Charger Steve Foley shot by police officer

[Big Dakota]

How would the off duty officer know if foley was drunk? Driving erratic doesn't mean drunkedness. Form that news story, they don't even want to release the supsects name much less state that he was drunk.

Again, this officer should have called an officer in the proper jurisdiction, and not attempted to make a traffic stop in his personal vehicle without the proper safety equiment and markings. I know I wouldn't have stopped and would have treated it as a threat to my life and the life of anyone who was with me.

He is till in deep, he can't go around California, off duty, and patrol the streets. He is an officer in Coronado, not the world.

Woodward said professionally trained sworn officers now have the authority to carry weapons across state lines in the United States and even aboard commercial aircraft.



So what's the point of carrying a gun if you can't apprehend suspects you feel have committed a crime?

 

[Mr Cowboy]

One last thing. Do you know that city's policy on offduty cops and their rights to take down a suspect/perp?

I don't know what the policy is, but when one police dept starts a chase in their city and it extends to another jurisdiction, they have to ask for permission and help from that other jurisdiction. I am sure it applies to off duty officers as well.

When on regular duty, and an incident such as this happens, you automatically call for back up and wait for backup, before proceeding. The officer put his life on the line uneccessarily, and foolishly, and caused injury to someone else.

I have been in law enforcement for over 20 years, and when I am off duty, I am on my own time. As you well know, law enforcement officers don't get paid a ton of money, so I refuse perform any duties on my off time. I don't even carry a gun off duty, it will just leads to problems. If I see something that is needs to be reported, I report it, just like anybody else would.

This incident is a perfect example on what happens when an overzealous, off duty officer takes matters into his own hands, uneccessarily. He will most lose his job, and very well could end up in jail.

 

[tomson75]

What happened before this incident is irrelevant to this incident. The officer was wrong to attempt to do anything on his own, other than to report it, follow the alleged drunk driver, wait for backup and allow the proper uniformed officers to do their jobs. Why an off duty officer would put himself in this situation is beyond me. I wouldn't even put myself in this situation while on duty.

So you're saying you would allow a vehicle, fluctuating between speeds of 20-90 mph, swerving and nearly striking several vehicles, to continue driving while you follow? Seems to me this situation warranted some type of immediate action, incuding, but not limited to contacting local authorities. How would you feel if you watched from your car as the vehicle you are following strikes a pedestrian or another occupied vehicle causing and injury or a fatality?

 

[Mr Cowboy]

Woodward said professionally trained sworn officers now have the authority to carry weapons across state lines in the United States and even aboard commercial aircraft.



So what's the point of carrying a gun if you can't apprehend suspects you feel have committed a crime?

They may be able to carry guns, but that doesn't mean that they can enforce laws anywhere they want. All this means is that they have a glorified gun permit.

And why would they want to enforce laws while off duty? If you are a teacher do you go around teaching on your time off.

 

[Mr Cowboy]

So you're saying you would allow a vehicle, fluctuating between speeds of 20-90 mph, swerving and nearly striking several vehicles, to continue driving while you follow? Seems to me this situation warranted some type of immediate action, incuding, but not limited to contacting local authorities. How would you feel if you watched from your car as the vehicle you are following strikes a pedestrian or another occupied vehicle causing and injury or a fatality?

What would you do? You have the abolity to do the same thing as anyone else would. I can tell you I would not put myself in harms way.

If you read my posts closely, I stated that if I suspected anything, I would contact the proper authorities, follow closely behind, and wait for back up. I am not going to try to make a traffic stop in my own vehicle, the suspect has no reason to stop. Would you try to stop this car?

 

[tomson75]

What would you do? You have the abolity to do the same thing as anyone else would. I can tell you I would not put myself in harms way.

If you read my posts closely, I stated that if I suspected anything, I would contact the proper authorities, follow closely behind, and wait for back up. I am not going to try to make a traffic stop in my own vehicle, the suspect has no reason to stop. Would you try to stop this car?

Because its driving at speeds in excess of 90 mph and nearly hitting several other vehicles. To me this seems like a situation where a trained Law-enforcement officer would deem it necassary to get that person off of the road to prevent an accident or a fatality to an innocent bystander. Obviously, calling the local authorities would be a top priority.

If i'm a lifeguard, and i see someone drowning, i'm jumping in regardless if i'm in someone else's pool or i'm not on-duty. But hey, thats just me.

 

[RoyHeaddipinelaphass]

I guess I messed the part in the story that said Foley was driving drunk.

As a law enforcement officer myself, I will say that the cop is the idiot. Regardless of what you think, even cops have off time, and are not always on duty. In this situation, if I saw a car that I suspected was being driven by a drunk driver, I would have called in for an officer in that jurisdiction, to investigate. I would continue to follow the vehicle, until the unit was in position. I would under no circumstance approach the suspect, without proper uniform or identification, unless I had back up.

Furthermore, from reading the article and seeing the video, This officer was out of his jurisdiction. He is a cop in Coronado, and shot this guy in Poway. If he was on duty, he would have had to call the Poway Police for assistance, and should have done the same while off duty.

I would hate to be this officer, he is in deep doo doo whether the shooting was justified or not.

Very astute post #1!!

 

[RoyHeaddipinelaphass]

How would the off duty officer know if foley was drunk? Driving erratic doesn't mean drunkedness. Form that news story, they don't even want to release the supsects name much less state that he was drunk.

Again, this officer should have called an officer in the proper jurisdiction, and not attempted to make a traffic stop in his personal vehicle without the proper safety equiment and markings. I know I wouldn't have stopped and would have treated it as a threat to my life and the life of anyone who was with me.

