That was one fine post, PT.

It never ceases to amaze me that people believe that the U.S. government somehow did us a courtesy by allowing us to have the right to free speech or freedom of religion or....

There is no set time frame. It is entirely dependent upon the circumstances. You can make that statement anytime you wish. However, the officer will decide if you are free to go or not. You as the detainee will not get to determine if you have been detained long enough. If you feel that you have been detained longer than necessary be sure to bring it up to you lawyer after the fact and a court will decide long after the incident. During the encounter, right or wrong, the officer makes that decision, He or she may have to defend it in court later but at that time the officer controls the detention.

FB

So a LEO can detain a person for say 24 hours without arresting the individual?

Surely there are guidelines on this subject.

Actually I did further research and it depends on the state - some states have legal limits for detention, others do not. Some states with limits allow the detention to morph into an arrest if it's not finished by the limit - which benefits the detainee as an arrest adds additional rights.

I'd like to compile a list of states that have set limits for detentions if I can find the info online.

Not true, there are time constraints. Am I free to go, then charge me. You can not be detained for ever this is not CUBA

Can you write up a writ of habeas corpus while in interrogation?

I did not say forever. I said there are not set time limits. There is a very big difference. The circumstances of the detention dictate if the detention stays legal or not. Those circumstances can include the severity of the suspected offense, if the subject is moved from the point that the detention began, and many others. What is being discussed is a investigative detention not an arrest. There is a point that an investigative detention can become an arrest even if the law enforcement officer did not intend it to become an arrest. The two following links do a pretty good job of explaining the concept.

FB

http://www.hendonpub.com/resources/a...aspx?ID=207559

http://www.hendonpub.com/resources/a...aspx?ID=207442

There are time constraints, but in some states they are ridiculous - like 20+ hours before being arrested or let go.

Most states require the detention to be reasonable and to not exceed the time required for the immediate determination if a crime is/was being committed.

Some states have limits as low as 60 minutes.

That depends if by interrogation you mean a room at a police station I would bet that it would not be a investigative detention that we would be discussing. If the police move a subject from the point where the investigative detention began, then it becomes an arrest. This is why police not longer take the suspect to the victim for an id instead they bring the victim to the suspect. So unless the police asked you to go to the interrogation room with them and you agreed willingly it wouldn't be an investigative detention it would be an arrest and I would hope you had been read Miranda and decided to take advantage of those rights.

FB

In many cases it is much less than 60 minutes.

FB

Where do these zombies come from that believe our government grants rights to its citizens? I would bet that this is the same crowd that say the Constitution is only a framework for law and is open to new interpretations depending on the circumstances of the times--i.e. the Constitution is a "living, breathing document."

The Constitution and its amendments (most importantly, The Bill of Rights) are absolute law designed to prevent the inherent corruption of a powerful government from running roughshod over the rights of the citizens. All codified rights are absolute rights guaranteed by the Constitution, and therefore, to be protected by our government, with all of its enforcement powers, but granted by no manmade authority, but rather, by nature or god or whatever you want to call whatever it was that planted the desire for liberty and freedom in every living thing.

Liberty can only survive when brave men of conscience hold the line against encroaching tyranny. If no one ever stands-up to the over-reaching government and its desire to relieve the citizens of their rights, then we will slowly boil to death like frogs in the cooking pot, never knowing why or how we lost our most precious possession in this great land, our inalienable civil rights! Look at what has happened with the liberal court interpretations of the "takings clause" recently. People who were living law-abiding peaceful lives had their property confiscated by the government not for the common good, but for the economic enrichment of the bloated beast that is government bureaucracy. Government employees now earn twice as much as their private-sector counterparts of equal skills and education, so the benefits of being part of "The Machine" (credit to Pink Floyd) are so intoxicating that expedient logic allows all in government, politicians and bureaucrats alike, to justify their destruction of our liberties in order to increase their power and control.

I applaud the actions of any patriot, and they do deserve that moniker!, who stands up to the government whenever it encroaches on our rights. So "Bravo", to the lawyer with the camera. "Bravo", to any in the media who have the huevos to hold our government to account. "Bravo", to those who oppose "The War On Terror" and its "Big Brother" domestic surveillance laws codified in the Patriot Act, the Homeland Security Act and other draconian measures. "Bravo" to our troops who are patriots because they have sworn an oath to " support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign or domestic..." Their pure motives may be corrupted by politicians, but they are willing to fight to the death to preserve our rights, and all of our freedoms have been paid for in their blood!

"All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing."--Edmund Burke.

I would like to know Texas law on this matter - I tried Google, but could not find an answer. If Texas places a time limit on detentions, what is that limit?

Suppose hundredsof photographers got together at a predetermined time and day and went to IAH and HOU and simultaneously did a "snap in" where they descended on the TSA checkpoints, got out their cameras and snapped photos while still others had video recording the event? Wouldn't that be hilarious?

I am not aware of any state setting a time limit for a pre-arrest investigative detention. The US Supreme court has ruled that an pre-arrest investigative detention must be for a reasonable amount of time depending upon the circumstances of the stop. This usually translates to stops of short duration but it depends on the circumstances. The problem is that an investigative detention can turn into an unintended arrest if the law enforcement officer is not knowledgeable.

This changes post-arrest. There are time limits for how long you can be held post arrest before being charged these can vary from state to state, jurisdiction to jurisdiction and in the Federal arena. There are also time limits to being brought before a magistrate if you have been arrested without a warrant.

FB

I agree, and I did go out to IAH this evening to drop somone off for a flight, after doing so I went to the top level of one of the parking garages as I always do with my scanner and camera.

I really was hoping after reading this thread that a smurf might show up, although I knew the chance was a slim one, most of the smurfs use the old Terminal A or B parking garage for employee parking.

If a smurf had slithered up to me, I was prepared, cell phone with the HPD number at IAH programmed into it, to report the harrassment, and several well thought out statments as to what I think of smurfs and what it is they do.

On a side note, while the HPD officer that I mentioned in my earlier post that questoned me was polite, I have witnessed and heard other IAH HPD officers being quite rude to put it mildly.

I am not sure what should happen to the HPD officers involved in what the OP mentioned, the smurfs involved should be taken and have their tin badges ripped off their shirt, be publicly caned, and maybe locked in a room with Rolando Negrin for a few minutes, but I dont have any legal basis for that, I just dont like smurfs, ANY smurf


About 21 years ago, IAH used to have their own police department, at some point they became part of HPD, never seen one of them being rude or crude until they became part of HPD