3 ms·
Unless they are federal police, they have no authority to enforce federal law.
by lazyasciiart 2y ago
Unless they are federal police, they have no authority to enforce federal law.
- wakawaka28 2y agoI agree with you in general but police can do a lot of things on suspicion of a crime. They may have to let you go eventually, but don't overestimate your position. You could be tied up for months straightening out issues with false accusations.
- lazyasciiart 2y agoYes, major caveat that they don’t need authority to do anything in practice.
- JAlexoid 2y agoPolice officers in US can enforce a federal law, local police officers are just not obligated to.
- giantg2 2y agoDo you have evidence of this? They can hold you for federal authorities, but they have no jurisdiction to write a federal citation or summons.
- JAlexoid 2y agoImmigration enforcement is the most prominent today probably. Local police can arrest anyone for illegally crossing US border and can arrest someone for being undocumented(where not banned by state law), they are just not obligated to by federal law or US constitution.
- lazyasciiart 2y agoApparently (and not too surprisingly) it’s much more complicated than that. In Washington, police are explicitly forbidden from enforcing immigration laws (“Keep Washington Working” act) and nationally, police could perhaps arrest you for weed but the feds are apparently not allowed to spend any money prosecuting you if you didn’t break state law, according to the Rohrerbacher-Farr amendment https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1479&context=uclr https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1...