Police are criticized for dressing as firefighters to trick, arrest man

as i stated above in a post- it was a brilliant idea,and yes they did catch a criminal,BUT by pulling a fire alarm in an apartment building they could have risked a serious panic with people being injured or killed. what if someone with a heart condition suddenly had a heart attack? or trampled to death? fell down the stairs trying to flee? etc
man if that happened would have made me wish i was a lawyer.
or did they silently evacuate the building to keep that from happening?

this is a nation of laws and we cannot simply abide by our law enforcement officers breaking the law in order to apprehend criminals.

It is my opinion that the cops break the law every day to apprehend criminals.

For example - it's okay for them to "impersonate" a drug dealer, sell drugs, and keep the money they made, in addition to arresting the buyer.

I'm not trying to sidetrack this thread with that example, rather just making the point that if it's against the law for ordinary civilians to partake in illegal activities, it should be illegal for law enforcement too! SHOULD, being the key word!!

Moreover, if an ordinary civilian tried this same stunt because, say, he/she felt that the toddler was in immediate danger (or any reason, really), they would most certainly be in jail, facing felony charges.

Paid leave will be the harshest "punishment" for these guys, assuming there is any disciplinary action at all. However, I wouldn't count on it...

What they did was safe for the child which is a great decision by them. But now that TPTB or even the polic force knows that it worked it just opens the door for somebody to abuse it.

People will find ways to abuse any law or rule or anything that was once good.

ok just read an article in my local paper about a man who was arrested for impersonating a nyc firefighter while helping fight a fire in suffern ny. he hasa fuul gear and even had his name on it.
i don't know how to link but it is www.poconorecord.com

Well its NOT entrapment. To entrap means to force or do something to MAKE someone commit a crime that they wouldn't normally commit. So thats not the case here.

As for the above poster who thinks we get to keep the money we get during undercover buys and sales of narcotics...NOT SO!

EDIT TO ADD: I got to dress like a Georgia Power utility worker, including driving the boom truck to catch an aggrivated rapist. It was intersting to try and act like I knew what I was doing with all the crap they have to wear..lol

[edit on 3/14/2009 by rcwj75]

reply to post by rcwj75


i never said it was entrapment- i was just saying it is illegal to impersonate a firefighter without the commanders permission. so i assume that goes for police also.
and i know very few cops keep money from buys or the drugs they find but some do- lways be corruption by some.
you be safe out there!

reply to post by bigfoot1212


I didn't mean you BF! It was another member who mentioned entrapment. So its all good...and thanks man!

That's really part of the job for police to wear disguises in order to catch crooks, however I agree that maybe dressing up as firefighters is a bad idea.

It's sort of like the Taliban hiding out in Mosque, not that the police are like Taliban, but like the Taliban are exposing other Mosque as potential targets the police are exposing other firefighters unrelated to this indecent as no longer trust worthy and perhaps policemen in disguise. Meaning in the future when one sees firefighters rolling in where there could be potential criminal activity or maybe there's just a paranoid guy there with a warrant the firefighters may not be allowed to treat people as quickly and innocent people may die as a result.

The police do their job regardless of whether people get hurt or killed in the process especially if the people or their contacts have been deemed to have committed a crime previously no matter how serious - whereas firefighters whole being is about saving lives regardless of who somebody is or what crimes they have committed prior.

The fact is everybody, but an arsonists should be able to trust firefighters. In the U.S. many of them include paramedics which are really field medics/doctors and most medics treat patients no matter who they are or what they've done. They are like Angels to those that would have died without them - I know they saved my life one time and I will never forget that.

I think any Fire Chief who exposes his men as well as other firefighters by sharing his uniforms with police has perhaps chosen the wrong profession and maybe should think about hanging up his hat - if I was a firefighter I would call for his resignation.

[edit on 14-3-2009 by verylowfrequency]

thank you frequency- i said in an above post that firefighters are one of the very few public officials that the people can always trust for help.
so when the police (or anyone else) tricks them that trust is now gone, and could possibly endanger the lives of firemen because next time there is a fire alarm the people may think omg it's the cops!!!

reply to post by bigfoot1212


Not only that how many paranoid people are going to ignore the fire alarms because it's just the police attempting to get that dope dealer to come out to arrest him. Sort of like crying wolf - when people start to ignore fire alarms then one day people will die, all because the police thought their job was more important today than future lives tomorrow.

reply to post by verylowfrequency


exactly. and the sad part is a firemans 1st duty is to protect lives and 2nd is to protect property.
i always used to get scared when we had a fire call in known places of crackhouses and other drug dealers. they would rather shoot than come out and get caught, plus you never know what boobytraps they have waiting. now when the police start pulling stunts like this it just makes our lives that much more in danger when all we are doing is trying to help.