Originally Posted by
Rock185
Well, I guess it was inevitable that aggrieved persons would use Red Flag laws against LE. If upheld, which I can't imagine, I could see this becoming a favored tactic against LE in future. Such Red Flag orders could end officers careers. After all, LE has all those scary guns, which should never, ever be used against anyone at anytime. In fact, we are already seeing those laws being used against people some person may have a beef with. And as indicated in this case, a court is unlikely to initially deny such an order, just in case it might be appropriate. I dealt with Orders of Protection, and Injunctions against Harassment as an LEO. Prohibitions against the defendant possessing, having access to, or buying a firearm during the period the order was in force(one year), was a common part of theses orders. I never saw or heard of a judge denying an Order of Protection or Injunction against harassment, no matter how flimsy, far fetched, or ridiculous the allegations. The defendant could request a hearing, wherein the court could quash, continue or modify the order. Sometimes, people would obtain, what I thought of as Dueling Orders of Protections and Injunctions, against each other from different courts. As an officer, who never attended law school, those were sometimes hard to figure out. The chain of command, Dept. legal adviser, etc. sometimes had to put their heads together to figure out how these orders were to be lawfully addressed...
FWIW, the larger Dept. where I worked for 20+ years was reluctant to charge false information against any member of the public, no matter how egregious their lies were were found to be. This seemed to be changing over the years as anti-police activists, and lawsuits, IMHO, were starting to eat the Dept. up, as they knew they were unlikely to ever face any repercussions from their false accusations. The media, City Council, police upper management more and more seem to side with the anti-police special interest groups. So it's easy to see why persons would have little concern about filing false reports, Red flag and otherwise, with such support. The Phoenix City Council now has an anti-police activist member who wears an "End Police Brutality" T-Shirt to Council meetings. A much smaller Dept., where I later served for a decade or so, was more willing to pursue false info type charges.