Every day, police officers have to arrest all sorts of criminals. But, what happens if they have to arrest a fellow cop? Things can get pretty interesting!
Police officers on Reddit who have arrested another cop share what happened. Content has been edited for clarity.
He Tried To Use His Rank To Get Out Of Trouble
“My dad who was a cop for a few years. He was still working as a full-time cop before switching full-time to firefighting and made a traffic stop around 11 at night back in the mid-80s. It was a nicer car, speeding well over the speed limit, so my dad initiated a stop. Before he was out of his cruiser, the driver had what looked like a badge hanging out of the window.
My dad walked up, does the usual song and dance and the driver said, ‘You obviously can’t freaking see who I am.’
My dad said, ‘Yes, Lieutenant Colonel, I do and right now I’m conducting a traffic stop.’
Turns out the driver was a Lt. Colonel in the Ohio State Highway Patrol, which is pretty high up in their rank structure. My dad again asks him for license and insurance and the guy goes off. Threatening to the governor at the time and threatening his job, saying he was just trying to get back to Columbus after an ‘engagement’ and so on. Eventually, he calls for backup and has another officer there to witness what was going on. After a while, my dad wrote him a ticket and while still screaming, Mr. Pullingrank drives away.
The next shift, my dad got called in by his assistant chief and was asked about the stop, and apparently, the Colonel of OSHP was calling him about it. In the end, they had to bring in the other officer to write a statement of what went on and in the end, nothing came of it, except the ticket wasn’t contested and paid.”
How Could He Do That To His Kids?
“I actually have had to arrest three separate members of the justice system this year.
First, a practicing lawyer and former judge had been utilizing his position to coerce coitus from defendants. He utilized this leverage even after he was not a judge anymore. Investigation by DCI revealed he had about a dozen victims, so a warrant for his arrest was made which I executed. Arresting a guy you used to put defendants in front of is a very odd feeling. He weaseled out of prison time and got it all suspended and put on a direct supervision probation program. Absolute garbage, I’ve seen guys do way less get way more time, but it’s not really a secret that money has a habit of tipping the scales of justice.
Next was a prison guard who strangled his girlfriend, then stalked her relentlessly. I actually arrested him twice because after he posted bail on the first one, he was spotted lurking outside her home only 45 minutes after being released. He’s currently in on felony assault, strangulation of a household member, and felony violation of a protection order. He’s still in my jail awaiting trial with a bail that has been substantially increased. I’m anticipating prison time for him, but only time will tell.
Third was a city police officer (I’m a County Deputy Sheriff) because we received a call from a 6-year-old that his dad was in the garage doing narcotics and wouldn’t come out. Showed up to find four very young kids running around unsupervised. It was a city Police Officer smoking a substance that he had confiscated during a traffic stop and not reported or turned in to evidence. The DCI took the case from us due to potential conflict of interest and had placed him in another county’s jail and I haven’t heard any more about it. Hope he does time too. What kinda idiot leaves his little kids totally alone and unsupervised while they smoke? ESPECIALLY when said person is a freaking cop. Unforgivable in my opinion.”
They Would Definitely Do It Again
“I got a phone call from a fellow officer’s wife saying he was hammered, and refusing to leave the house. Knocked on the front door, but found him crying on the porch about his wife leaving him because she wasn’t happy anymore. She walked by the porch and motioned for me to come inside through the glass door. She proceeded to show me the red marks on her throat, the hole in the door that he punched through beside her head, and some other evidence that doesn’t need to be disclosed.
After asking him to come inside and get dressed, he refused to leave with me. I wasn’t going to handcuff him in front of his kid, but he decided to take that moment to run from me. He was faster and got away for about five minutes before I found him walking through a playground a couple of building over. Caught up to him, he punched me but was taken into custody after a slight use of force. On the way to the station, he tried to kick out a window in my cruiser and told me I was ruining his life.
He ended up getting charged with about seven different charges and was kicked out of the Marines. On his way out, he lied to NCIS and got an investigation opened on me for assault. The investigation was completed, thoroughly, and all charges against me were marked as unsubstantiated, but the charges still showed up after I got out and went through a background check for my security clearance.
10/10, would do again. My slight inconvenience was totally worth it for him to go down for domestic assault charges.”
