HooG19 wrote:rx9790 wrote:I aint running with that one, because i will bet a months pay if something goes down they will throw the book at me for disobeying an officer in uniform. They are decked out in their HPD clothes with a badge so to me they are LEO. If they are under security guise then there uniform should reflect that.
They ARE there as LE, not private security. The show's hire off duty officers through the departments. They pay the department, the department pays the officer as an overtime gig.
Doesn't matter who's paying them. If they're there to enforce a private employer's rules, they're functioning as private security.
Let me make it clear that I'm making a philosophical distinction, not a legal one.
The officers at the door retain their full LEO status to detain, investigate, and arrest. That's fine: that's their job. But a peace officer's job is not, and should not be, to play doorman and bouncer. I have a problem with it when someone with government authority stands at the door of a private establishment to enforce a dress code, and enforcing a show promoter's private rules is no different.
If the gun show employees want to ask everyone to unload and zip-tie all guns, that's their business. But it's not a legal matter at a government-owned facility, and peace officers should not try to enforce such rules.
Kevin