I've been 'detained' once, never been arrested. I've had many encounters with the police, mostly good a few bad.
Oddly enough the time I was detained I put in to the good category.
It was the evening of December 23rd I was walking home from work. Earlier in the very long walk I had been hit by
a car (long story). I'm a little less than two blocks from home, and a spotlight hits me. I turn to see a police
car. At this point I'm thinking that the driver of the car that I had been struck by was thinking that despite my
assurances that I was all right figured I might actually be badly injured and had called the authorities to check
on me. Nope, that wasn't it at all. I was told to turn around, kneel and place my hands on my head, which I did.
An officer came over and handcuffed me, asking if I had any knives or needles on me. I replied that I had a swiss
army knife in one pocket. The officer dug in the pocket and got the knife out, looked at it, shrugged and put it
back in my pocket. They then patted me down, asked if the object in my front left pocket was my wallet and if it
had my identification in it. When I answered yes they asked if they could open my wallet and look at my ID. Once
again I answered yes that was fine. They removed my ID from the wallet and replaced the wallet. Then one officer
walked me to their car, sat me down in the back and read me my rights. He then explained that I wasn't being arrested,
but I was being detained, and asked if I knew what it was about. I replied that I figured some crime had been committed
in the area, and that I probably looked like the perpetrator, so they needed to check me out. The officer looked
a bit puzzled and asked if I wasn't going to yell or swear at him. In return I asked if yelling and swearing would
help get the situation straigtened out more quickly, and he said no it wouldn't. So I said, "Ok then, why don't I
just cooperate and see if we can't get this straightened out as quickly as possible." And the officer said "Wow, I
wish everyone had your attitude." Then the second officer got in the front of the car and radioed headquarters.
While talking with the station he said "This guy's story all sounds legit, he's about a block from his home and
he's walking towards the scene. I don't think he's the guy." The person he was talking to at the station told him
to keep me there for a bit while they sent the witness over to take a look at me. About 10 minutes passed, and
another squad car arrived. The officers had me stand in the beams of the second car's headlights, and turn this
way and that way. From the set-up it was obvious that I wasn't supposed to be able to see the witness, but I
could see her just fine. She had an incredulous look on her face as she turned and spoke to the officer in the
car with her. The officer in the car said something to her, and she looked at me carefully again, then again
turned to the officer with an incredulous look on her face speaking and shaking her head. The officer who had
brought the witness then got out of the car, spoke to the officers who had detained me, then got back in the
car & left with the witness. The two officers who had detained me then removed the handcuffs, apologized to me
and told me that there had been an armed robbery at a convenience store about a block away from my apartment
and I matched the basic description of the perpetrator. I told them that I understood, thanked them for their
courtesy during the procedure, shook their hands wished them a happy & safe holiday and went on my way.
Now here's the part where I do get a bit annoyed. About a week later I was talking to an officer that I know,
and asked if they had found the perpetrator in the case. He asked me how I knew about the case, and I told him
about what had happened. He became *very* angry. Turns out, the perpetrator they were looking for was:
Over six feet tall (I'm 5'9" on a tall day).
Had short blond hair (My hair is a shade of brown most people call black, and hangs between my shoulder blades)
Had no facial hair (I sport an awesome Clark Gable mustache)
Had blue eyes (I have dark brown eyes)
Seems that the description the officers who detained me had been working with was "Male, white shirt, blue pants."
It makes me wonder...shouldn't someone at some point have asked for some of those details before my time and the
officer's time was wasted?
