Questionable Traffic Stop, Questionable Arrest, Un-Arrest? - November 9, 2023
- 6 months ago
On the night of November 9th, 2023, a Caldwell Parish Sheriff's Office deputy stopped a motorist because he allegedly couldn't read the license plate due to a plastic plate cover. I say allegedly because this particular deputy has, in the past, been known to claim he couldn't read license plates due to a trailer ball, due to one (of two) license plate lights being out, due to the motorist pulling a trailer, and other bogus reasons.
To be fair, though, I have seen license plate covers that legitimately do make it impossible to read the plate from a safe distance. It's possible that the vehicle did legitimately have one of those obstructing plate covers, but the opposite is more likely.
Either way, the deputies searched the vehicle and arrested one of the occupants due to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Eventually another deputy took the arrestee to the jail, but then apparently un-arrested him and took him to his mother's house. The transporting deputy would not say on the radio why he un-arrested the person, instead he called the dispatcher by phone. That's very, very unusual (un-arresting someone, that is) and suggests the whole thing was bogus from the beginning.
I cannot, however, say it was illegal. Despite all the stupid stuff these deputies do, they're smart enough to carefully word their radio traffic and hide much of their wrongdoing. It wasn't always this way, just a year ago they were openly admitting on the radio to crimes and other misconduct, but knowing they're being watched like a hawk and knowing they can't simply go encrypted (due to several radios including the dispatcher's not having encryption, others having the wrong key, others having the wrong algorithm), means they're more careful what they say.
To be fair, though, I have seen license plate covers that legitimately do make it impossible to read the plate from a safe distance. It's possible that the vehicle did legitimately have one of those obstructing plate covers, but the opposite is more likely.
Either way, the deputies searched the vehicle and arrested one of the occupants due to being a convicted felon in possession of a firearm. Eventually another deputy took the arrestee to the jail, but then apparently un-arrested him and took him to his mother's house. The transporting deputy would not say on the radio why he un-arrested the person, instead he called the dispatcher by phone. That's very, very unusual (un-arresting someone, that is) and suggests the whole thing was bogus from the beginning.
I cannot, however, say it was illegal. Despite all the stupid stuff these deputies do, they're smart enough to carefully word their radio traffic and hide much of their wrongdoing. It wasn't always this way, just a year ago they were openly admitting on the radio to crimes and other misconduct, but knowing they're being watched like a hawk and knowing they can't simply go encrypted (due to several radios including the dispatcher's not having encryption, others having the wrong key, others having the wrong algorithm), means they're more careful what they say.