Free MO POST Exam Flashcards

A brief investigative detention supported by reasonable suspicion — specific, articulable facts that fall short of probable cause. Any frisk that follows is limited to patting the outer clothing for weapons, never a hunt for evidence.

Custody and interrogation. Routine booking questions, ordinary roadside questioning at a traffic stop, and spontaneous unprompted statements are not custodial interrogation, so no warning is required before them.

The Eighth Amendment. Keep it separate from the Fifth (self-incrimination, double jeopardy, due process) and the Sixth (speedy trial, counsel, confrontation) — the Eighth governs what happens at bail setting and sentencing, after the arrest.

Every item seized, with no dollar-value floor — a scrap of paper and a $2,000 laptop are both inventoried on the return to the issuing court. Omitting seized property invites suppression and breaks the chain of custody.

Class A: 10-30 years or life. Class B: 5-15 years. Class C: 3-10 years. Class D: up to 7 years. Class E: up to 4 years. Armed criminal action (RSMo 571.015) is unclassified and carries its own penalty — three to fifteen years for a first offense, consecutive to the sentence for the underlying felony.

Class A: up to one year. Class B: up to six months. Class C: up to 15 days. A class D misdemeanor authorizes no jail term at all — 558.011 lists no term for it and the penalty is a fine under RSMo 558.002 — which matters when deciding whether a custodial arrest is proportionate.

Property or services worth $750 or more is generally a class D felony and $25,000 or more is a class C felony. Stealing under $150 with no prior stealing convictions is a class D misdemeanor; other stealing is a class A misdemeanor. Value drives the charge, so document how you established it.

No — RSMo 575.150 states it is no defense that the officer was acting unlawfully; the remedy is a civil suit, not resistance. Resisting is a class A misdemeanor, but a class E felony when the underlying arrest is for a felony or when flight creates a substantial risk of serious injury or death.

25/50/25 — $25,000 for bodily injury or death of one person, $50,000 for two or more persons in one accident, and $25,000 for property damage. A driver who cannot show this coverage faces financial-responsibility action separate from any traffic charge.

Cause includes any criminal offense, acts of moral turpitude or reckless disregard for public safety, misrepresenting a material fact to obtain or retain a commission, and testing positive for a controlled substance without a valid prescription. The POST Director may place the license on probation, suspend it, or permanently revoke it — and 11 CSR 75-13.090 makes unauthorized use of the MPOLE itself a separate cause for discipline.

If an officer declines to arrest and files a written report, any officer called back to the same address within twelve hours who finds probable cause that the same offender re-offended shall make an arrest. The second call converts a discretionary arrest into a mandatory one.

The most significant aggressor, not necessarily the first one to act. Officers weigh the statute's intent to protect victims, the comparative extent of injuries, and any history of domestic violence — which is why dual arrests are discouraged when one party is clearly the primary aggressor.

A first violation of an ex parte or full order of protection is a class A misdemeanor; a second violation within five years is a class E felony. The respondent must have had notice — either the officer presented the order or it was actually communicated in a manner reasonably likely to advise.

Peace officers are mandated reporters and must immediately report suspected child abuse or neglect to the Children's Division. Notifying a juvenile officer or another agency does not substitute for the report to the Division, and no reporter may be sanctioned for making one.

A peace officer with reasonable cause to believe a person is mentally disordered and presents an imminent likelihood of serious harm to self or others may take that person into custody for evaluation not to exceed ninety-six hours. It is a civil detention for evaluation, not an arrest.

Officer well-being including mental and physical health awareness; fair and impartial policing including implicit bias recognition; handling persons with mental health or cognitive impairment issues; and tactical training that must include de-escalation, crisis management, critical thinking, or social intelligence.

Consensual encounter (no suspicion needed; the person is free to leave), investigative detention or Terry stop (reasonable suspicion; brief and limited in scope), and arrest (probable cause). Misjudging which tier you are in is the most common route to suppression.

