Ever been stopped by a cop & had your knife confiscated?

A

Allen E. Treat

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Oct 4, 2001
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498
To : ALL

Here's one that'll "get a raise" from some of you :

Were you ever stopped by the Police ( i.e. LEO, "cop", etc.)
and had your blade confiscated, based either on the officer's discretion or some Draconian "law"? And did the "situation"
EVER get "remedied"?


What say the augerers?


AET ;)
 
Yes. After a motorcycle accident the police officer saw my knife(CRKT KFF Professional small) clipped to my pants. He confiscated it after he claimed the blade(3") was illegal in NYC. He gave it back to me later on and apologized...
 
I am pretty active stopping cars. About 1200 or so a year. The only time I have ever seized a blade was if it was used in a crime. Most of the time I run into Buck, Schrades and flea market crap. There is a good article on this subject in this either this months Tactical Knives or Blade. If an officer asks if you have any weapons and you have a blade tell him where it is and he will get it. For some reason when you ask people they want to go for the area where is is concealed. Save yourself a needless ass whipping. Unless you happen to match the decription of a bank robber that was just put out the chances of most people being "tossed" are slim. I have ofen wondered what would be some of the officers reaction if I was involved in something off duty and when they patted me down they found 4+ knives to include a Balisong and Safekeeper. Another note is don't carry ****** blades. Most cops carry a decent Spydie, BM or CRKT and recognize the brands. If you are carrying a flea market reject it tells the officer you have no problem tossing it if you use it.
 
Yes, but it was my error. I was attending court as an observer and forgot I had a butterfly knife on me. Not exactly what you were asking, but it happened. I never got it back.

Phil
 
At one time I would have never thought that you could forget you were carrying a weapon. Now I always forget to take my Livesay Woo neck knife off. Hope the Bali was not one of your favorites.
 
Originally posted by mercop
...If you are carrying a flea market reject it tells the officer you have no problem tossing it if you use it.
Click to expand...

Excellent observation. I'm going to pass that one on to as many people as I can.

Stay safe.
 
uh, I'm missing something. I've re-read this several
times, but I'm not sure I get the point. Is the point
that you shouldn't carry "crappy" blades, because doing
so implies you wouldn't mind tossing it?

Or, does "******" mean something other than "crappy",
"cheap knockoff", etc.?
 
Situation- I respond to a fight outside a club and one of the bouncers says "That guy was involved" I walk over and the guy is being pretty cool. I get his license and run a warrants check. When I ask him if he has any weapons he kind of hesitates and says yes. I tell him to put his hands on top of his head and tell me where it is. He says in the small of his back.#1 I find a BM Nimravus and I think, my man is into blades and everything goes well he don't get a second look. #2 he has a comperable flea market special all beat up, I think this guy may have been looking for trouble and if he found some would not think twice about ditching the knife. We may be together a little longer. Yes there is a lot of what ifs. It is the same thing as finding a guy with a Raven 380 stuck in his waistband and another guy with a Wilson Combat 45 in a Kramer Sharkskin Holster. Come to think of it if nobody gets locked up the second guy both situations will be stuck with me talking about guns and knives. Hope this clears things up.
 
Didn't happen to me, but it's relevant...

A guy here in Amarillo was stopped, and the officer saw that he was carrying a Ken Onion Leek. I don't know the details of the stop or what transpired, but the short of it is that the guy got arrested for carrying an "automatic" knife. The city got a hold of this information, and the DA put out a notice to all knife dealers that carried the Scallions, Leeks, or Chives or any other assisted opener that uses a blade extension/flipper (not a thumb stud, but the tang part of the blade that protrudes through the handle) that informed them that these knives were illeagal to sell. They claimed that the part of the blade that is used to open the knife made them automatics which opened (as per Texas State Law) "by a button on the handle". Funny, didn't seem like it was located on the handle to me. The DA also informed the dealers (Knives Plus, Academy Sporting Goods, Wal Mart) that they could have simply arrested them all for selling an illeagal knife, but instead they were given a curteous warning. Yeah, my foot.

So, in short, as of now, it is illeagal to carry or sell a Kershaw assisted opening knife with a flipper in Amarillo. What a load of crap. This will remain the law until the case comes up on the court dockets and is overturned. Hopefully, Kershaw will come to bat as they have in other court cases reguarding their knives and set the record straight.

So, I can't carry my Scallion or my Rainbow Leek. :(

--nathan
 
That is bullshit. I would like to know the reason for the initial stop and how the officer came across the knife. Was he hard up for an arrest. I am in a strange situation in that I love guns, knives and tattoos. These three communities are used to being harassed by some jag off cops. You should see the look on their faces when I stop them to chat. I see my job and those that I train to take dangerous people off the street not dangerous things. Nuff said... for now.
 
Good question here.

Yes, I have been. On surveillance as a PI in my own company several years back. Sitting on the target location from 6am until about 11:00 am in a parking lot of an apartment complex.

Cruiser pulls up next to me and officer gets out.
Sees the camera on the seat and asks what I'm doing.
Show him the ID and he asks who I'm watching. Privacy laws prevent me from telling him unless client says okay, he doesn't like that, asks me to alight from the vehicle.

