The Handcuffing topic again.

I performed one aspect of my job last night. I had to handcuff someone in the field. Why do I feel like I have done something wrong? I had Law Enforcement with me as procedure calls for. I did not want Law Enforcement coming to the door with me, as to not scare the offender from opening his door. The offender walked out of the front door and I handcuffed him immediately. He was a violent offender and before he could debate anything with me, I handcuffed him for my safety. Law enforcement then approached the area. I know I am not a cop, I am a probation officer, why should we have to feel bad when doing an essential part of our job. I really do not understand?

Where are you chanels 8,9,10, and 13. Do you not care about our safety? You only care when one of our offenders has a high profile and then you slam us to the ground. I think you need to continue on with this story, like you did a couple of months ago. A good title for the story would be "Department Liability vs. Officer Safety" .

Bottom line, a probation officer should not feel guilty about handcuffing an offender for his own safety.

P.S. I am not a wannabe cop but a Probation Officer and handcuffing is one aspect of our job.

[Merlin]

I performed one aspect of my job last night. I had to handcuff someone in the field. Why do I feel like I have done something wrong? I had Law Enforcement with me as procedure calls for. I did not want Law Enforcement coming to the door with me, as to not scare the offender from opening his door. The offender walked out of the front door and I handcuffed him immediately. He was a violent offender and before he could debate anything with me, I handcuffed him for my safety. Law enforcement then approached the area. I know I am not a cop, I am a probation officer, why should we have to feel bad when doing an essential part of our job. I really do not understand?

Where are you chanels 8,9,10, and 13. Do you not care about our safety? You only care when one of our offenders has a high profile and then you slam us to the ground. I think you need to continue on with this story, like you did a couple of months ago. A good title for the story would be "Department Liability vs. Officer Safety" .

Bottom line, a probation officer should not feel guilty about handcuffing an offender for his own safety.

P.S. I am not a wannabe cop but a Probation Officer and handcuffing is one aspect of our job.

What's the issue? Just do your job and shut the hell up. If I felt guilty about any aspect of my job I'd quit. If you do the right thing at the right time you wouldn't be second guessing yourself. People are blowing this totally out of proportion IMHO.

[mystikwarrior]

I'm with Merlin. Why do you feel guilty about cuffing the guy?
Will you also feel guilty testifying at his VOP hearing because what you say may send him to prison for 20 years?
I didn't think so.
If it bothers you that much, maybe you do need a career change. But in the greater scheme of things you need to look at WHY he was being violated and see if you could have done anything different in supervising him that may have prevented it. The best way to avoid cuffing them is to make sure they don't do anything so you have to. Everybody wins that way. You, him and society.

[Merlin]

I'm with Merlin. Why do you feel guilty about cuffing the guy?
Will you also feel guilty testifying at his VOP hearing because what you say may send him to prison for 20 years?
I didn't think so.
If it bothers you that much, maybe you do need a career change. But in the greater scheme of things you need to look at WHY he was being violated and see if you could have done anything different in supervising him that may have prevented it. The best way to avoid cuffing them is to make sure they don't do anything so you have to. Everybody wins that way. You, him and society.

You hit the nail on the head with this post. God only knows why a PO would get hung up on the cuffing issue. Whether or not I cuff or someone else cuffs is of little concern since it takes a minute or two out of my very busy day with MUCH higher priorities to deal with. With clearer focus on completing the conditions of supervision and providing strict enough supervision in the community to prevent crimes we'd obviously spend less time cuffing (not that it takes much time to cuff, but VOPs and Court hearings are time consuming and unnecessary if we motivate the offenders to do the right stuff). There's more than one way to skin a cat as they say.

don't you think it would be a lot easier for everybody including the probationer/parolee to stay on the straight and narrow if the state would pick one set of laws and leave it alone for at least 1 year.

[mystikwarrior]

if the state would pick one set of laws and leave it alone for at least 1 year.

The Legislative session is over. The laws you have now are it for at least 10 months. Run with them. Just don't pull the typical DOC trick of "we don't like that law so we'll make up our own".

don't you think it would be a lot easier for everybody including the probationer/parolee to stay on the straight and narrow if the state would pick one set of laws and leave it alone for at least 1 year.

They need to make a statewide 2500 foot rule on pedophiles to get them out in the coutry away from most of the children. But now that cant happen until the next session I guess.

why r u guys blasting him? officers are scared to leave an ofoa out of date let alone have the possibility of having to write a use of force report. it is a legitimate post. some supervisors would probably react negatively even if all went well like in this instance. Heaven forbid what would happen to the cpo if the offender was injured during an encounter like that. typically i have found with doc you are basically damned no matter what you do.

why r u guys blasting him? officers are scared to leave an ofoa out of date let alone have the possibility of having to write a use of force report. it is a legitimate post. some supervisors would probably react negatively even if all went well like in this instance. Heaven forbid what would happen to the cpo if the offender was injured during an encounter like that. typically i have found with doc you are basically damned no matter what you do.

That is true to a certain point. Most people only get paper on them however which means nothing really. If you fight any suspension or punishment on that level usually the officer wins and it gets reversed or thrown out with a very few exceptions.

yeah ok..but who wants to go through all that trouble and then you are looked at like a trouble maker. no thanks. field work is bad enough if you think about it. all we have been is lucky. we have no radio, no one knows exactly where we are in real time like police. and alot cpos still dont carry. i think what this guy did was ballsy. alot of cpos would not be the one to slap cuffs on an offender. not ballsy in a bad way mind you.