Quote:
Originally Posted by MarchHare
Calgary Transit Peace Officers do not carry firearms. When they write a ticket to a citizen for riding the train without a valid fare, they check an inter-agency database to determine if the person has any outstanding arrest warrants or is a known dangerous criminal. If the check comes back positive, they do indeed call in the "gun police" and wait. If that model of law enforcement works for non-violent offenses like transit fare-skipping, why couldn't it also work for non-violent offenses like traffic violations?
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Because this is Canada and there's a infinitesimally low likelihood that the person riding the train has a deadly weapon concealed on their person and is going to use it to murder an officer before fleeing on foot, whereupon they would almost certainly be caught?
Just the fact that someone is in a motor vehicle makes an enormous difference to the situation. You can't see them as you approach, can't make any assessment about what kind of situation you might be walking into.
I'm certainly open to the idea that there may be some functions currently being performed by police in the US that could be performed by other state actors who aren't armed, but traffic stops is just not a good example of one.