It's either vindictive or incompetent and it is indefensible either way.
Is this normal police action?
- Thread starter IowaMeatMan
- Start date
It's either vindictive or incompetent and it is indefensible either way.
There is a huge difference between bench warrant and a criminal arrest warrant.
In the situation you described, why would they not arrest you right then and there?
Or did they, and you missed a court date, so the judge issued a bench warrant. Meaning the next time you have contact with a cop, you get arrested and brought before the judge to explain why you missed court.
No, a prospective employer wouldn't know because you had not been convicted of that charge. When a local warrant come out, LE will try to serve that warrant until they get arrested. If they live in neighboring counties, we will notify them to attempt to pick them up. We like to clear our warrants, but you can't clear them all. I work in a smaller agency then ICPD, so I'm assuming they wouldn't make the personal effort that we do. We call and go to the residence until we find them. Out of state and not in our area, they will probably sit there until the person has interactions with LE.
Some counties put stipulations on their warrants. Example, bordering counties only, within 100 miles etc. Our warrants are very simple. If it's a misdemeanor we will go statewide to pick you up, if it's a felony warrant we will go nationwide to pick you up.
Johnson County/ICPD won't go a mile to knock on my door during the day when they issued an arrest warrant for me for a misdemeanor knowing my address and phone number, but they'll drive to Amana Colonies if I have a tire blowout and a sheriff's deputy stops by to help and I f*ck up and give him my real name or he runs my plates. Hell of a system you got there.
OP...just be happy you survived your interactions with law enforcement without being shot or tased.
As I understand it, I wasn't home when the search was executed - I was at work. They found the weed and drew up the warrant and filed it away while making no effort to inform me. Maybe that's not how it occurred but that was the sense I got from @ConvenientParking ...he can correct me if I'm wrong. I would assume this was an arrest warrant issued by the officers who searched the place since CP doesn't seem to be aware of any court date missed. OTOH, half an ounce isn't insignificant so I assume CP knew it was seized and maybe should have followed up at the time.
Correct, I was at work when warrant was executed. How could I have missed a court date? I had not been charged with anything, booked, arraigned, nothing. Not until I turned myself in months and months later after Andy Griffith pulled me over on my bicycle. There was paraphernalia in the common area of the apartment (vaporizer in living room) which gave the cops PC to search the entire apartment instead of just the room of the search warrant target. Also, correction, they did not find half an ounce of weed in my room. They found half a gram and then a collection of 4 or 5 pipes/water pipes. I think they just decided "this bust was a total waste of time and we are colossal failures for being here" so they did the bare minimum paperwork and said eff it.
Outstanding warrants will show up in background checks. They are public records. I know this is certainly the case in NC because I've seen them.
Sounds like you not only have a problem with not taking responsibility but with ICPD. Just remember not all LE are the same.
They won’t on employers background checks through the DCI in Iowa. If you go to Iowa courts online, then yes it would show up there.
What do you mean "not taking responsibility" here? When I eventually found out, with absolutely no thanks earned by the "professionals" in your line of work (whose job is thankless for good reason when you toss out the extremely rare heroic officers), I turned myself in immediately and successfully completed probation. I took responsibility already, thank you very much. And I didn't do anything actually wrong, I just broke a shitty law which I owned up to when I eventually learned I needed to. To me it sounds like you have a problem with owning up to the fact that your line of work gives license to scumbags to treat people like dirt.
Lol, no shit, any employer worth a shit will run a check for outstanding warrants etc.
Pot is a plant that grows in the ground
If God didn't want it, it wouldn't be around
So to all you squares who never got high
STFU and give it a try
You do understand that he (Hawkman) doesn’t make the policies/laws that he enforces, correct? Im guessing you don’t quite grasp that. So you calling it “his system” isn’t really accurate.
If you don’t like it, change the people you elect, politicians and judges. Hawkman doesn’t issue the warrant. The judges do. Hawkman can request a warrant but only a judge can order one. The judge/courts will set the parameters of that warrant: countywide, 100 miles, bordering counties, instate only, bordering states, nationwide, etc. The parameters vary from jurisdiction to jurisdiction and are mainly based on the alleged offense (misdemeanor / felony). When you start going across state lines, things become a little trickier and costly with waivers of extradition and governor’s warrants. In Clinton co for example, a serious or aggravated misdemeanor warrant may read: “pick up State of Iowa and Rock Island and Whiteside Counties in Illinois”. Illinois warrants are also fun ones. They’ll say something pick up North of Highway 72 or East of the Illinois River. To what you touched on a little, no Clinton Co won’t go 45 minutes to hour to extradite from Carroll Co IL, but they’ll go five hours to Woodbury Co. I’m not sure why this is other than crossing state lines can be more expensive if the defendant fights extradition.
