Friday, May 10, 2019

Police as security

The theme parks in the Orlando area use police officers as security guards. They wear their department issued uniform, carry a department issued firearm and radio, and are paid by the department that they work for. The theme park then pays their department for the service. Depending on the situation, they are considered to be security guards or police.

If they want to search you but don't have a warrant or probable cause, they are security guards. If they ask you a question and you lie, they are then cops and you have broken the law. If you resist them in any way, they are cops. They get to have things however it works out best for them. As this great grandmother found out, when Disney security searched her bags as a part of a security check and she was arrested for having CBD oil. The charges were later dropped, but this illustrates the problem I have with cops as security. They can search you, and you have no constitutional protections. But let them find something illegal, and they instantly can use the fruits of what would otherwise be an unconstitutional search and arrest you.

2 comments:

Brass said...

I wonder how that works for the cop's pension as I know most include overtime when figuring average pay.

Beans said...

It depends on the bargaining unit and contract with the parent agency as to counting towards pension. Sometimes it counts, sometimes it doesn't.

But... the parent agency takes its cut from the top, always. This 'rent an actual cop' scheme is just a money generating system for the agencies.