Police officers of Reddit, was there a time you wanted to let someone off the hook but couldn't, and if so, what happened?

1. An old roommate was a police officer and once she had a shopkeeper detain a shoplifter. When she got there it was a young kid, 11 or 12, stealing a carton of eggs and a couple boxes of cereal. He looked totally malnourished and unwashed. She eventually got it out of him that he didn’t have food at home. She called social services, of course, but she asked the shopkeeper to just let the kid go so he could deal with CPS without this added stress or a spot on an otherwise clean record. The shop keeper insisted. Wouldn’t let up. She didn’t know what happened to the kid after that, but didn’t think it could be anything good.
   — ligamentary


2. Friend is a cop, went to a shoplifting call and the guy was homeless, said he needed some new underwear and was already wearing it as he put it on in the changeroom and he was hiding under a car. He was forced to take off the underwear and mind you my friend said it was filthy so the store was forced to just throw it away. My friend felt bad for the homeless guy but had to take him in anyhow.
   — Onikojima


3. Found a couple homeless teenagers in a park after dark (which is illegal in my area). They had bicycles and a trailer with them. One of them lied about his name because he had a warrant and I arrested him when I figured out who he was. The second was chill the whole time. Didn't lie and wasn't a problem. I was going to cut him loose. My Sergeant shows up and notices that the park has some graffiti on the tables and accuses the chill kid of doing it. The graffiti wasn't wet. The kid said he didn't do it but he still had art materials in his bag. Some markers and a sketch book. The Sergeant made me take the markers and book as "evidence." The kid says, "Dude!! That is my only art outlet and the only thing that makes me happy right now!" Sergeant didn't care. I had to follow orders. Sometimes the job just sucks.
   — copthrowaway52






4. My parents have always told me this story, so it may or may not be embellished. In the middle of night when my mom went into labor with me, my dad pulled up to a 4 way intersection, waiting to take a left at a red light. This was back in 1989, so who knows if sensors existed, but for whatever reason, the light wasn’t turning. My dad had gotten sick of my mom screaming at him to just go, so he did. As he took the left, a cop pulled out behind him and tried pulling him over. My mom apparently wouldn’t let my dad pull over, so the cop followed them into the hospital parking lot. My parents and the officer each got out of their vehicles, no words were exchanged, the cop just stood there and watched my parents walk up and into the hospital. I guess he left a note on the vehicle saying “congrats, just had to be sure” or something like that. I’ve always been told I had a police escort to the hospital the night the I was born.
   — TheBettingCrashers


5. Was assigned to the ship's security force while stationed on an aircraft carrier 8-9 years ago. Was on night shift, alongside my assigned partner, conductive a usual rove through our patrol zone of the ship. When we heard a noise coming from one of the weatherdecks, we went to go investigate and I found one of the guys I knew from my division, standing with his head sort of leaned back. Seeing the beam from my flashlight, he looked up suddenly with an "Oh shit" look on his face, a split second before a woman's head raised into view. He had been out there getting a hummer from one of the ship's cooks. The Captain had a standing rule of no sexual activity onboard the ship, which I never agreed with, so any time I caught people getting frisky, I would just tell them to finish up and not get caught again. That night wasn't going to be an exception, however, the person I was partnered up with that night was a guy I never really liked, that also had a major hardon for the rules. So, it was either take them both down and get their statements, or have my partner rat me out for letting them slide on disobeying a standing order. They both ended up getting sent to the Captain for non judicial punishment, resulting in the both of them being put on restriction, along with him getting busted down two pay grades (he had put on Petty Officer Second Class recently, but was not yet given the actual pay grade: we call this frocking) and since he was married; the Captain made him call his wife to tell her why he was getting busted down. I didn't know he was married, and finding that out alleviated the negative feeling I had about having to take him in for it. I did find it kind of shitty that the woman, while she also went on restriction, got to keep her rank.
   — squid1891