Yeah, I Wouldn’t Want To Work There Either
“The city police department had gotten their first internet computer in the early 2000s, and one of the two female officers was having trouble with the computer. She had spent an hour screaming, hitting, and yelling at it before pulling her weapon out and shooting the computer. The other female officer (who is my sister’s future MIL) had to take her down and arrest her for unlawful use of a service weapon, and destruction of municipal property. The charges were dropped because she asked if she could instead quit without her pension and benefits and go to therapy. Now she’s been living life as a grandmother and helping kids with anger issues.
Another issue, more serious.
An officer (same PD) was charged and convicted of unlawfully manufacturing and selling loaded weapons. He was building them himself and was using a pawnshop to help sell them because they had an FFL (federal license) and were forcing the owner to sell him parts for a cheaper price. He was also found to be selling the narcotics he took off of people. The police department has taken so many hits from these incidents, that the city forces them to have multiple cameras in the cars, all officers have to have body cameras they can’t turn off unless they’re going to the bathroom which they have to do in the department. They also can’t have their weapons directly on them at their desks, they have to be locked in a safe next to their desk to deter them from pulling it out and shooting a computer.
I have decided not to work there and to find employment with a department that has a better reputation, which sadly is hard.”
Nothing Actually Happened
“I was the head of the unit dealing with inappropriate offenses and child protection. We served a number of police precincts (called a ‘cluster’).
A young woman was arrested for theft at one of the police stations that resorted under us. Her mother was the complainant. The daughter had a serious substance addiction and had previously stolen from her mother, who gave her a last warning after the second-to-last time. A substantial (for them) amount of cash had gone missing and, when confronted by her mother, the daughter denied any knowledge of it. So, deciding that it was time for ‘tough love,’ she took her daughter to the police station, opened a case and had her arrested.
Later that evening, the mother discovered that, instead of hiding the money in the inside pocket of the coat which was hanging in her wardrobe, she had inserted the envelope containing the cash into the coat sleeve. In other words, no theft had taken place. She immediately returned to the police station, explained to them what had happened, made a withdrawal statement, and was told her daughter would be released imminently, but that, because the case docket was already with the detectives, only they could release her (and not the unformed police in the charge office).
Enter the rotten apple of a detective. Upon hearing that a withdrawal statement had been made, he booked the suspect out of the cells and took her to his office, where he told her that he could make the case go away, if she did something nice for him in return. He then talked her into sleeping with him, following which he had her released from custody.
Only upon returning home and hearing her mother’s profuse apology did the daughter realize what had happened. Cue the assault complaint, the case docket of which ended with me.
Long story short: we summarily arrested the detective, a seasoned veteran of more than 15 years’ service, recovered the used protection in his office and he was convicted. I don’t remember the exact sentence, but it was in excess of ten years.”
Getting The Tea At The Gym
“I was driving home from my classes one day and got pulled over for wearing headphones while driving. At the time, I genuinely didn’t know it was illegal and was mad because as I was being pulled over, there were plenty of people passing me going fast enough to get pulled over. The officer gave me a ticket and told me my court date. He was a young guy and I guess he just wanted to prove a point.
I was very inexperienced (and still am really) with courts and such. In my state, they still give you your license at the courthouse from a judge, and until this instance that was the only time I’d ever been in a courtroom. I was nervous and asked everyone I knew what I should do. My job at the time had a security officer and I asked him lots of questions about what I should do and how to handle myself in the courtroom. It’s just traffic court, but to me, it was a big deal to a 19-year-old who hadn’t even gotten a speeding ticket.
Well, my court date rolled around and I went to the courthouse dressed all nice. I sat down and was really nervous, but the courtroom was full so I figured I’d be able to watch other people and figure out how I’m supposed to handle myself. NOPE. I’m the first person they call and I very nervously walk up to the stand.
I don’t know if this is how all courts are, but the officer who gives you your ticket must be present at the time of the hearing. So my officer is standing next to me as I explain that I didn’t know I couldn’t do what I did, that I have a clean record, and was working while going to college. The judge looks over the papers of my case, looks at whom the officer was listed as giving me the ticket, and paused for a second.
‘Officer Smith?’ he asked.
‘Yes, your honor?’ He said with his head still pointed directly at his own shoes. A detail I hadn’t noticed yet since I was so nervous.
No sooner had I looked back at the judge than he said, ‘You’re free to go, court fees are waived, have a nice day.’
I was ecstatic and it took till I got back to my car to realize that that was kind of….strange.
Come to find out a few months later when I was telling the story to an instructor at my gym, who happened to be a rotating leader of our areas swat team, that Officer Smith had been arrested two days before my court date.
