You are an off-duty police officer. You are driving with your family in your car when you see man get beat up

Question

You are an off-duty police officer. You are driving with your family in your car when you see an elderly man get beat up by 10 men, some with baseball bats. What do you do?

All those were good answers for me but isn't there a law saying you shouldn't shoot in to the air? Same velocity going up as down or something like that? Does it not apply to this situation?

Answer 1

I WOULD HAVE MY WIFE CALL 911 ON THE CELL PHONE AND OBSERVE.
UNLESS I BROUGHT MY GLOCK WITH ME, THEN I WOULD GET OUT OF MY CAR AND POINT MY GUN UP IN THE SKY AND FIRE A SHOT TO GET THEIR ATTENTION AND HOLD THEM THERE TILL OTHER POLICE ARRIVE

Answer 2

The To Go Guy has answered the question exactley how it should be handled. You are not obligated to act off duty. People think that you are, but you have a choice. Most would get involved, but the smart ones would call 911 and let the on duty officer's handle it. A good officer would be a good witness in that situation.
Firing a warning shot is not at all an option. If you fire your gun on duty, you'd better be firing to stop a threat by contact from a bullet.
The media would have a frenzy with this. I'm going through this media crap right now. I delt with a guy in a proper police manner for they type of call. His actions required me to put him on the ground and cuff him. I was told he had a gun and he kept reaching in his jacket to pull out a item (not a gun). I didn't know, all I knew was that he woudln't put his arms up.
Now he is saying that he has an injury and can't lift his arm. He never mentioned this at the scene and could have stuck his arm out to the side, not in his jacket! Anyway, now he went to the news and said that he was kicked and repeatidly dropped. None of which are true. Plus he is suing the city and since he filled a lawsuit my department can't comment. So all the news stories get his side, and then says Police refused to comment. This is minor compared to shooting someone. Officer's who shoot people on duty to save themself or someone else get hammered in the news......I really don't like the media.
So, my tangent is over, sorry I got off subject, but this may give you an idea why officer would not jump out shooting in this type of situation.

Answer 3

Great answers, not even close to being correct, but great.
We were told in the later years of my career to be a good witness. The problem with getting involved by yourself is among other things, you have no way to summon back up immediately.
You get out, lose control of your weapon, now you have a crowd armed with a gun.
We were trained that EVERY call you go on, there is a gun there. Usually you are the only one with a gun, but you have introduced a gun into the mix.
If you get out and hesitate with 10 people there to use deadly force, you have just opened the door to you being attacked.
If you do shoot the person with the bat or persons, then you will be severely criticized by everyone who wasn't there about how terrible it was you shot someone. Trust me been there, done that with a person wielding a knife, everyone who wasn't there was so critical!
Despite all of what I just said about how risky it is, how much trouble you may be in as an off-duty officer, I would probably still do something.
With my luck, the guy would be a child molestor that the crowd was trying to subdue after he was caught kidnapping a baby!
Everything isn't always as it appears.

Answer 4

I stop my car, get out and pull my Glock, yell police and if they don't stop cap one or two to get their attention. Wife is calling for backup and has her Ruger P-89 with the 16 mag ready for action. Should have read the other answers first. Guess the other LEO's are big city. I am small town rural parttime, but we consider ourselves always on duty. In my town 10 guys with bats either drop the bats or we drop the guys with lead. If they drop the bats and advance toward me, I tell them 1 time to get on the ground, 10 against 1 is justified for deadly force use. Had 5 one time, attacked in masse, 3 shots later 1 dead, 1 wounded, 3 begging for mercy.

Answer 5

With my family in the car, about all I could do is call it in. only sheer numbers can fix this situation as sad as it sounds. I'd take down discriptions if I could for later identification. You are talking about 10 people against 1 if you got out of the vehicle. You could try yelling "Police Officer" but I've found over the years that only makes things worse. I hate these kinds of questions though, since there is no neat clean cut and dried response that ordinary citizens always expect.

Answer 6

And yet another reason why some agencies have a policy where you are not to use your patrol vehicle to travel around in with your family. It is considered a "work" vehicle and as far as I'm concerned anyone who uses the vehcle as a family car is ignorant. The only thing the red and blues do is make your family a target. It shows how much some people think of the safety of their family to save a few dollars in gas by using the agencies vehicle. That scenario would have been solved long ago if the patrol vehicle was never used for family outtings.

Answer 7

Simply put, I'd elect to keep my family at a safe distance and be a good witness. I lack several things I usually have when on duty that would help in a fight scenario. Granted, I carry a sidearm when off, but I lack a radio to call for backup, or update dispatch of what might be changing moment to moment, or where someone might be fleeing to, I lack my pepper spray, I lack my taser, I lack my baton, and most importantly, I lack the presence of backup. My training and expertise can only take me so far in a grudge match of that sort. My duty at that point is to be a good witness, protect my family, and remain on scene to at least advise the on duty units what I saw.

Answer 8

If I'm an off duty police officer, didn't I take an oath to serve and protect.? And aren't I a Police Officer 24/7.? You never know exactly how your going to act. But, you did say an " elderly " man. And you did say 10 guys. 1st; get on my radio/cell phone and call it in asking for back-up. 2nd; can i safely park my family out of harms way.? 3rd; Because their are 10 guys w/ baseball bats, I think I would fire a warning shot or two into the air and identify myself as a police officer. 4th; Identify as many as possible for an actual charge of assault/bodily injury to a senior citizen and then wait for back-up. That's just ONE SCENARIO, alot depends on the immeadiate situation. You really never fully KNOW!!!

GOD BLESS/GOOD LUCK!!

Answer 9

If I were armed, I would step in and assist the victim. This is why most officers carry weapons off-duty. I would have my family call 911 and get help for me while dealing with the situation.

I know of someone who was faced with a similar situation, she literally drove her truck into the middle of the fracas and dispersed most of the combatants.

Answer 10

I belive by law they or anyone is required to assist in anyway possible. I heard someone smashing up a car in my apartment late in the night and the next day when the cop came to take the report, I told them what I heard. They asked if I had called it in and I said no, I didn't come outside, female...dark... you get the picture. I looked out a window and didn't see anyone around and thought I had scared them off. They told me next time I had better call it in it's a law. The good citizens or something like that.

Answer 11

You cant just fire a weapon, simply because you have it. When you fire into the air, that bullet has to come down somewhere and it could cause serious injury. You cant shoot at someone just because they are coming at you. Any shooting has to be justified. Each state, city, department, etc... has its own use of force policy. Even if you are firing at someone you have to have a safe backdrop to stop the bullet from hitting innocent bystanders or going into a building. Every bullet that comes out of your weapon has to be accounted for.