Sorry, just saw this… and this thread feels like internal affairs bait. lol.
To answer the original question, which really seemed to hit on an officer’s discretion if I am not mistaken. Discretion has to do with how the law is written. Generally laws in Wisconsin where the officer has discretion, the wording says an officer “may” do this and that. But when the law says “shall,” that means the officer has an obligation to enforce the law and must or possibly face punishment him or herself depending on the severity of the offense. Often times violations can be missed however.
Being from Wisconsin, we don’t have those ridiculous laws and I disagree with any unconstitutional law. further more, I would rather every person be well trained and carrying a gun out there because if I get in over my head, I wouldn’t mind a regular citizen coming to my aid. I see guns on traffic stops every day. I also see people with concealed carry permits not carrying, and I ask them why they don’t have their gun on them because it just makes sense to me. besides, I know the bad guys that mean me harm are probably carrying anyways, so why shouldn’t all the good people be carrying?
for my safety, I may take a gun during a traffic stop if it is not on their person (glove box, center council). if it is on them and would require them to move or exit the vehicle for me to retrieve it, I do not take the gun, I just ask them to put their hands on the wheel. if I do take a gun, I do not unload it or do anything besides run the serial number to check for a possible stolen weapon. when it is handed back I put it behind their seat, again for my safety.
I also never draw my duty weapon on someone with a gun, unless they are acting in a threatening manner or not following commands.
@DarkCornerGunworks, I don’t know about in SC, but in WI you can unarrest someone. We only need probable cause for an arrest, guilty beyond a reasonable doubt is for the DA to prove. One example for legally unarresting someone is if we see they have a warrant and for our safety we immediately arrest them for it before it is confirmed; but it is possible the department the warrant came from might not want to take possession of the person due to location even though it isn’t geo-restricted, the warrant in the system might not have been updated yet, or any number of reasons. you had probable cause to arrest because you visually saw the warrant believed he had one, not an officer’s fault and therefore the subject can be unarrested. Also, sometimes after talking to a DA after making a legal arrest, they may advise to release depending on charge and instance. I have seen that happen. and there are other reasons to unarrest people also.
Now your incident with the new guy was an illegal arrest because you didn’t commit a crime. It wasn’t you being “unarrested” that was illegal, it was the initial arrest. However, he could have had you exit the vehicle for a terry frisk and detained you for his safety, legally. At least that how things are in Wisconsin, based off of case law.