Yes. Pennsylvania v. Mimms permits ordering the driver out and Maryland v. Wilson extends it to passengers, with no added suspicion required, because the officer-safety interest outweighs the minimal added intrusion. Ordering someone out is not by itself authority to frisk them.

The Missouri Statewide Wireless Interoperable Network — a P25 trunked radio system running on 150, 700, and 800 MHz public-safety spectrum. It gives local, state, and federal responders a shared statewide talk path instead of ad hoc patches built at the scene.

Yellow pages index by four-digit UN/NA identification number, blue pages by material name, orange pages hold the numbered response guides, and green pages give initial isolation and protective action distances. Read the placard from a distance, upwind and uphill, before you commit to an approach.

A search incident to arrest is justified at the moment of arrest by officer safety and evidence preservation; a booking inventory is an administrative accounting of the arrestee's property. The inventory must follow standardized written jail policy — investigative hunches turn it into a pretext search.

A person arrested and confined without a warrant must be discharged within twenty-four hours unless charged with a criminal offense on the oath of a credible person. Refusing to release, blocking access to counsel, or moving the person to dodge the rule is itself a class A misdemeanor.

One supervisor to five subordinates is optimal, with an acceptable range of three to seven. When an expanding incident pushes a supervisor past that range, ICS answers by adding divisions, groups, or branches rather than stacking more reports on one person.

When a traffic crash involves a death, a personal injury, or apparent property damage of $500 or more to one person. The report goes to the Missouri State Highway Patrol's statewide crash records system; damage below the threshold with no injury is not automatically reportable.

Driving with excessive blood alcohol content is .08% or more by weight in an ordinary vehicle and .04% or more in a commercial motor vehicle; a first offense is a class B misdemeanor. Under RSMo 577.037, .08% is prima facie evidence the driver was operating in an intoxicated condition.

A driver who asks for counsel gets twenty minutes to try to reach an attorney; continued refusal after that period counts as a refusal. The officer must state the reasons for the request and warn that refusal evidence is admissible and that the license is revoked immediately — a one-year revocation under RSMo 302.574.

A minimum continuous fifteen minutes ending when the subject provides the breath sample, during which the operator stays close enough to use sight, hearing, or smell to be reasonably sure the subject does not smoke, vomit, or take anything by mouth. It exists so residual mouth alcohol cannot inflate the reading.

The documented, unbroken record of every person who handled an item of evidence, plus when and why, from seizure through court. A gap does not automatically exclude the item, but it hands the defense an authenticity attack — so log every transfer, including inside your own agency.

Latent prints are invisible residue that must be developed; patent prints are visible transfers in blood, ink, grease, or dust; plastic prints are three-dimensional impressions left in soft material such as putty or wax. Only latent prints normally require powder, chemical, or alternate-light processing.

Address threats and render aid, then identify or detain suspects and witnesses, then establish and log a perimeter large enough that it can be shrunk later. Every extra person allowed inside adds contamination that can never be undone.

Violent deaths (homicide, suicide, accident); deaths from thermal, chemical, electrical, or radiation injury; sudden deaths of apparently healthy persons; deaths unattended by a physician in the 36 hours before death; deaths in police custody or an institution; and any suspicious or unusual death. The office then takes charge of the body.

An interview is non-accusatory information gathering from anyone; an interrogation is accusatory questioning of a suspect aimed at admissions. The label matters legally because custody plus interrogation triggers Miranda, while a non-custodial interview does not.

Direct evidence proves a fact without inference, such as an eyewitness to the act; circumstantial evidence requires an inference, such as a fingerprint on the weapon. Neither is legally weaker — a case can be proven entirely on circumstantial evidence.

Cover who, what, when, where, why, and how in chronological order, written in first person and active voice, recording facts and observations rather than conclusions. Prosecutors and defense counsel read it months later, so what is not written effectively did not happen.

Incident reports and arrest reports are open records, but an arrest report becomes a closed record — except for the disposition — if no charge is filed within thirty days. Investigative reports stay closed until the investigation becomes inactive.

