So what is the best course of action in this situation?

[GJM]

As I was driving home early this afternoon, going the speed limit, I was on a three way conference call on my vehicle's bluetooth. A police car pulled out sharply, momentarily flashed his overhead lights and then sped past me. I didn't think too much, other than I was glad he wasn't after me.

As I rounded the corner to our house, I saw a police car parked on our side of the street, one house away, with the officer out speaking with a neighbor. I pulled into our driveway and garage, transitioned to my iPhone and kept on the call in our driveway. Then another police car zipped up, the officer jumped out and both headed for the house across the street, each with their Glock drawn. I told the folks on my call, I needed to get off the phone. I walked over and asked my neighbor what was up, and he said he received a call from the other neighbor, out of town, that his house alarm had gone off. The neighbor here in town, being Canadian, naturally called the police.

I went back to our house, which was about 50 yards away. I considered best options. One was just to go inside, another option was to stand near our house where I could observe what was going on, and a third option, which I quickly rejected, was to walk over to the neighbor's house. Going inside felt disrespectful of our local LE guys. I figured if I stood on our property, near the structure of our house, I was in a position to observe if anyone came out a back door, call for more help if it was necessary, or even lend assistance in an extreme situation (with what I was wearing or more stuff inside).

Thoughts?

[Dagga Boy]

If there are police officers with guns out, I HIGHLY recommend finding somewhere else to be. This would be especially true if there are guns out on a residential alarm call..........of which I ever found a bad guy exactly zero times in thousands of responses over two decades.

Knowing both the area and the police department, I think you did the right thing. Stay well out of the way, make it painfully obvious you are just a concerned neighbor and be a set of eyes to yell "officer, he ran that way".

[jnc36rcpd]

I agree with nyeti. In my younger days as a LEO, I was quick to jump in to help the on-duty cops. As time went on, I realized that an off-duty response usually complicated things. Of course, there are circumstances in which a police or citizen, armed or unarmed, should jump into the fray, but a house alarm in urban or suburban North America usually is not it.

[tanner]

You did it exactly right.

[Trooper224]

Nyeti gave you god advice. The only thing I'd add is to stay off the F'ing phone when you're operating the God D*** vehicle. You seem to be very concerned over safety when you're flying an aircraft, show the same respect when you're behind the wheel of one of the most dangerous things we all own.

[JHC]

Nyeti gave you god advice. The only thing I'd add is to stay off the F'ing phone when you're operating the God D*** vehicle. You seem to be very concerned over safety when you're flying an aircraft, show the same respect when you're behind the wheel of one of the most dangerous things we all own.

When he said he passed the call to the iPhone as he parked I think that mean it switched from the vehicle's Bluetooth and speaker system.

[JAD]

I think when Trooper says stay off the phone he means stay off the phone.

[smithjd]

Nyeti gave you god advice. The only thing I'd add is to stay off the F'ing phone when you're operating the God D*** vehicle. You seem to be very concerned over safety when you're flying an aircraft, show the same respect when you're behind the wheel of one of the most dangerous things we all own.

Sorry for the derail: You are not supposed to talk on the phone while driving? Even with Bluetooth? We literally could not do our job (am in LE). What about talking to someone else in the car? On the radio? Or steering with your knee because you are talking to someone on the radio and the phone while trying to keep up surveillance with / coordinate response to people committing felonies?

Just a different perspective... Don't have and never used an MDC.

[Chuck Haggard]

As nyeti noted, staying far enough away that you are not something the officers worry about, but keeping an eye out just in case, is the best helpful way to act.

I've had people try and get helpful and get all up in what we were doing, and even if they have good intentions, then I have to worry about them as a bystander and also getting hurt. They don't need the extra distraction.

We have locally had a few cases where a residential alarm has resulted in a bad guy still in the house, so I don't take it for granted.

[Beat Trash]

Both Nyeti and Chuck are giving good advice.

To that advice I might add that over the years, when I've been involved with something like this and people approach from behind, I can not assume that they are just nosy neighbors or good samaritans. Especially when I am doing something where I feel it's prudent to have my gun out. You may have the best intentions by approaching the officers. Others though may think its an opportunity to get in a cheap shot at the officers while they are distracted. Or they may intentionally want to distract the officers so that the suspects inside can escape or can attack/shoot the officers while they are distracted by whomever approached.

There are a lot of things going through an officer's head as they respond to a call for service like this. Depending on the neighborhood, it's easy for the officer to assume that anyone approaching officers from behind while the officers have guns drawn, are not good samaritans.