Quote:
Originally Posted by Betonov
Good thing I live in a country that possesion of (small quantities) only ends up with a fine. Mostly just confiscation and your name in the cops little badboy book.
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You cannot do that in the states because, even the guys who you give a warning to, will run off and brag to their friends. I've seen it happen with various things (drugs, fireworks, alcohol, etc.) where word gets around that "the cops probably kept it for themselves or smoked it", etc.. Then IAD comes looking for YOU and a big investigation ensues. Where applicable, I've only handed out citations too, but always tagged and bagged the evidence, turning it over to the evidence custodian to maintain the "chain of evidence". Maybe the big cities can get away with that, since there are always shootings, robberies and such to occupy their time, but in the smaller suburbs, if you turn in evidence w/o filing charges, you yourself can potentially be charged with failing to enforce the law, malfeasance, nonfeasance, etc.. In essence, it could end up costing you your job.