I get out, he sees the knife clipped to the right front pocket, asks to see it, I take it out and hand it to him. He opens it and declares it illegal. Tells me to leave the area.
I inform him it's not an illegal knife. He says bye.
I go to the station and ask to see the chief. He's busy until I tell his secretary one of his officers just stole my property, I'm ushered into his office.
I ID myself and explain the scenario giving him the same citing of the statute. He disagrees and thinks it is also a blade restriction of 4".
Looks up the statute and admits he learns something new everyday. Has the secretary call the officer in off the road.
Tells him to give back the knife and cites the regulation statute. I get t back.
I tell the officer I'll be back there tomorrow and not bother coming down when they get a call.
Ask the chief to explain the knife was 275.00 and charges could have been filed for felony theft over 250.00 with the state. Cop gets beligerant in front of the chief and makes a foul comment.
It's then I tell both of them I'm not only a PI but a special PO in another town and an adjunct instructor at S+W for defensive knife tactics.
Chief says he's posting a notice that day about the new information and actually is very good about the whole affair. Wants his officers to know and obey the laws.
I inform him that if he is really serious he can have them empty out their lockers of the confiscated knives [ contraband ] and turn them into the Colonel of the State Police for disposal per another reg within 30 days or face a 50.00 fine for each offense.
He's real appreciative and I leave, all is well.

Cop never shows up the next day so i got what I needed to resolve the case and he got off with just another lesson learned on the street.

Brownie
 
Brownie, you know and I know cop knew the knife was a keeper and figured you were just another a-shole and would just let it go. Good job.
 
the last time I was stopped the LEO asked if I had a weapon. I told him I had a knife clipped to my pocket. He said he didn't care about that and asked if I had a gun. I told him no. He didn't even ask to hold onto my knife. Years ago I was stopped and the LEO said nothing about my EZ-out but was all bent out of shape about my kubotan. I no longer carry the kubotan. I may look a little scruffy sometimes and I drive an old beater but I always answer with a yes sir and no sir. I am up front and honest. My licence and insurance are in order. I do not do drugs or drink more than a couple of times a year. I drive pretty mellow. The last time I was stopped it was because I had fuzzy dice hanging from the rear view mirror of our '65 Plymouth. I think he was hoping to find pot. We were smoking cigarettes and I think he thought we were smoking a joint. He told us to take down the dice he let us go.

Frank
 
Mercop:

Thats exactly what he was doing. When he came into the station he had it clipped to the front ticket pocket on the 8 pocket pants.

He didn't get that one and almost got charged for his efforts.

Should have seen his eyes light up when he saw it, and then his obvious dismay at having to give it back after he had already concluded it was his when I drove off.

He wasn't turning that one in. BTW, it was a custom Randall Gilbreath out of Dora, Alabama that I had made for me. All titanium and 154cm clip point blade thats polished.

Brownie
 
Would it be a good idea to keep a copy of the relevant laws in ones wallet/pocket/car/etc?

Also, For you LEO, what is the proper thing to awnser to "The Question" If you are carrying a Spyderco Civilian, or a Spyderco Police (4in)
 
To clarify...The guy "stopped in Amarillo" was not stopped for a traffic violation. The police responded to his address on a call at which point he ran from the officers. He was eventually caught and had multiple charges stacked on him. I agree the Kershaw did not fit the definition of a switchblade and therefore the charge should have been dismissed. However, as a LEO, if you run from the police you should expect to face a charge for every offense. If the guy would have stayed and taken his citation for minor in possession of alcohol like a man, the other charges would have never happened. As for the comment on "Jagg off" officers...I stay to busy to worry about whether your knife is illegal. If I stop someone for a traffic violation and they have an illegal knife I usually ask them to put it in the trunk or glove box. We only ask about guns and knives for our safety, we aren't looking to bust someone. Do my job for one day and see if you don't start doing the same thing. There are a handful of anxious officer who look for these little things, but most of the law enforcement community is made up of good hard working cops.
 
SHARPSTICK-I am with you bro. I don't need to find a reason to lock someone up. Too many volenteers. With the guy and the Kershaw they were running it up the flagpole to see if it would wave and it did :(
 
I've been stopped many times based on my looks,(somewhere between a biker and a longhaired, redneck, hippie, Deadhead)

Never once did I ever have a knife confiscated/not returned.

I went to the statue of liberty before 9-11-01 and I had 9 knives on me, my wife had told my than 6 year old daughter to sit down this may take awhile. As I walked through the metal detector all the buzzers went off and the Park Ranger asked if I had any weapons or knives,(notice she didn't lump knives in with weapons, back then they were considered knives, just knives):confused:

She,(the Park Ranger opened every one of them, this took 20 minutes as she tried to find a switchblade or gravity knife, as these were illegal to bring into a Federal Park/National Park.

They didn't care that I had 9 knives, some with 4" blades:eek: , they gave me back everyone.
 
Sharpstick,

Thanks for the clarification. The guy had it coming, and I can see where they would stick him with multiple charges, but as you said, the knife charge should have been dropped. However, for some reason the DA decided to misinturpret the law (in my opinion, of course :)) and make it difficult for all of us law abiding knife enthusiest that live here. I can get my Spyderco Viele out of my pocket, open, and into action a heck of a lot more quickly than my Kershaws. Maybe that's why it's one of my usual EDC's. Hopefully this misunderstanding will be cleared up soon.

Anyway, as far as negative references made about offcers, I say this: There's bad apples in every barrel. I've met and am friends with many great LEO's, and I've met a small, small number who were complete dicks. It's the same with everythings (except maybe Dozier knives...very hard to find a bad apple). Anyway, kudos to all you officers out there who know the law and act accordingly.

--nathan
 
Mercop,

My reading comprehension isn't always, well, working at all. Did the officer give you your knife back or no?

Thanks.
 
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