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Ask the Officer
• To submit Ask the Officer questions, email Officer Dan Rush at rush044@hotmail.com
Q. My cousin was pulled over by a police officer. He had someone with him who stated she was an officer just out of uniform. This female searched my cousin and cuffed her. We found out later that the lady was not an officer. What can be done about someone impersonating an officer?
A. Title 18 PA Consolidated Statues provides the following definition: "Police officer." The term shall include the sheriff of a county of the second class and deputy sheriffs of a county of the second class who have successfully completed the requirements under the act of June 18, 1974 (P.L.359, No.120), referred to as the Municipal Police Education and Training Law. If you can prove that the woman was not a police Officer and she did, in fact, handcuff and search your cousin, then a crime was committed. The handcuffing constitutes false imprisonment; identifying herself as a police officer constitutes impersonation of a public offical; and the the search (depending on the intrusivness) is Harassment at least, a 4th Amendment violation at most. You should contact an attorney and/or consider filing charges against both the female and the officer who allowed the offenses to be committed in his/her presence.
Q. If a passenger van/car is designated as a school student vehicle with signs and the vehicle is in the process of picking up children, are you required to stop in both directions when the vehicle has its hazard lights on and the children are loading/exiting the vehicle? Or are you allowed to pass this vehicle similar to a mail truck?
A. PA Consolidated Statues Title 75 Sec. 3345 governs Overtaking of a School Bus. A School bus, by statutory definition, is "A motor vehicle designed to carry 11 passengers or more, including the driver, and used for the transportation of preprimary, primary or secondary school students to or from public, private or parochial schools or events related to these schools or school-related activities." A van/car used for the transport of school students is, therefore, not a school bus and there is no requirement to stop. However, caution should be used when passing these vehicles.
Q. My cousin was pulled over by a police officer. He had someone with him who stated she was an officer just out of uniform. This female searched my cousin and cuffed her. We found out later that the lady was not an officer. What can be done about someone impersonating an officer?
A. Title 18 PA Consolidated Statues provides the following definition: "Police officer." The term shall include the sheriff of a county of the second class and deputy sheriffs of a county of the second class who have successfully completed the requirements under the act of June 18, 1974 (P.L.359, No.120), referred to as the Municipal Police Education and Training Law. If you can prove that the woman was not a police Officer and she did, in fact, handcuff and search your cousin, then a crime was committed. The handcuffing constitutes false imprisonment; identifying herself as a police officer constitutes impersonation of a public offical; and the the search (depending on the intrusivness) is Harassment at least, a 4th Amendment violation at most. You should contact an attorney and/or consider filing charges against both the female and the officer who allowed the offenses to be committed in his/her presence.
Q. If a passenger van/car is designated as a school student vehicle with signs and the vehicle is in the process of picking up children, are you required to stop in both directions when the vehicle has its hazard lights on and the children are loading/exiting the vehicle? Or are you allowed to pass this vehicle similar to a mail truck?
A. PA Consolidated Statues Title 75 Sec. 3345 governs Overtaking of a School Bus. A School bus, by statutory definition, is "A motor vehicle designed to carry 11 passengers or more, including the driver, and used for the transportation of preprimary, primary or secondary school students to or from public, private or parochial schools or events related to these schools or school-related activities." A van/car used for the transport of school students is, therefore, not a school bus and there is no requirement to stop. However, caution should be used when passing these vehicles.
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