bluesneakers
not today satan
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- Aug 6, 2014
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At the risk of sounding like a broken record, I work in some isolated areas in which prisoners need to use commercial flights to go to court or prison, and so I often see people being escorted on flights by the RCMP. The constables *always* let those in custody smoke, and smoke as much as they want, before their flights, as it makes them more docile. Whether you like smoking or not, under the circumstances it is the humane thing to do. But from a LE perspective, it is also the sane and effective thing to do.
Any LEO in a traffic stop should be able to put his/her prejudices aside and allow someone to smoke in their own car to deescalate the risk of the situation. It lets the persons being detained/arrested think that they have some control over some part of their lives, and it keeps them from getting antsy. Anyone with even the tiniest sliver of training should know this, and should know that depriving a smoker unnecessarily is something done only to assert authority and/or bully. That's why POW camps have universally allowed smoking, to the point at which cigarettes were so plentiful that they were used as currency.
I've seen something similar when dealing with psych patients.
And I've never seen an aide refuse to take patients on their smoke break out of fear.