For driving after a night of heavy drinking. While on the job.
And had to be restrained by three other officers. One of which was my instructor friend.
I don’t know what ever happened to Officer Smith, but I imagine he does a lot of paperwork now.”
He Was Showing Off
“I used to work for the police, and I have arrested a few cops.
The first one was my first shift ever on the beat. I was walking around the city and had a complaint about an abusive guy who was calling women rude names and was yelling about how ugly they are. I wasn’t too fazed, I thought he was probably just a heaver drinker.
As we walked over to speak with the guy, he started yelling about how he was in his right and we all agreed. You can have an opinion but just keep things quiet. It was a very simple conversation and after taking his details to issue a ticket, he just snapped.
He threw his briefcase at my partner and kicked him in the junk. Well, we had a warrant for arrest, so we took him down and cuffed him.
As we took him down, his glasses broken on his face and cut him up a bit. Nothing major so we took him back to the holding cell.
At this point, he said to me, ‘Did you know I have a 12-inch member? My real name is Joe big blow,’ and we all had a laugh. I finally got some time to run his name through the system and boom. Police Inspector this is one of the highest ranks in Vic Pol
So being an Inspector, I called my boss.
She came in and said, ‘Oh my god, this guy used to teach at the academy.’
Then, he runs at her and tried to headbutt her. That didn’t go well, and he ended up on the ground with a big lump on his head. Someone gave him a wall to headbutt instead.
After a few hours, he sobered up and was sent home. The court case carried on for 3 years, I’ve since left the force and he was fired shortly after that altercation.”
He Was Defending His Family
“My dad was a cop. At the time, my parents were going through a divorce and my mother had a new boyfriend of about four months. The boyfriend was a nightmare; he hit my mom and told my sister if she didn’t have a job he had to move out. I fought the guy a couple of times myself as I was in middle school and pretty big. It never got crazy serious or anything. Well, my dad heard about all of this and tells the boyfriend he better not hurt or threaten anybody in his family ever again, including my mom; the boyfriend went crazy and started cursing at my dad, calling him all sorts of names. Skip forward a few weeks, and my dad gets a call from my sister that the boyfriend was threatening to kick her out of my MOMs house if she doesn’t get a job soon (my sister was 16 by the way). So, dad goes over to pick my sister up. Here’s where it gets interesting.
My dad (a trained cop who’s a part of the swat team, was a running back in college, benches more than 405 at the time at 230 pounds 6ft2) sees the guy and the guy just books it. It’s one of those animal instinct things where mom’s boyfriend knows he messed with the kids so he starts running and this only infuriated my dad. The dude runs out the back door into the alley, and my dad chased him, catches him about 4 houses down, and just pounds into him with no mercy until my mom throws herself between them to stop my dad.
My dad knew he should not have let his emotions get the best of him. He called the cops on himself and cops came and arrested him. Dad lost his badge and everything. Dad was let free the same night, and two days later gets a call from his Lieutenant and they talk for a while about the situation. A couple more days go by. and dad gets a call back telling him he needs to come to pick his badge back up and get his job back.
The funniest part is Mom’s boyfriend then hears about this and tries to sue my dad. The judge decides my dad was defending his family and is only required to pay for the broken glasses (didn’t even have to pay the hospital bills). Mom broke up with her boyfriend a couple of weeks later.”
They Didn’t Expect To See Him
“My dad was diagnosed with stage four lymphoma. After his final round of chemo, he was in rough shape and on a feeding tube. I moved up to NC in order to help him out for a few weeks and take care of him. He wasn’t permitted to drive, and he could barely even walk he was in such rough shape, sleeping about 23 hours a day. One morning I had to wake up early for his doctor’s appointment; it’s about 6:30 am and I’m laying in bed while I hear a massive boom outside his apartment complex.
While I’m contemplating what happened, the noise happened a second time. I looked outside the window, which had a direct view of the road. My dad’s truck was all crooked in the parking spot and I immediately got nervous. I quickly go check on him and to my surprise, he’s not in his bed. I ran out to the living room and found him sleeping on his sofa; I quickly wake him up and start yelling at him asking if he drove his truck. He couldn’t remember so we both immediately run outside and find multiple vehicles completely annihilated. Keep in mind his apartment complex runs on a loop, and there’s one main road to get you through the whole place, and everyone parks on that main road.
