Jason EganCan Police commandeer civilian vehicles at will?
March 7th 2007 11:58
If a policeman can do anything with a car to stop the bad guy - I want to be one! Which other paid position legally allows you to pull off 'Grand Theft Auto'-style carjackings? Not many, if any.
I decided to go straight to the top with this one: I called the cops. Constable ‘Mandy’ from New South Wales Police (Australia) answered the phone, and after several assurances that nothing sinister has in fact happened to my car (“Why? Which officer pulled you out of your vehicle??”), she explained:
“It’s straight out of the movies. NSW Police have no jurisdiction over civilian vehicles and cannot commandeer them when they need to. Federal Police may have different orders, but definitely not NSW Police”. She went on to say that there may be different laws in the USA which state otherwise, hence the dramatisations in the movies. But she was not sure of that.
Would you lend this guy your car?
But does the law apply to your property as well?
There are no real reported cases of anyone refusing to surrender their vehicle to the police. Not surprisingly, ‘posse comitatus’ is mainly exercised in the movies rather than real life. To add further: If anyone did refuse to aid a police officer in a chase, chances are the cop will continue chasing the criminal rather than stand there and book you for not helping out!
Hopefully the situation never arises (or has it already?) and worst case scenario – you might have to fork out a fine. If your property (e.g. car) does in fact get damaged by the police, insurance would probably cover all resulting costs anyway...
So Nicholas Cage (FBI) can blow up a Ferrari F355 Spider.
All in a days work.
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Comment by Nickoftime's Sanity Corner
Take care,
Nick