citizen who had had to much to drink and just needed a ride home to sleep it off.

reply to post by Elieser


Discharging a firearm within city limits is ALWAYS a Misdemeanor..

Semper

Looks like she was receiving "professional courtesy" since she wasn't searched and or cuffed.. which isn't unusual. It's also forboden for a 1 man unit, emphasis on "man", to transport a lone female without a record of time & mileage.. that a huge policy donkey-punch.

Cops can have their careers ruined for minor things joe blows boss at banana republic could care less about, so yea.. they tend to look out for their own like that... it's not right, fair, equal and all that.. just the way it is, kinda like how the gangsters in DC sweep each-others crap under the rug except on a smaller scale.

There are "3 Bs" that will get a cop fired every time: booze, bitches and bills.. and the #1 rule with bitches: you don't crap where you eat.

I agree with most of what has been said concerning this "friendly fire" incident. I have seen a lot in my years when it comes to LEO's. Cops generally give their fellow man or woman many breaks when their involved in minor infractions. Sometimes these breaks can lead to some serious "FUBAR." If it were up to me, I think in-training LEO's should get further precautionary training for these types of events, because they will happen at some point in their careers.

Once upon a time... I was involved in an officer's arrest at a bar. The off-duty drunk officer refused to take a cab home and was threatening the bartender in order to get more booze. He threatened anyone who asked him to leave, by showing his badge and telling them that he was armed. When the local PD arrived he was greeted by a overly-friendly brotherhood of cops. They asked, and asked, and asked for someone they could call for him to be picked up, all the while he was threatening to shoot them with his "back-up." He finally agreed to being escorted home in a black and white. When the officers were placing him in the back seat, he told them to "F"-Off and went for his ankle holster. He was no longer going to see his wife at home, but instead she was going to see him in the jail.

Originally posted by john spartan

(snip))
I think in-training LEO's should get further precautionary training for these types of events, because they will happen at some point in their careers.

((snip))

Well, on one hand... during field training a good PO will inevitably school his boot re: professional courtesy.... on the other hand, technically, that training never happened... tactics in "professional courtesy" are generally NOT in the training or policy manual.. Terms vary, but usually police trainees have "books", or training manuals engineered by neutered "brass" who haven't had an ass small enough to fit inside of a patrol car for 10 years.. aka useless hacks. They verbosely describe each and every experience a "good" training officer WILL expose a trainee to, then document said experience in no less that 5 hand written pages.

Things like: accepting gratuities (free grub), unauthorized code 3 (light & siren), "badge bunnys" (hot uniform fetish psycho chicks that make sexy time with fugly cop dudes), and dealing with off duty cops are all gray area things that as far as the Dept is concerned: only occur within POLICY... dept policy is only a guide... until you violate it, then it's etched in stone.

This video should be shown at every academy, to every trainee as an example of where professional courtesy ends and common sense begins... NEVER violate the begezus out of policy and risk your own job. Putting someone that intoxicated, emotional and armed.. especially a female... in a city vehicle with tape rolling, is just asking for unemployment. Call a cab, call a trusted off duty partner, a trusted two truck driver .. anything but that.

Any cop with a few years who cares to admit it will talk about having to literally "take" guns & keys from their 647(f), 415-D, borderline 5150WIC drunk-ass partners and or an off duty cop or three... imo they should have taken her gun, put her in a cab, followed her home, then hid her gun after vandalizing her face with a Sharpie..