Anyone ever been deputized?

T

Twinsig

New member
Isn't that solely a function of the county sheriff and only applies to residents of that county?
For example: Sherrif Darryl Daniel's of Clay Co Fla.
Sorry, no link but there's an interesting news story on the Web, w/video of course..
 
A lot of states including California (150 PC) allow peace officers from the state, county, and/or city levels to posse comitatus individuals. In fact failing to comply with being directed into service by such means can be prosecuted as a misdemeanor.

One time I had a gang banger fail to comply and I later picked him up on a warrant for said violation.
 
I was deputized once back in the mid 1970's. Had to do with a skyjacking incident. Too long to try and tell it but I'll just say it got interesting.
Paul B.
 
Oh that's right!

I was also deputized as a young-un. IIRC, later, our fort was over--run by some fanatic teenagers!
 
My wife and I are members of our county Sheriff's Posse. Our regular duties are to assist the Sheriff with non LE type activities. We are normally called out to assist when searching for lost people or to assist in the event of natural disasters such as floods or tornadoes. All of us have had 1st responder and first aid training and we are often asked to help provide backup at local concerts, the air show, and other events. We disperse in the crowds with radios and are usually the 1st person on the scene when someone is in distress.

There aren't a lot of counties that do this and we get a lot of requests to help in other counties and even states. We get a lot of practice and often are asked to help try to locate a missing body, or evidence of a crime by other agencies. I've traveled as far south as Miami and as far north as Kokomo with searches in AL, SC, NC, TN as well as all over GA.

Under "normal" circumstances we are not armed and have no arrest powers, but the Sheriff give us those powers if he wishes. In an emergency we could be deputized and paired with a paid deputy to assist them and increase manpower. But we're not just any Joe off the street. All of us have to be fingerprinted and go through the same background check each year as the paid deputies.

I certainly hope it never comes to that. I singed up for the SAR and lifesaving side of it. But if things get bad enough that we're needed would do my part. If its that bad I'd rather be working with LE than not.
 
Before handgun permits in Tennessee, the only way to legally carry a gun was to be a law enforcement officer. I was deputized as a special deputy at 23 years old and was commissioned for about 20 years-until the permit system took over. I had full law enforcement powers within the state, but "playing cop" was discouraged.
 
DoubleNaughtSpy,

What idiot would try to deputize a gang banger? Why would it be okay to do so?
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To be able to make an arrest (and a point) later when it might be safer to do so.

Back in my day we didn't go in with half/tracks and such. We had to give heads up to aggressive gangsters who were actually taking over neighborhoods on our own and without much backup.

It is in fact a violation of the law within the State of California and many other states to fail to provide such support to a peace officer legally engaged in his/her duties.

You were never a cop, huh?

Zoo
 
I had an "Honorary Deputy" card in the 1970s.
Good enough to get me on the county pistol team at the state PPC championships.
 
We had to give heads up to aggressive gangsters who were actually taking over neighborhoods on our own and without much backup.
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You must have been dealing with some very low rent gangsters to need to use that for a charge. Heck, catch them with 3 or 4 dime bags and you already had them for felony sales. "Aggressive Gangsters"??? I could come up with beter than refusing to assist.
 
Yes, many years ago (probably long before many of you were born) I used to be temporarily "deputized" by a particular Federal agency or Federal service that allowed me to legally carry a weapon in all 50 states. The federal service later dropped that courtesy to us; not sure why. However, I was, at that time, an officer of a Federal agency. There were some strict qualifications.

Only one of the two actually called it being "deputized" but both basically did the same thing.
 
My father got deputized back in the 1950's after a tornado blew through our little town and did a lot of damage. Our mayor, to avoid looting and looking and to clear up the streets for emergency workers ordered EVERYBODY to stay home and ordered the police to enforce it. Real emergency workers got temporary deputy paperwork. My dad thought it was kind of funny at the time but he held onto the paperwork proudly for many years.

P.S. I don't know if what the mayor did was legal back then but we didn't have the interwebs and social media and the police chief went along with him so we all stayed home and tidied up our own yards and neighbors yards. Yeah it was a different time and place.
 
You must have been dealing with some very low rent gangsters to need to use that for a charge. Heck, catch them with 3 or 4 dime bags and you already had them for felony sales. "Aggressive Gangsters"??? I could come up with beter than refusing to assist.
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SHR970, apparently you've been watching too many netflix cop shows. In the course of my duties as a patrol officer I had to deal with all manner of gangsters/gang bangers. That included "Low rent," high rent, and sometimes no rent. ;)

It isn't like in the movies, most of the time. You can't just shake people down for drugs without reasonable suspicion. Even a Terry frisk, which is a lot more cursory search than that usually required to find bindles of drugs requires some rs. Running around and making arrests for charges that didn't stick wasn't my thing.

Go to a neighborhood and use PC 150 a couple of times and see how fast the local hoodlums disperse rather than hang around giving you grief while you arrest one of their own. Granted, the strategy doesn't work everywhere and with everyone.
 
Yes, it was a long time ago I was about 22. There was a bunch running around shooting up farmers tractors sitting in the fields. The local sheriff saw a bunch of us sitting in the parking lot & knew we all talked on the CB radios. He told us about the problem & asked for help. The ones of us that had CCLs he deputized but he told us don't shoot unless shot at. He wanted us to use our CB radios to call him to let him know what we were seeing as we drove around the county watching the fields.
They caught the guys doing the shooting on the other side of the county.
 
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