Armed correction officers ?

Question

Are certain corrections officers armed ? if yes do their duties different than the unarmed ones. And also do they take the weapon home or do they have to check it in when they go on break and when they go home ? Also is it true that certain county correction facilities alllow take home cars ? If true what's the point ?

Answer 1

Yes, certain ones are tower and tactical units.  Yes the tower guards are snipers and the tactical ones are like S.W.A.T., no they do not take the weapons home they put them in gun shack or storage room, same with the Mace.  No.

Answer 2

I can only answer positively for the State of Ohio, where I am, but most state prisons are similar in statute.

ALL Corrections Officers are certified to carry and use firearms ( pistol, rifle and shotgun) with annual or semi-annual recertifications. We also carry weapons cards at all times allowing such.

Where people get confused is from watching movies where you see a Corrections Officer walking around inside the prison with a weapon on their hip. No weapons are allowed inside the wire.

Armed posts are perimeter, tower detail, transportation, court trips, medical trips and funeral trips. Anytime an inmate is escorted outside the wire, weapons are drawn from the ready armory to each Officer on the detail.

Upon completion of the detail, all weapons are returned to the ready armory before entering the prison again.

I personally have no knowledge of county (or state) Officers taking home vehicles for private use at any time.

I hope this helps and you can find it useful

Answer 3

the only armed corrections that I know of is the Tact team, and they are only armed when a situation goes down and they are needed, kind of like swat, now the LT and higher are allowed to carry mace with them, but they are the only ones, as for taking it home, no, you have to turn everything back in to the arms room when you are done with it.  At least that's how it works where I'm at

Answer 4

In CA, some c/o's are armed.

The obvious positions such as gym gunner, outside guard towers, etc but also on transport, at the hospital (before the inmate is admitted to the secure unit), CRT (prison's SWAT)etc.

Guns are never allowed on the floor with the inmates.  The gunner is on an elevated platform.  The staff on the floor carry pepper spray, personal alarm, baton, etc but nothing lethal.

State correctional officers are peace officers and can carry a gun off duty.

A few jobs come with a car but it's not common.

Answer 5

Prisoner transportation officers are armed and perimeter officers are armed.

Answer 6

There are armed corrections officers in some facilities, but their jobs differed from normal officers.  Due to the fact they are armed, they don't have any contact with the inmates. (Image if they got a hold of a gun?)  Their duties could typically be tower work, watching for escapees and using the height and clear line of sight advantage.  I'm willing to guess other duties include being part of the prisons Quick Reaction Force team or Riot Team.  Because of them being on quick reaction teams, they may be authorized a take home vehicles for that reason.

Bottom line, it depends on the State and County and their views on these rules.

Answer 7

I've never heard of a corrections officer taking home a car. With the exception of transporting a prisoner to court, they have no duties outside the facility that would require a car.

Answer 8

Yes, only the riot squad and certain high ranking officers. My father is a correction officers and he said if anything happened the only thing he had was his fists.

I think they should arm everybody alot of cases in Florida have happened due to being unarmed. A female correction officer was beaten with a sledge hammer on a work duty and had nothing to defend herself with.

Though if they do choose to arm correction officers, give them a class and evaluation first so we don't have psychos with mace.

Answer 9

That depends on the state. Different states classify CO's differently.

Here in NYS, Correction Officers are full peace officers and have  arrest powers 24/7 on and off duty. They are allowed to carry off duty, just like regular cops. They do not take home cars, unless they are part of some special unti or the like. Thats relatively few, though.

I know in many states, however, CO's are not considered peace officers and do not carry outside of work.

It all depends on the state.

Answer 10

Yes, some corrections officers are armed, but as noted they work on the EXTERIOR of the facility. They may be assigned as tower guards, gate guards, perimiter patrol, prisoner transport, etc. Most locations require them to check their weapons at the end of the day, but many are alowed to carry an off-duty weapon.

trooper3316- The prison near me has several marked & unmarked cars. They are used for patroling the perimiter, chasing escapees, supervising work releases, etc. Also check out this report of a corrections officer running emergency traffic in his county issued car because he was late for a meeting-

http://www.policeposers.com/2007.php#111...

He was using a single red strobe dash light, no siren, & ran a red without stopping, crashing into another car.

- David