As we’re outside someone shouts, ‘He’s up by the clubhouse!’ which is like 100 yards away from us. My dad can barely walk, no shoes on, we’re both in our pjs, yet he scurries around to his pickup and finds his truck completely smashed all around his tailgate. Another truck nearby completely had his front end pushed in. We were all surprised because these are full-size trucks, and it’s hard to do damage like that to a truck.
We end up walking to the clubhouse where a severely trashed man is trying to buy a soda in the vending machine. We call the police, they show up, and we eventually find out there are three more cars completely destroyed one complex ahead of ours. Turns out he was incredibly smashed and high Once the cops come they wouldn’t arrest him at first so we started asking questions, and it turned out he was the captain of that local police force. They had to wait for the highway patrol to come to arrest him.”
He Did Not Even Try To Fight It
“I used to be the supervisor for a hostage negotiation team. Our offices were together with the S.W.A.T teams, so almost all of our call-outs were together working as one big joint unit. Everyone was used to getting called at all hours of the day and night. So, one night, I get this call from my lieutenant at 0300 in the morning to be downtown at the main headquarters as soon as I could. No more details than that, even when I pressed for more info. So of course one’s mind really starts to wonder.
What the heck did I do? is what started going through my mind on the drive down.
Once in the roll call room, I meet up with the other S.W.A.T officers and supervisors. Same thing, ‘What do you think we all did?’
One guy said, ‘We just asked for take home vehicles, I bet it is the brass showing us that they can get us out of bed in the middle of the night to chew everyone out just for asking.’
After a couple of minutes, in walks all the top brass along with several FBI agents. The briefing was that six officers and one sergeant had been taking and protecting shipments of illegal substances through the city. It was an undercover operation with an undercover FBI agent and fake loads of dope. Also, they were paid several hundred dollars. The sergeant was paid $2-4 thousand for setting it all up, he was the brains (or lack of) behind it all.
So, we were to break up into six teams of a sergeant, two S.W.A.T officers, and two FBI agents, each taking a substation (precinct house). All these officers worked the daylight shift so we were to make the arrest hopefully just before roll call when they could possibly be alone and out numbered.
The whole time I am thinking to myself this was nonsense. There was no way that six guys could get together and pull this kind of thing off, most of them were idiots. So seriously this being nonsense just kept going on in my head.
Luckily, our target came to work early that morning as we were set up with the S.W.A.T officers on surveillance in the parking lot and myself with the FBI inside. The targeted officer walks in with his belt around his shoulder and the signal was given to take him into custody. It was a pretty smooth arrest without any problems.
I said to him, ‘Manuel, these guys want to speak with you.’
After they tell him he’s under arrest and read him his rights, all he says is ‘Okay.’ At that point I realized it wasn’t nonsense. They all pleaded guilty to a couple of years in federal prison except one who fought it and ended up with seven years.”
He Had It All, Then Lost It All
“I work with police departments daily. This was told to me by a (now retired) Chief of a tiny suburban PD – a total staff of around 12. Virtually no crime. Boring for the most part.
They had an officer who always wanted to work Friday and Saturday nights. These were not popular shifts, since it meant quieting down parties and getting people off the road. Speculation was that this guy would find a quiet spot to park and catch a few Zs. That wasn’t necessarily a problem, but when a call for service came in, you had to do your job.
One Saturday night, a call came into dispatch reporting a black SUV exiting the town’s public works facility. This officer was given the call. A short time later, he radioed that nothing was found. Call closed. What the officer didn’t know was that the Chief had recently installed GPS in each patrol car. The Chief could look at his phone and see where each car was located. The Chief heard this call come over the radio and he looked at his phone. The car that supposedly went to public works never moved from its hiding spot. Hmmm.
The town had also installed cameras at the public works garage. The Chief asked to see the video for the prior Saturday night. There was the black SUV pulling up to the town’s gas pumps, filing it up. The driver of the SUV was in uniform. A police uniform. The SUV was the cop’s personal vehicle.
The next Saturday night, the Chief and his Lieutenant staked out the fuel pumps. At one point the same black SUV pulled up to the pumps and the fuel started to flow.
The Chief and Lt popped out from the shadows and greeted their colleague. They placed him under arrest for stealing government property.
Ultimately the charges were dropped, but the cop lost his $ 100K cush job, his medical coverage, and his pension. He agreed never to seek employment in law enforcement anywhere in the state. The last anyone heard, he was working construction.”
