Hypothetical scenario

[JustDontDie]

You're patrolling one night and you roll up to a stop light. You notice a seemingly shady looking car that has some sort of infraction (burned out tail light, expired plate etc. (use your imagination)). As you're taking note of the problem, you also notice a decal on the window for a local street gang, notorious for being violent and rough. This vehicle or person/persons hasn't done anything terribly wrong that you can tell, yet you want to make the stop. At the same time you fear the unknown. How many people are in the car? Are they armed? Are you gonna get peppered as you're approaching the vehicle? This may be a no brainer scenario. Maybe I just haven't watched enough "COPS" episodes , but what do you do? Do you stop them, then wait in the car for back up? Do you handle it on your own, taking the risk?

[Bodie]

Stop watching TV please. AND put down the video games NOW

[Delta784]

Street gangs don't have identifying stickers.

Tail the car until backup arrives, then make the stop for the traffic/equipment violation.

[RabbitMPD]

Street gangs don't have identifying stickers.

Tail the car until backup arrives, then make the stop for the traffic/equipment violation.

Yeah I've never heard of any gang bumper stickers but I'm not completely against the idea

Delta pretty much answered the question. Just follow the duesh bags until another unit arrives then make a stop.

[cst.sb]

Tail the car until backup arrives, then make the stop for the traffic/equipment violation.

To add to Delta's stop, I would get the names of everyone in the car and create a street check file. If there are all known gang members they are now tired to the date, time and place of the 'check'.

If some of the people were unknown to the police, they would be on our radar now. If a file is created and people are carded to it we can then tie people together. So, if any of these people are 'run' during an investigation we'll know they have gang affiliations.

I've even done one on a gang sticker. It was a parked unoccupied truck with a hells angel susport sticker. I created a file, ran the driver, carded him, his truck, ran him for other licence plates and found he had a Harley, and carded the bike as well. I wrote up a brief sysnopsis on his old criminal history and submitted it to criminal intel/gang section. Now anytime buddy is stopped, we'll known what team he supports!

[ctt]

To add to Delta's stop, I would get the names of everyone in the car and create a street check file. If there are all known gang members they are now tired to the date, time and place of the 'check'.

Do passenger's in vehicles have to identify themselves to law enforcement officers for minor traffic violations?

[cst.sb]

Do passenger's in vehicles have to identify themselves to law enforcement officers for minor traffic violations?

No they don't. It's voluntary. However, so far there is nothing saying we have to educate them on informed consent.

Good cops dig a little.

[Charlie31]

Forget about it, nothing to see here... Go get a cup of coffee instead.

[JustDontDie]

Stop watching TV please. AND put down the video games NOW

I don't have cable TV and haven't played video games in years. This post was intended for a serious answer. Maybe it's not common for cars to have gang decals, but you don't know that there aren't any gang memebers who have a gang sign strategically placed somewhere on their vehicle. Just like they get gang tattoos, why wouldn't they have something on their car? I was using the "gang decal" thing more so to show what kind of threat the person knows he may be dealing with. I wasn't worried about being all politacally correct.

Bastards...

Thank you, those who shared the way they would have handled it.