Battery Charge That Was Self-Defense

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Quoting cdwjava

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Typically, yes ... but things sometimes happen that are atypical.

Keep us advised. Thanks!

- Carl

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Hey Carl,

I see that you're a Sgt. up in NorCal. Do you happen to know the rules that regulate an officer from handcuffing someone? I can't find it anywhere on the web.

Thanks.

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Quoting abstrak

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Hey Carl,

I see that you're a Sgt. up in NorCal. Do you happen to know the rules that regulate an officer from handcuffing someone? I can't find it anywhere on the web.

Thanks.

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The handcuffs are a tool to aid in the detention of a person. There is no specific law governing their use, but there may be individual agency policy governing their use. In general, if they are necessary to help exercise control over a detained or arrested subject, they are perfectly reasonable.

- Carl

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Quoting cdwjava

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The handcuffs are a tool to aid in the detention of a person. There is no specific law governing their use, but there may be individual agency policy governing their use. In general, if they are necessary to help exercise control over a detained or arrested subject, they are perfectly reasonable.

- Carl

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But what about even before asking me my side of the story? And I was never aggressive nor I was disobedient. If anything, it was the other guy who was the aggressive one while the police were there. I remember him still coming at me while the officers were there and they had to stop him and tell him (twice) to tell him to get back to his car.

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Quoting abstrak

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But what about even before asking me my side of the story?

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If they feel they had a need to detain you in cuffs, then they can do that. There is no bright line rule that says when and under what circumstances they can apply cuffs. There might be some agency somewhere in the country that has these rules, but I am unfamiliar with any such agency.

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And I was never aggressive nor I was disobedient.

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If the officer is outnumbered by people all trying to talk to him, he may very well start slapping cuffs on people and sitting them down before he starts asking questions. The officer's FIRST priority is to establish control and render the scene safe. Everything else comes after that.

The bottom line is that there are no strict guidelines that cover the application of handcuffs in most agencies. It is a tool of control and should only be used in a lawful detention. If you feel you were unlawfully detained or arrested, you are free to file a complaint with the agency employing the officer and to consult an attorney. But, unless the officer had absolutely no reason to detain you then you will likely lose (and if this was a scene of a disturbance, a fight, or some other altercation, articulating reasonable suspicion would be easy).

What is it you want from this situation? You were handcuffed ... you survived. The officer can use handcuffs. You may feel it was uncalled for, but officers have died after being assaulted by uncuffed "calm" witnesses and victims, so the courts grant a great deal of leeway when detaining people - cooperative or not. The last altercation I went to there were three of us and 7 people slapped into cuffs ... before we could ask questions we needed to control the scene. We had 9 people detained and 7 in cuffs ... we ran out of cuffs so 2 were NOT handcuffed.

Handcuffs are tools, but they are not a guarantee of safety, either. I have been headbutted, spat on, kicked, and almost bitten by handcuffed suspects ... so don't be surprised if you might one day get detained in cuffs in the back of a patrol car, or seated on a curb with your ankles out in front of you. Hopefully you won't be involved in anything that requires it, but understand that it can and does happen.

- Carl