Whether it’s an arrest warrant or a bench warrant, the courts will issue it, not the police. The courts don’t mail or call you if they issue you a bench warrant either. Are the judges vindictive and incompetent too? You seem to have a lot of pent-up anger, although it’s misdirected and wrong. That’s okay, at least you’re getting it out here. Some counties have started websites that list warrants, active and served. You may want to check with your county on that.
Another thing is that the sheriff’s office will do the transporting for a majority of the warrants. For your example, if the Iowa City PD requests a warrant for Possession of a Controlled Substance and a judge orders it, the Johnson Co SO would be the ones extraditing once you’re arrested in Iowa County (Amana). Des Moines PD is the only police dept that I’ve seen transport their own warrants. ISP will also relay their prisoners across the state depending on their availability, but often times that will fall back on the sheriffs office.
Coralville cops tail me all the time because I'm brown. Some do a uey and furiously punch in my license plate to see if the vehicle is stolen or whether there are warrants. I can see them typing it in haha. When they find nothing, they furiously pull another uey and head in the opposite direction. Then they send me mail asking for me to donate to their general fund. What a bunch of losers.
Mind blowing stuff. The five o don't make the laws they enthusiastically enforce and the county courts are staffed by a combination of disincentivized administrative cogs and holier-than-thou judges. That totally makes me feel better about due process.
Well yeah, you put it that way it doesn't really sound bad. What actually happens is you go on a cop list of people who were once checked for warrants, ergo obviously a suspicious character at best, at worst probably a criminal. So whenever they're looking for a suspect they get out this cop list of people who were once checked for warrants and bingo! you are now a suspect in whatever malfeasance they are currently investigating. You wind up face down on the pavement with a knee on your neck. You might live through that, you might not.
Like I said, these are the people you elected. Can’t all be Carnies, I guess.
Are you saying that because some of the worthless folks I'm bitching about were elected (without my vote), that I can't criticize them for being shitty officials who run pathetic operations?
This isn't really relevant. A bench warrant is issued for violating the rules of the court...generally a failure to appear that you are fully aware of. In CP's case, he's claiming they issued an arrest warrant - yes, signed by a judge - that he wasn't made aware of. The judge isn't the person responsible for making that arrest or notification but someone should be...wouldn't you think?
Someone probably will the next time you go to register a vehicle or similar. Apparently it's not the responsibility of cops or the justice system to inform you when you've been accused by the state of breaking the law.
This is what I mean. You broke the law but say you didn’t actually do anything wrong. I get it, you don’t agree with the majority of LE. I’m not going to convince you otherwise. Just trying to explain our side of things for perspective. It’s ok to have different opinions.
I’m saying that your anger is now directed at the correct people. You have the right to be angry at whoever you want to be, misdirected or otherwise.
There are no laws against that.
You know, forget I even added that part. Because I did take responsibility for it, which you seem to be ignoring. Apparently because I'm the criminal, your kind and your partners in the court system have no obligation to inform me that I'm wanted.
Nope I meant to say good job of taking care of the issue once you found out. Many don’t.
Well they do have an obligation to inform you. Once they read that warrant and serve it to you, in custody. Before that, vast majority of defendants are not notified by phone or mail. I’d venture a guess that most addresses and phone numbers would be incorrect and a waste of time anyway. Not in your case, I understand.
You don’t come off as the criminal as much as you’re sounding like the victim.
Since you seem to have the expertise here, where was the ball dropped in allowing me the opportunity to take responsibility for my criminal malfeasance in a more timely manner? This original search warrant was executed in March. I found out I had a warrant in August. Cops found enough to charge my roommate with intent to deliver weed, but they busted probably the least successful pot dealer in my apartment building because they got a bad tip about steroids from a bust in another county which is supposedly what they interrogated my roommate about. So my guess is, not having found a steroid ring, the detective thought following up with me was a total waste of time. They just file their paperwork for the DA's office and slink home? Is the DA supposed to refer my warrant to a state marshal or is their policy just to assume I'm going to slip up legally before an outstanding warrant for a misdemeanor has a chance to mess something up for me? It's indefensible, sorry.
If I saw a cop walking up to me but I decided to literally shit myself as a defense mechanism would the cop typically just say eff it and decide not to talk to me. In this scenario I wasn’t doing anything illegal and the cop was walking up to me because he saw my Bee Movie shirt and he wanted to say “cool shirt.” Or would a cop typically be offended by the odor so question me instead so they could arrest me, and try to steal my Bee Movie shirt in booking. TIA
I wouldn’t bee surprised if you got stung in that scenario. Nomsayin?
You knew they conducted a search warrant at your residence and they would have had to leave a copy of the search warrant and inventory seized form. Why not contact LE if you had questions or wanted to know if you were being charged?
Depends if microwaved brisket caused your explosive shit. If that was the case, I’d keep walking thinking BAU.
Can you try this again but using a different cliche? Apparently being straight edge makes one think idioms are for clever people.
