Armed and drunk: Off-duty cops get into trouble drinking. LAPD rules fail to prevent it

Early one morning last month, off-duty Los Angeles Police Officer Nicolas Quintanilla-Borja allegedly threatened to kill his cousin and another man with a handgun in Inglewood before being arrested by local police, prosecutors said. When asked about police officers carrying concealed weapons, the California attorney general’s office said that cops aren’t subject to the restrictions on civilian licensees, but that each of the state’s individual law enforcement agencies “likely has a departmental policy that addresses the consumption of alcohol.” That is true for some agencies, but not the LAPD. In the Chicago Police Department, off-duty officers can carry firearms but “are instructed to refrain from doing so when there is a likelihood that they will be consuming alcoholic beverages or medications that may impair their physical and/or mental abilities.” In the New York Police Department, off-duty officers “are to be unarmed at their own discretion when engaged in any activity of a nature whereby it would be advisable not to carry a firearm, especially those events at which alcoholic beverages are consumed.” LAPD responding to fatal stabbing of three children in Reseda. Off-duty officers are afforded the right to carry firearms “so that they can protect themselves and the public if a dangerous situation arises,” and are already expected to do so responsibly and in compliance with department policies, the Los Angeles Police Protective League’s board of directors said. In 2010, against the union’s wishes, the Sheriff’s Department implemented a policy stating that armed off-duty officers “shall not consume any intoxicating substance to the point where the employee is unable to or does not exercise reasonable care and/or control of the firearm.” The policy says an officer with a blood-alcohol content of 0.08% or more is unable to do so by definition, but may rebut a claim that he violated the policy by showing he acted reasonably.