He is till in deep, he can't go around California, off duty, and patrol the streets. He is an officer in Coronado, not the world.

Very astute post #2!!

 

[sbark]

http://sports.yahoo.com/nfl/news;_ylt=Ak2kU6eW.hNq9_HxVzYlPyE5nYcB?slug=ap-chargers-foleyshot&prov=ap&type=lgns

SAN DIEGO (AP) -- Chargers linebacker Steve Foley was shot in front of his suburban house by an off-duty policeman early Sunday morning. Coach Marty Schottenheimer said the wounds were not life-threatening.
"All we're worried about is that he's OK," Schottenheimer told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.
Sheriff's officials said the early morning shooting occurred after the off-duty Coronado police officer followed a suspected drunken driver weaving in and out of traffic at speeds up to 90 mph on a highway. Authorities said the driver nearly collided with several other vehicles.
The officer attempted to stop the vehicle at least three times, but Foley drove away, sheriff's officials said. During one of the stops, Lisa Maree Gaut, a passenger in the vehicle, yelled at the officer, authorities said. The shooting occurred after Foley got out of the vehicle and began walking toward the officer, sheriff's officials said. Gaut got behind the wheel and drove next to Foley in the direction of the officer, the officials said.
more in actual thread

 

[RoyHeaddipinelaphass]

... And why would they want to enforce laws while off duty? If you are a teacher do you go around teaching on your time off.

This is the best argument not only in this forum, but also in multiple other NFL forums.

 

[tomson75]

http://cowboyszone.com/forums/showthread.php?t=62638

 

[Bob Sacamano]

holy farts batman, REPOST!

 

[RoyHeaddipinelaphass]

From other NFL forum...
What do you think of this comment?

This is very SAD event and there are quite a few like it across this country. We are in 2006, yet racial progress has been extremely glacially slow.

This MAY be a case of racial profiling
(hatred and envy toward "In Your Face" rich African American or any other ethnicity).
"In Your Face" = Gleaming nice ultra expensive cars and jewelries

If DUI = Driving Under Influence, then DWB = Driving While Black.

I wonder if DWBW will work.

Will this stop "Shoot First and See What Happen"?

DWBW = Driving While Bleached White

I personally had witnessed a large group of white police officers who all grinned broadly
and got all excited and said "Let's Go Hunting" when the radio said a young black criminal suspect was on the loose.

 

[tomson75]

And why would they want to enforce laws while off duty? If you are a teacher do you go around teaching on your time off.

Weak.

IMO, if you've chosen this profession, you've received the training, and you find yourself in a position to enforce a law of this magnitude, you would be doing your country and community a tremendous disservice to stand idly by when someone is commiting an aggregious and potentially dangerous crime.

 

[tomson75]

From other NFL forum...
What do you think of this comment?

Why would you even post this? Do you have any evidence that the officer involved is of a race other than that of the offending individual? Even if so, then this is still not the appropriate forum to discuss such a topic.

On top of that, it has been clearly stated that Foley's vehicle was in excess of 90 mph AND swerving, nearly hitting several other vehicles. Is that not reason enough to stop someone? How would an off-duty police officer feel if he had seen Dwayne Goodrich swerving at excessive speeds, before he fatally injured two people, and not attempted to stop him? Would he, in hindsight, feel justified in his inaction because the man driving was an african-american? Come on.

 

[Natedawg44]

I'm a physician and I sure as heck don't stop at every car wreck I see, no physician does. There are set ways to handle things like this and Mr. Cowboy spelled it out. Mr. Cowboy is the only person here that is a cop discussing this issue, so he has a little more credence about it than us laypeople. I would never stop for my car because somebody said pull over and they were driving in a regular car. We will know soon enough if he was drunk or not, everything else is pure speculation.

 

[Avery]

A rational person would have seen someone following them, dialed 911 and informed them that they feel they are being followed by someone. It's three numbers for a reason and we pay for it every month, might as well utilize it.

Was Foley acting rational? Rational people don't drive 30 mph on the freeway unless they have their hazards on. Rational people don't get out of the car and approach someone with a gun pointed at them. Rational people do not drive their vehicles at people.

I'm not in law enforcement but I'm of the opinion that backup should have been called. The cop definitely shouldn't have gone gung ho and attempt to solve the problem themselves. That said, Foley most definitely shouldn't have been behaving like a jackass.

The cop ignored the protocols of law enforcement; Foley ignored the protocols of common sense.

 

[RoyHeaddipinelaphass]

... How would an off-duty police officer feel if he had seen Dwayne Goodrich swerving at excessive speeds, before he fatally injured two people, and not attempted to stop him? Would he, in hindsight, feel justified in his inaction because the man driving was an african-american? Come on.

He has been well trained by with the tax payers' money.

Let's be clear. He was OFF DUTY driving an UNMARKED car.
With so many car jacking stories and stolen police badges,
how can he be sure that people will believe him that he is an off duty police officer?

His duty is to call a uniform police officer for backup and wait in the car for their arrival, especially knowingly that he is outside his jurisdiction.

He should not employ the "Shoot First and Ask Question Later" method, just because he is licensed to carry a gun. Over the years all over this country, there had been too many stories after stories of these kind of DWB history to simply dismiss this event as regular driving erratic event.

He knew damn well that Steve Foley was not carrying any weapon or this wasn't a robbery case either.
Do you realize how many times Steve Foley has been stopped through out his life, just because he was DWB?

 

[dmq]

Tough luck. He was actually aiming at Keith Davis

 

[Echo9]

i think anyone who gets behind the wheel drunk is an idiot

Where does it say he was drunk?