Question

[uscgamecocks]

Alright, I know there are a lot of posts on here asking the same stuff that I'm about to ask, but any help would be great. Here's the story. Two years ago when I was a freshman in college, my friends and I went to Myrtle Beach for spring break. Well, we got drunk, and as we were walking back to our hotel, a cop pulled up behind us. I was on my phone, and my friends took off running. I see them run, so I take off too, a few steps behind them. Well, the officer catches me, and I stay the night in jail for resisting arrest. I know, bad judgement on my part, I f'ed up, so please don't give me the whole "You should have known better, you are an idiot" speech. I accept the fact that I'm an idiot for doing it. Besides that, I haven't gotten in any trouble whatsoever. I get great grades(Criminal Justice major), am currently a manager at our 200,000 square foot University Union, have been employee of the year for two years straight, worked security at many events/concerts, have many years of work experience, and haven't ever been fired from any job. Alright, now my question is, how much do you think this resisting arrest charge will affect my chances of being hired as a police officer. I won't be applying for another 2 years, so 4 years will have passed since the incident. Any thoughts and/or advice anyone could give me would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

[FutureLE]

There is no way to know for sure, until you start applying.

From what I have seen, people have gotten jobs with some pretty serious things on their records. But I am not sure how serious your offense is looked at. Depends on the dept's standards.

[irishlad2nv]

Typical "crystal ball" question and you will not find the answer until you apply. I would not even worry since you said you are not going to even apply for another 2 years.

[irishnut]

At least you have two or more yrs to show that you have grown up. I take it, that this happened when your were under age? Like they said, you will not know until you start to apply. If you do get DQed at first, dont let it get you down and keep trying!

[JohnnyV]

Just be honest about it. If you are applying in SC, the depts will be aware of how easy it is to get arrested Myrtle Beach. At my former agency two guys I worked with were arrested in MB for disorderly conduct in college. Some depts are forgiving of teenage mistakes. Were you charged with Resisting Arrest (misdemeanor) as a city offense or was it on a warrant (felony)?

[uscgamecocks]

it was a misdemeanor... and you're right about it being easy to be arrested in Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is bad news...

[JetTroop]

it was a misdemeanor... and you're right about it being easy to be arrested in Myrtle Beach. Myrtle Beach is bad news...

Umm..wait, let me get this straight. The police pull you over, you run and get caught and Myrtle Beach is bad news? Drug dealers run, people have warrants run, you...fit into that category as runners. Stupid yes? Myrtle Beach's fault? No, not hardly. I can't imagine anyone NOT charging you from another agency. In North Carolina I would have charged you with RDO, Resist, Delay or Obstruct. In Myrtle Beach, it's un-technically called Resisting Arrest. In the past year ago it was changed to reflect North Carolina's law. Whether this was intentional or not, it's very similar.

However, you were charged with either the state charge or the older city version, obviously I don't know. If you have anything from the court, the city ordinance would begin with a 14. If it begins with a 16, that's the state statue. It might not even be on your criminal history with it being a city charge (if it was). That said, I would never lie about it. Explain the situation. That charge and your explanation behind it may or may play to your favor.

I run a large police forum site myself with over 4,000 members. Active but nothing to the extent of Officer.com. That said, I try to not chastise anyone, slam them for past choices etc. Especially when looking at a career in law enforcement and lord knows I've answered a lot of questions like this over the years. But to blame the department...I mean, come on. You ran after a traffic stop. What happened to you happens to just about anyone who runs from a traffic stop..anywhere. I've worked for three departments in two states...same answer at all three.

Myrtle Beach has 200 sworn officers (not 170, not 240, not 190 but 200). They serve a nightly population of 250,000 (some nights over 400,000). What's significant is if you look at a lot of web pages by other departments, they serve a daily population of high numbers...not nightly. Nightly means they are there day and night, working and playing...drinking and dancing. Most agencies couldn't handle a nightly or over-night population that high with that few officers. I know of cities with 150,000 as their city population and they have 450 officers. Myrtle Beach is FAR below the power curve but they are in a unique situation. Tourists high, residents low. That said, they handle 100,000 calls for service per year with 13,000,000 million visitors to the Grand Strand region each year. Of their calls for service, there are numerous alarm calls, car burglaries, illegally parked cars, traffic stops, nuisances, disturbances and the like. Most calls DONT result in an arrest and every call/arrest DOES result in a file number. We'll say that of the 100,000 calls for service, say 10,000 people are arrested each year. That means that each officer must arrest 50 people per year. Possible..sure but figure that at least 50 of those sworn officers are the chiefs, captains, lieutenants, sergeants and corporals that rarely make arrests. So, my number of 10,000 is probably high. That's a 1 in 1300 chance that you could be arrested. Of course, you have repeat shoplifters, drug dealers and prostitutes, etc...who get arrested 4, 5 or more times in a month, let a lone in a year. So the number is probably closer to 1 in 10,000. Myrtle Beach has a population of only 25,000. So...we arrest on average 2.5 citizens a year. The rest are tourists.

Morale of this story? It's hard to get a arrested in Myrtle Beach. hahaha :D

[uscgamecocks]

I didn't mean for it to sound like I was blaming the agency. I don't blame them at all, they did their job. I was just implying that when it comes to Myrtle Beach and spring break, especially if you're a college student, its bad news if you're going to be drinking. The atmosphere and surroundings kinda enhance the party attitude. Which in turn increases the likelyhood of getting arrested. You get what I'm trying to say? I didn't mean to show disrespect or anything like that.
It sounds like you know your stuff, so let me ask you another question. What would I have to do in order to try and get this expunged from my record? The citation starts with a 16, so its state. Is it even possible to get it expunged? And what do you think it would cost? Thanks for the help.

[gomets11]

I didn't mean for it to sound like I was blaming the agency. I don't blame them at all, they did their job. I was just implying that when it comes to Myrtle Beach and spring break, especially if you're a college student, its bad news if you're going to be drinking. The atmosphere and surroundings kinda enhance the party attitude. Which in turn increases the likelyhood of getting arrested. You get what I'm trying to say? I didn't mean to show disrespect or anything like that.
It sounds like you know your stuff, so let me ask you another question. What would I have to do in order to try and get this expunged from my record? The citation starts with a 16, so its state. Is it even possible to get it expunged? And what do you think it would cost? Thanks for the help.

it is probably possible to get it expunged, but I know in FL, when applying for a LE job or any job involving teaching/child care you still must disclose the arrest & it will still come back in the BI (or at least it should according to the law)

[JetTroop]

I didn't mean for it to sound like I was blaming the agency. I don't blame them at all, they did their job. I was just implying that when it comes to Myrtle Beach and spring break, especially if you're a college student, its bad news if you're going to be drinking. The atmosphere and surroundings kinda enhance the party attitude. Which in turn increases the likelyhood of getting arrested. You get what I'm trying to say? I didn't mean to show disrespect or anything like that.
It sounds like you know your stuff, so let me ask you another question. What would I have to do in order to try and get this expunged from my record? The citation starts with a 16, so its state. Is it even possible to get it expunged? And what do you think it would cost? Thanks for the help.

I understand what you are trying to say, thank you. :)

I would call the City Prosecutor

[andy black]

next time plan your spring break in N. Myrtle where you can walk around with your little plastic blue solo cup in peace.