Agencies making felony and misdemeanor arrests must furnish fingerprints, a photograph, any other unique biometric identifier collected, and the charges to the central repository without undue delay; court-ordered fingerprinting must be submitted within thirty days. Skipped submissions leave holes in the record other officers later rely on.

The contemporaneous raw notes taken at the scene that feed the formal report. They are generally discoverable, so record facts, verbatim quotes, times, and measurements — not opinions or characterizations you could not defend on the stand.

Juvenile court has jurisdiction over children under eighteen. A certification hearing is discretionary for children fourteen to eighteen charged with a class A or B felony, a chapter 566 sexual offense, or three felonies within 180 days; the court shall order a hearing for a child twelve or older accused of first- or second-degree murder, first-degree assault, rape, sodomy or robbery in the first degree, drug distribution, any felony involving a deadly weapon, or with two or more prior unrelated felonies.

Compress at 100 to 120 per minute to a depth of at least 2 inches (5 cm) and no more than 2.4 inches (6 cm), allowing full chest recoil between compressions. Shallow compressions fail to perfuse, and leaning on the chest prevents it from refilling.

Thirty compressions to two breaths for a lone rescuer without an advanced airway, keeping every interruption as short as possible. Attach and use an AED the moment it arrives — early defibrillation is the strongest survival factor in a shockable arrest.

Start with firm direct pressure; if a limb keeps bleeding, apply a tourniquet high and tight above the wound, tighten until bleeding stops, and record the time it was applied. Do not loosen or remove it — that decision belongs to the receiving hospital.

Anyone who in good faith and with reasonable care administers an opioid antagonist to a person believed to be overdosing is immune from criminal prosecution, professional licensing discipline, and civil liability. The statute also requires contacting emergency personnel immediately after administering it.

Pale, cool, clammy skin; a rapid weak pulse; rapid shallow breathing; and altered mental status. Control bleeding, keep the patient warm and still, and expedite transport — shock is what kills after the initial injury, so it is time-critical.

Only when the officer reasonably believes it is immediately necessary and the person has committed or attempted a felony involving serious physical injury, is escaping with a deadly weapon or dangerous instrument, or may otherwise endanger life or inflict serious physical injury unless arrested without delay. All force must be objectively reasonable in light of the totality of the particular facts and circumstances.

Deadly force is physical force used with the purpose of causing — or known to create a substantial risk of causing — death or serious physical injury. A forcible felony is any felony involving the use or threat of physical force or violence against an individual, including murder, robbery, burglary, arson, kidnapping, assault, and forcible sexual offenses.

The severity of the crime at issue, whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to officers or others, and whether the suspect is actively resisting or attempting to evade arrest by flight. Reasonableness is judged under the Fourth Amendment from the perspective of a reasonable officer on scene, not with 20/20 hindsight.

Deadly force may not be used to stop an unarmed, non-dangerous fleeing suspect. It is permitted only when the officer has probable cause to believe the suspect poses a significant threat of death or serious physical injury to the officer or others, which retired the old 'any fleeing felon' rule.

A person has no duty to retreat from a dwelling, residence, or vehicle they are not unlawfully in, from property they own or lease, or from any other place they have a right to be. Once the defendant raises the dwelling, residence, or vehicle exception, the state must disprove justification beyond a reasonable doubt — so document occupancy and lawful presence precisely.

Cuff the hands behind the back, check for proper tightness, and double-lock so the cuffs cannot ratchet down and injure the wrists; add leg restraints only when needed and applied properly. Never leave a restrained person prone and unmonitored — that is how positional asphyxia happens.

Each law enforcement agency must report use-of-force data at least annually to the FBI's National Use-of-Force Data Collection and to the Department of Public Safety, without personally identifying individual officers. A reportable incident is a death or serious bodily injury connected to an officer's use of force, or an officer discharging a firearm at or in the direction of a person.