Yeah, but, see below....Captain Bob wrote:Well, there are a lot of good possibilities with ways to have a locking case but if you already have a glove box with a lock that's the easiest one to use.
Which is exactly what the folks at OSP had in mind for this particular poison pill. "Officer Safety" is the official excuse, but any Trooper who doesn't assume a traffic stop is armed isn't going to stay on the job too long.However, if you have to fumble with a key (especially if it's on the keyring in the ignition) and try and lean over and get it into the glove box lock while the carjacker who blocked your car is trying to break your window you would waste valuable time.
Sounds correct. I should have gone to law schoolI saw another post on a different subject that said, I believe, that a lock with a key in it was a "latch" but with the key out it's a "lock." Sounds like a court/lawyer/$$$ thing if it came down to it. Just wondering.
. My family wanted me to get into Patent Law, which, when I decided wasn't related to "Patent Leather", might have been a good idea, but a computer followed me home one day....(I also got to be a rent-a-cop at about that time, which resulted in me spending way too much time reading the ORC, mostly to counter the Chief of Police's instructions to "try not to kill anybody and don't screw with Traffic", which, before OPOTA, was the gist of the training program.)
Our problem here is that something which is obviously a poison pill can sound reasonable enough in Court than an anti Judge or Jury won't notice that part. As absurd as the "locked" thing is, the law clearly says "locked", and there are all kinds of fun definitions that will get you nailed for "unlocked".
Note, though, that some very simple tests likely apply to what "locked" means. Leaving the key in the lock wouldn't apply, I'm sure, but the "one number off" combination proably would - the idea being that only the owner would even know that, and somebody else opening the lock prematurely would assume serious good luck.
Combination locks like your school locker or a wall safe normally need a "reset" procedure before you can re-open them, but the cheap three-number lock you'd find on an attache case generally doesn't.
(Which is a long-winded way of saying: "keep your trap shut" if that's your choice.)
When I was a very little guy, I bought a combination lock - probably for school - and proudly showed the super-complicated mechanical widget to my grandfather. He opened it in about thirty seconds. I'd let him ride along, but he passed away in 1960.... I have one of that same lock right now. It took me about 30 years, but I figured out how he did it.
Probably the best test for us is to ask the kids or grandkids to open the thing. If they can't, you should be safe. (Remember that the "safety caps" on drugs are considered "locks" in some instances. Speaking of those, the former day job made some of them, and we used to give them to one of the VP's six-year-old kid. He was good....)
It's summer - buy a new VCR to keep the neighbor kids employed....
Regards,