6. I got a call once to a Burger King and it was an anonymous tip that someone there had a warrant. Ran the info given by the caller and confirmed the warrant. Arrived at the Burger King and found the guy. Talked to him and asked if he knew he had a warrant. She said he didn’t think he did. Normally I’d be like “yeah sure ok dude” but this guy was super nice and literally only been at Burger King for like 5 minutes on his lunch break. The warrant wound up being l 3 or 4 year old probation warrant but because it was still active I had to take him to jail. I felt really bad about doing it to him since he was genuinely taking steps in the right direction to turn his life around and STILL wound up going to jail.
   — Dane_Gleessak






7. Was in court on 9/11 for a possession charge. First plane hit. Stunned. Right as I was called the second plane hit the second tower. Judge looked at me said and said kid bigger things are going on in the world today. Do not take the mbta home. Take a cab... Was a crazy day..
   — BOSTONBAKEDBEAN1044b


8. LE here. One time I arrested a girl for DUI around 8 or 9 in the morning, she put her car into a ditch. After I placed her under arrest, I found out that the reason she decided to drive drunk was to get away from a house party where she may have been sexually assaulted/raped. Why she didn't call someone to pick her up, I don't know. Maybe she felt like had to leave right away. I processed her for DUI and released her to her mother. I encouraged the mother to take her to the hospital and file a report with the sheriff's office (happened in the county). Not sure what legally happened to her. It would have be up to the prosecutor to reduce/drop charges for the DUI.
   — AppendixF


9. My uncle is a university campus cop. Super friendly, goofy, funny guy. When I think of him I think of rambunctious card games, cliff jumping, and him pinning me down to fart on me. As such, he got the nickname Officer Friendly. One time he caught a student smoking a joint on campus and as per his job asked him to hand it over. He expected the guy to hand over the joint, but the guy just started walking. My uncle followed the guy not knowing what was up. The guy kept walking to the university residence, inside, and up to his room. He handed over two ounces of weed. Here, an ounce or more is considered trafficking. My uncle wasn't even planning to write this kid up, just wanted him to stop smoking obviously in the middle of campus, but at that about had to bust him for a trafficking level amount.
   — fancybubbles






10. I have a couple, one where I wanted to give a guy a break and I’m glad I didn’t and another where I wanted to give another guy a break and wasn’t able to. The first one I should preface by saying at this point I worked in an area known for drug and human trafficking. I was driving down a neighborhood road around 0300 after some night surveillance. I saw a fire pit in this guys front yard, we’ll call him Kevin. The pit wasn’t flaming but had a lot of embers. I know Kevin from my encounters with his family, so normally id douse the embers, and I’d warn him the next time I saw him instead of waking him. It was a dry area and embers could start a brush fire. I decided that he had enough warnings in the past, so I knocked on the door. He came and I told him to go snuff out the embers or I’d cite him. He seemed nervous and as he was snuffing the embers, I glanced in his home through the open door and saw some back packs and shoes stacked. I asked him and he said he found them. I yelled in the house, “is anyone in the house?”. A woman’s voice in strained English said “yes, call police”. I drew my weapon on Kevin, called back up and cuffed Kevin. My backup arrived and we found 3 women, and two children in the home. They told us they were being held until the husband of one could pay $3000. Luckily, that night was the last straw of Kevin’s unattended fires. The second was with a guy named Martin. Martin had been in and out of jail but had been clean from drugs and out of jail for a few years. He got a job as a trucker and had been doing well. One night a truck speeds by me doing 25 mph over the speed limit. I catch up and pull the truck over and the computer told me it was Martin. As I pulled him over I heard a newer cop radio that she was on the way to my location. My plan was to read him the riot act about how he could lose his job over a criminal speeding ticket and let him go with a warning. When I got to the truck window, I saw a meth pipe in plane view. I waited to addres it though. I honestly thought about telling him to destroy it and cut his shit which is against policy. As I was telling him how he shouldn’t be speeding, the rookie cop came to the other window and immediately saw the pipe, and radioed a K-9 unit. The K-9 unit showed up, had PC to send his dog through the truck and found enough meth to charge Martin with a felony. Martin pleaded guilty and did 2 years in prison. I felt bad after that one.
    — Honzo427