O-man, hon, maybe do some research at the ACLU Web site http://www.aclu.org/ and watch that Know Your Rights video that some wise person posted here a couple of weeks back. It was very good. I'll try and find the link to it. Go into the criminal justice area of this ACLU site and then look at those links.

Read the Bill of Rights, which are the first 10 amendments of the U.S. Constitution. http://usinfo.state.gov/usa/infousa/...cs/billeng.htm

The problem with police handbooks is that they vary from community to community, depending on what local ordinances are. Search and seizure and arrest powers are largely determined by national and state laws, which is why those links above will come in handy. That's the tricky part of police handbooks is that those guys are enforcing laws at all different levels, city, state, and national. I'm not sure a departmental handbook is going to help you as much as you think it might right this moment, but some basic legal information will help.