Today I Met with Chief Knight of the Vandalia P.D.
Together, we reviewed the two new training procedures the city has implemented in light of recent events.
Firstly, I wish to state as previously mentioned on a different occasion by another poster, during the course of the entire meeting, the chief did not portray any bias towards or against the act of openly carrying a firearm. The only message conveyed to me was that his best interest was to uphold the law, serve the city, and investigate any possible wrong-doing on his departments part.
With that said, we reviewed two memos released to all department personnel, sworn and civilian.(The civilian including the dispatchers.)
The first one, with a posing date of 4-10-2012 was numbered 12-06. It was mainly an inquire from the police chief to the city law director asking for an opinion of the legality of open carry. The city's law director researched case law and O.R.C. in question to open carry. The following court cases were covered or mentioned:
Terry v. Ohio (39 U.S. 1, 88 St. Ct. 1968)
Butcher v. Cuyahoga Falls (2011 U.S. Dist LEXIS 136315)
Matthey A. St. John v. McColley et al. (653 F. Supp. 2d 1155)
United States v. Ubiles (224 F.3d 213 2000)
United States v. King (990 F.2d 1552 10th cir. 1993)
State v. Boykins (1999 Ohio App. LEXIS 5048)
State v. Mills, Medina (2002 Ohio 7323)
State v. Pickett (2000 Ohio App. LEXIS 3484)
O.R.C. 9.68 was also covered.
The law director does state in the correspondence that he found no case from Ohio which specificity stated that there must be more than merely displaying a firearm to justify a stop, and cited that several cases mentioned were from other jurisdictions that have open carry laws similar to Ohio.
The final two points I would like to make from the first set of documents are the following quotes:
"Based on my research and as explained more fully below, a peace officer in Ohio may
not stop and temporarily handcuff a person for the officers safety when the
sole basis for the stop is because the person is carrying a firearm."
"Based on the above it is my opinion that in Ohio a peace officer may not stop and temporarily handcuff a person when the sole basis for the stop is because the person is carrying a firearm openly in the public."
Although I didn't initially notice, after typing this im thinking this opinion should have used the word "or" instead of "and" in the last two quotes regarding, "Stop and temporarily handcuff." But I believe the next memo straightens that out somewhat.
The second memo dated 5-1-2012 numbered 12-08 covered sections of O.R.C. 2923 in regards to both OC and CC. It also gives the law directors opinion on a small section of that chapter of the code. Furthermore it gives specific instructions to dispatchers and LEOs on how to handle this type of occurrence.
The instructions including the following:
Dispatcher Responsibility
- Do not communicate any bias, express personal opinion, or offer advise to citizens regarding concealed or open carry of firearms.
- Do not attempt to explain Ohio law regarding concealed or open carry of firearms.
- Gather and communicate to the responding officer(s) as much descriptive information as possible from the caller about the person and circumstances that prompted the call to police.
- Ask whether the individual is on public or private property.
- Dispatch one officer and, whenever possible, the sergeant/AWS The responding officer may request a back-up officer if the sergeant/AWS is unavailable.
Responding Officer Responsibility
- As always, be professional. Common sense, disgression, and good judgement must prevail.
- Approach all calls for service with safety in mind.
- Open carry of a firearm is legal absent a specific ORC prohibition.
- Consensual conversation with a person engaged in open carry of a firearm is permitted.
- A non-consensual conversation, or Terry stop, is not justified unless an officer reasonably believes (and can articulate) from the totality of the circumstances that a crime has or is about tho occur. Document all factors that provide the basis for a Terry stop.
- Activate the patrol cars video/audio recorder during the contact with an armed citizen. Turn the patrol cars AM/FM radio off. Failure to do so may inadvertently diminish the quality and value of the audio recording.
- Be aware that an officer's words and actions are frequently recorded by others.
- As with every other call for service, add descriptive comments to the CFS record in the absence of an offensive report
This training bulletin also covers OFCC v. City of Clyde (120 Ohio St. 3d 96) and states that a city cannot prohibit open carry of firearms on public property.
Some of the language from the latter of the two protocols reviewed does seem eerily similar to me of a previous posting on this thread. At this point I will assume it is an honest attempt of the department to uphold the law. I do not like it when the assumption of guilt is passed onto me so I do not pass that judgment to others. Only time will tell if the department sticks true to its word.