Kansas City Chief: "Off With Their Heads!"

What do you do when an arrestee says they're sick and need medical attention?

It seems that Kansas City officers observed a woman affixing a fake temporary tag to her car and initiated an inquiry. The woman was evasive for reasons that later became obvious, as inquiry resulted in the arrest of the pregnant woman on city charges, motor vehicle offenses, and outstanding warrants for a variety of minor offenses.

The arrestee told the officers she was pregnant, bleeding, and wanted to go to a hospital. These requests were ignored-perhaps because it appeared that the woman had recently been grocery shopping, and perhaps because it appeared that the woman was dissembling and evasive-lying to them, to put it bluntly.

She was lodged in jail for ten hours until sent to a hospital where she miscarried the next day. The arrestee filed a personal injury/wrongful death lawsuit, and the chief has recommended the officers be fired.

Watch the video. You won't see anything very different than a thousand other traffic stops in a thousand other towns that result in arrests because the driver is concealing information that allows officers to do their jobs. The female officer's conduct is less than deferential. So what? Are three careers to be sacrificed for the sake of appeasement, and what does this do for the confidence of officers in their leadership? I don't know, but it can't be good.

So. What do you do? You make it part of your paperwork trail, is what you do. You cover your butt. Either get the person evaluated by paramedics at the scene if they're available, transport the arrestee to the emergency room, or advise the receiving facility that they may have a medical issue on their hands, and get it dealt with.