Serving Proudly As The Voice Of Valley County Since 1913
Police Chief's Desk
A very common complaint against patrol officers is that they followed a vehicle for an extended period of time for no apparent reason.
Being in a small town; our officers are trained to have a great understand about what is going on in their community during their shift.
Patrol officers are also trained to recognize oddities while on patrol.
That is something not normal from what they see every day.
Most of the time, it is a subtle driving behavior or avoidance of law enforcement.
Commonly, the behavior that is noticed is not a driving infraction or violation.
These actions simply catch the attention of the officer and require farther investigation as to why the person is behaving in this manner.
Officers are trained to be suspicious and figure out why that person, car or location are unusual from everything else.
Officers will turn to follow or investigate a certain vehicle or person that caught their eyes.
That does not mean the driver or person did anything wrong; simply officers are suspicious as to why that event caught his or her eye.
Once an officer has turned to follow a vehicle, they may follow it for as long as it takes them to figure out if a crime is occurring or has not occurred.
At a later time, a court is the only one to determine the legal length of time that an officer can follow vehicle.
The court determines this during a formal court proceeding following the issuance of a citation.
Often times drivers will see a patrol car behind them and become confused on what they did wrong.
Then all of a sudden, the patrol car is gone.
Often times vehicles followed by officers never get pulled over for numerous factors. Often officers are simply driving around or “patrolling."
Officers are trained to go where crimes may occur and that usually is gatherings of people.
Officers are to remain sporadic in patrol and not get stuck in a pattern.
Most often officers never establish particularized suspicion to make a traffic stop while following a vehicle.
Particularized Suspicion is Montana burden of proof for a traffic stop.
Particularized Suspicion is defined under Montana law that a crime has been committed, is being committed or will be committed.
As a side note, The Glasgow Police Department is looking to establish trust within our great community and provide knowledge to its citizens.
This knowledge is brought forth to you in an effort to become more transparent in a very complex legal system.
If you have any questions or though for a future article, please feel free to contact your local police department at 406-228-8050.
Remember your community-based department is the P-olice O-fficers L-inked I-n C-ommunity E-nforcement (POLICE).
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