After seeing some responses to my blog post, I guess I need to address a couple of things. I'm going to make it short.
1 - People are saying that, "in lieu" (instead of) taking a person into custody (arresting them) the officer can just issue a citation. So if someone refuses to sign the citation, the officer will just go back to square one. Arresting the driver.
Now I have no Utah Code for back up what I'm about to say, but once an officer has decided to issue a citation instead of arresting the person, thats all he has to do. By law I'm saying. He hands the driver the citation and leave. That's it. The purpose of my entire post was to point out that there's no LEGAL basis for requiring someone to sign a citation. I'm not saying it shouldn't be done. I'm just saying it isn't required. This is something which should be address by the legislators if the law enforcement want to start doing.
2 - The purpose of signing it is to protect yourself. Well. It makes sense. I wouldn't want an officer to just right up a citation out of nowhere, hand it to the court, and being that I never received the citation, I end up being arrested for not contacting the court.
The problem is, the officer is going to have to first have all your information. Registration, Drivers license info, etc. Handing in a counterfeit citation into a court would open up SO MANY legal problems for the officer it wouldn't be worth it. I'm not saying it wouldn't happen. Just saying I doubt it would happen all that much. And when it does, it won't do any good for anyone.
Finally, when people get parking tickets, Meter Maids usually just insert the ticket behind the wipers and go on with their day. Why can't it just be like this?
PS
I'm going to bash on the driver for a moment here. Once a citation is issued, it's issued. There's no way he's going to talk himself out of a ticket once the citation is issued. Just a heads up for all of you out there who decide to keep jibber jabbin after the citation is issued. Just leave. (And just sign it, it saves everyone a whole lotta trouble)
4 comments:
Your entire argument is invalid because Utah DOES in fact have the law you claim it does not.
http://le.utah.gov/~code/TITLE77/htm/77_09025.htm
A signature is typically a requirement to show proof of delivery. This is to both protect the person being "served" as well as avoid the "I never received the citation" arguments. This usually follows the same exact rules for "officers of the court" legally serving you papers. You are "required" to sign the papers, or there is no validation that you received them. In this case, the officer DOES know who you are, and you are not following the officers instructions to sign the paperwork(which only proves that you received it, and nothing more).
With that being said, the individual in the video was not following directions and therefore was breaking the law.
What you people have to understand is that these people have to deal with scumbags every day, and the quality of people they have to deal with is continually deteriorating. If the individual is not following directions, and moves in a direction that could possibly lead to the individual arming themselves, the officer should prevent that situation from happening. If I had any family members that were police officers I would prefer they protect themselves in this manner than get shot by some idiot who won't follow directions.
OK after actually watching the video, the officer clearly shot this individual early. Had this individual continued to move towards his vehicle after having the weapon pointed at him, then the officer might have been justified.
The actions of this individual were _way_ out of line. But they had not yet reached a point where he should have been tased.
Note to everyone reading.. If you act like this idiot does(the driver of the suburban), I hope you are also pulled over by someone as clueless as you are You will accomplish absolutely NOTHING by saying anything other than "yes" and "ok". The MORE compliant you are, the more likely you are to be given a warning(whether or not the officer would have been justified in ticketing you to begin with).
Okay Tyler I really like your blog here and your view. I have a caveat I'd like to add however on the issue of signing a citation. What if a citation were issued and then signed by the accused, officer, and complainant, then the officer/s didn't give you a copy of the citation but arrested you, took you in custody, then further delivered YOU to jail for booking and detention? Oh and all of this happening without a reason for arrest, no rights given or authority established. What if in an internal affairs investigation as well as an official police report itself corroborated a citation issuance? What/how would one portend to belive about this situation and any recourse one might have or take this as? If upon discovery request of the/a citation copy is denied or mysteriously untraceable might one concur the officer/s involved in the issuance of the citation as violation of code 77-7-26 resultant for the officers receiving a Misdemeanor Class B? Especially if it were noted by one of the transporting officers quoting, "oh that citation you signed, you don't need to worry about it, it's been taken care of!" (note the " " marks) Would the arrest in your/ya'lls view be deemed illegal, unjustified or wrongful if the elements 1 or 2 and all sub-elements of code 77-7-6 weren't met?
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