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seamusTX wrote:The cops in the older cities of the Northeast and Midwest used to have paddy wagons. A paddy wagon was essentially a small delivery truck with a secure rear compartment. The rear was nothing but corrugated stainless steel, so it could be washed out if, um, bodily fluids were expelled there.



There was a town near Chicago where the police used a modified school bus, because they routinely arrested dozens of people at bar fights.

I don't know why police forces quit using paddy wagons or some modern equivalent. Aside from the messes, I've seen quite a few incidents where prisoners in the back of a cruiser got loose, stole the vehicle, or assaulted the officers. A few even had weapons in places that escaped detection at the time of arrest. Excaliber?

- Jim

We had one.

It was routinely used to transport groups of prisoners to and from the county jail, and was unhesitatingly deployed for transportation efficiency when numerous arrests were being made at a single location.

WildBill wrote:

She had to be restrained in the back of the cruiser with hobbles placed on her feet and a hood over her head as she cursed and threatened to hurt one of the officers’ children.

I wonder why the hood? Was she spitting at them? How did she know that the officer had children? Is a hood standard police equipment? Enquiring minds.

Yes, hoods are used for spitters. It's no fun trying to drive while being spit on by a drunken slob sitting behind you, especially if you're in one of the jurisdictions like where I worked where 20% of arrestees were positive for Hepatitis B, HIV, or both.

There's no indication in the article that she knew anything about the officer, but if he appeared to be over the age of 21 or so she would know that there's a very high likelihood he had kids. She was most likely just trying to push a generally reliable emotional button by threatening harm to them. Most active officers encounter threats to family on a fairly regular basis from time to time, and there are ways to deal with such folks.

Making a threat like that is a good way to make sure that every prosecutable aspect of the suspect's behavior will appear as a separate charge on the arrest sheet. It also constitutes a clear danger to the safety of the community and would likely be taken into consideration when bail is set. The suspect may not have remembered what she had said when she sobered up, but she'll be dealing with the consequences for quite a while.