Your Police Department Wants You to Know:

1. Police officers are required to offer you a business card and/or give you a business card if you ask for one.
2. Police officers are allowed to stop and talk to anyone in a public place but must have reasonable suspicion to DETAIN you. If you feel you are being unjustly detained, please cooperate and ask for a business card and ask for a supervisor to be present.
3. If you choose to run when you see the police approach, this factor may be used to justify a detention because the courts have ruled that fleeing from police officers is inherently suspicious. The court’s concluding paragraph in People v. Souza 9 Cal. 1994) states, “We conclude that even though a person’s flight from approaching police may stem from an innocent desire to avoid police contact, flight from police is a proper consideration and indeed can be a key factor in determining whether in a particular case the police have cause to detain.”
4. If you are detained and the officer does not arrest you, they are required to explain to you the reason for the detention. If the officer’s explanation seems unreasonable, request to speak to a supervisor.
5. Officers can search you, your belongings, your car, or your home under the following circumstances:
   1. With your permission
   2. If you are on probation
   3. With a search warrant
   4. Exigent circumstances with probable cause (weapons pat-down);
   5. If you are arrested;
   6. Other hybrid conditions that warrant search.
6. If you are 18 years of age or older, officers are only required to “read you your rights” if you are both in-custody and being Officers do not have to “read you your rights” during brief detentions such as traffic stops, encounters on the sidewalk or at crime scenes.
7. If you suspect police officer misconduct, you can report in one of several ways:
   1. Phone the Watch Commander or Police Supervisor (626) 585-7489;
   2. Go to the Police Department and fill out a Contact Form;
   3. Download and fill out the Compliment/Complaint Form and turn it in to the Campus Police front counter, or mail it to:
      Chief of Police
      Pasadena City College Campus Police
      1570 E. Colorado Blvd. B210
      Pasadena, CA 91106
   4. Make a comment directly to the Chief of Police via his email: sxmatchan@pasadena.edu
8. Every Police officer is responsible for treating you with dignity and respect. If you feel that your experience doesn’t measure up to this value, the Police Department wants to know. If you don’t tell us what’s wrong, we can’t solve the problem.

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Compliment/Complaint Form