The appearence of corruption should be sufficient for this practice to be ended. The law should be impartial, it should not be necessary for a police officer to be aware that any member of the public is friends or family with a police officer.
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I don’t neccisarily disagree with you. Frankly if everyone received the “courtesy” these things supposedly provide. There wouldn’t be much need for the cards.
But like I said there are potentially very good reasons for officers to identify union members or their family. For one police unions have an obligation to provide legal support and advice to officers. And any union has certain obligations with regard to support for members family. So by extension theres some justification for the notification end of things. Both due to that, And to prevent the appearance or actuality of collusion when a family member is arrested. There’s likewise utility in properly notifying first responders when family members are injured or killed. Which requires a quick, direct way to identify them as such.
But in practice these cards are more “don’t get punched in the face” cards than “get out of jail free” cards. There’s this weird tacit acknowledgment that no all officers are on the up and up. And a desire to protect their own from their own.
In that regard it can potentially prevent it reveal corruption and conflict of interest.
Say for example a certain detective had arrested a certain police chief from another department for, let’s child porn. And officers from that department the. Arrested that detectives son over what should have been a minor ticket. Locked him in a holding cell without booking him. Beat him up. Then charged him with a host of additional things relating to that beating.
It would be very useful, legally, to be able to prove that those officers knew exactly who it was they were railroading. And at which point they were aware of it.
And it might be useful to an offer who’s role frequently has him arresting powerful people, even other cops. To have a way to prevent such things from happening. Notify the officers around him if the potential risks and conflicts. And then there’s that union who are supposed to protect officers and their families from corruption and reprisal from other officers (even if they mostly don’t seem to care or actively participate in those things). Has some level of obligation to provide it.
I’m not following this hypothetical, what you’re describing is a crime regardless of the reason. It would be nice if you could point to something in court and say, on top of these beatings, he singled this person out as retaliation. However, there’s still no acceptable reason for beating a compliant person and faking charges. As long as they can be punished for illegal acts (something the public has no faith in at the moment), holding them accountable for the motives don’t matter as much.
Well it’s “hypothetical” in scare quotes. And “hypothetically” it would have been really useful in establishing “hypothetical” motive and intent. And “hypothetically” the knowledge that this is possible may act as a deterant against these sort of reprisals. And “hypothetically” may have convinced the union to finally allow the “hypothetical” officers to be forced out of the PD. (later, without punishment. And for unrelated reasons, cause small town PD).
I’m just trying to point out that there’s a plausible reason for such a mechanism to exist. In protecting officers and their close associates from corruption. And offering warning of potential conflict of interest which might create legal or regulatory consequences for them. Both fall into thing the union is supposed to be providing.
In practice. There is no reason for so many of them to be out there. The normal unlabeled, hand them out cards have absolutely no utility in this regard. They are used for avoidance of tickets, even if they can’t reliably provide that. The unions don’t seem to care much about corruption, or are sometimes actively involved. So what you’re left with is a card that at best asks an officer to do his job properly. At worst you’ve got something that facilitates corruption and the conflicts of interest in itself.
Something that needs to be fixed. And reducing the number of hand out cards is not really a way to do it. But these things are issued by the Union, And have no official weight or authority. A secret hand shake could do much the same.
From what I understand the “would be” ticketing officer takes the card and gives you a verbal warning (for what in theory is an offense that they have significant latitude to let you off of anyway, like jaywalking or modest speeding…where they would otherwise maybe let you off if it is your birthday or you had a good sob story, or they just had a good feeling that you would respond at least as well to a warning as to a ticket). The card then goes back to the issuing officer with a “report” about what the offense was and how polite the person was and whatever. That officer then also in theory goes and gives a warning (more personalized, maybe more effective). Then either tears the card up “that was your one freebie!”, or hands it back “I better not see this thing again!” (really, if so why hand it back?).
From what I understand that is also regional policy, some places tear them up. Some places never have them in the first place (and some places take a special glee in ticketing off duty and/or out of state cops for traffic offenses).
So long as the offense you can skate out of matches what you could also escape by having a clean record, catching a cop in a good mood, being polite, and having a good story I don’t personally care. I also see how it could legitimately be an issue, and if someone wants to be offended by their existence I’m not going to say they are wrong. In my opinion they are so far down the list of what has gone wrong with policing in this country that I’m not all that excited one way or another about them.
i.e. if you stand fair odds of getting out of it by having a dead bee on the dashboard and pointing at and and saying “sorry I was speeding, I’m afford of bees and I had one in the car, I’m really sorry, I don’t even know how fast I was going, but it must have been too fast if you pulled me over!”, then I’m just not that excited that you can also get out of it with a bit of paper…
On the other hand if you can get away with theft (even the minor “stole a bicycle”), then I’m in agreement, it is a real problem…
It’s not policy. These cards come from the Union, they have no official standing. And can be revoked at the discression of any officer at any time.
And that’s about as far as that end of it goes. They aren’t even going to help you out in determining fault in a fender bender. Baring corruption. Which, yeah that exists. Some departments do seem to have policies spoken or un spoken for cracking down ticket avoidance through these cards. And a lot more officers and departments these days simply confiscate the card.
Some departments or areas have a nut on against other departments or areas. And will actually crack down when presented with a card from a department they don’t like.
It’s not a chit you hand in in exchange for anything. These are honorary union membership cards. They expire after every year. And your supposed to present them with your ID any time you interact with a police officer in a way that involves showing id. Not just traffic stops. But even when your reporting a crime or acting as a witness.
They carry no official weight. They come from the Union not the department. They can be rescinded any time by any member of any police union. The typical regular cards simply carries the name of the issuing union, which varies with department. And the year with the words “honorary”. They expire at the end of the year. It’s common practice these days for an officer to write his name, phone number and badge number on the back. So he can be contacted if it’s used.
Some unions issue blank one year cards with the officers badge number and name on top of those. Additional rather than instead of.
Most unions seem to issue permenant “family” cards these days. These are effectively union Id cards. Have the name of the bearer and their family relationship. The officer who issued its name and badge number. They don’t expire but can still be confiscated on the same terms. They have to be applied for by the officer. And are only issued occasionally. If you lose one you have to wait a while if you want a replacement.
There are certain things an officer can let you off on at his discression. These things are usually minor. And he can let you off on them or not irregardless of the card. Letting you off on something more serious is disallowed. By law or by department regardless of the card. Whether any given officer is likely to do either of things because of the card is a factor of the individual officer. And heavily influenced by the culture and policies of the Union and department they are a member of. You’re going to see more corrupt acts done for blue wall reasons where there is more corruption overall.
The overall thrust nation wide is apparently towards ignoring the things entirely. Since there are a massive amount of them out there and people hand them out for little reason. I had some one try to tip me one behind the bar once. I didn’t know the guy. Didn’t know his name. And sure as shit didn’t want or need his PBA card. I would have preferred cash.
The permenant cards for family are a reaction to that. In so far as there is any utility or justification for these things it’s not helped by their being available to every bartender with a clear buyback policy.
This kind of weird backwards customs need to end.
I have a small collection of them from the New Jersey police, 4 or 5 cards. The guy who used to give them to me at Xmas died about eight years ago, though, so they are all expired. They are professionally printed, usually two colors with a metallic.
They’re supposed to work for DUI as long as you are courteous to the officer and not obviously plastered. I used one of them for a speeding violation on the Jersey turnpike, and it did work as advertised - “thank you sir, please be more careful, have a nice day.” (I was, and am, appalled.)
Anybody mind posting a high quality scan? For, uh, research purposes only, of course.
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