Nicole DeSousa
3-4 Disucssion

Over the weekend a man in New Bedford was caught unlawfully carrying a loaded firearm. Members of the narcotic unit and gang unit developed information about this individual and set up surveillance on Saturday night. The individual got into a cab that the officers were able to follow. The cab was shortly stopped by the officers. The man was taken out of the car and a pat frisk took place. The male was trying to press against the car to make it difficult for the officers to feel the loaded firearm, but the officers found it anyway. During the frisk pat a loaded 9mm Glock handgun was found with 8 rounds, one of the rounds being in the chamber. The male was placed under arrest and detectives are working to determine the origin of the handgun. The officers had to use their discretionary judgment with this individual because they were placing themselves in a potential harmful situation dealing with a person who had a loaded handgun. Placing surveillance was a critical decision point because they were able to monitor this individual before chasing after him. It was good that they were able to follow the cab and pull the cab over without placing the cab driver in danger as well. I think the decisions they made were very appropriate for the situation because if this man was not caught he would've been roaming the streets with a loaded handgun and could've potentially really hurt someone. I think police officers usually make the decisions