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Comment by seanmcdirmid | Hacker News Reader

I don't think this is legal or considered acceptable today, at least in most US states. A police discount for the purpose of affecting favorable treatment (even if that treatment is merely for continued presence) is kind of like a bribe. Many police departments just don't allow these kinds of discounts as a matter of policy.

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Surprised you're getting downvoted. I've seen a couple statements by police departments in the US (unfortunately I can't find them right now) that stated they will accept no discounts or freebies for the exact reasons you stated.

Apparently it's either legal or at least accepted in Whataburger country (Texas). Stores there offer free meals to anyone in uniform--police, firefighter, EMS, security guard, military, nurse, etc--eating in the restaurant.

If everyone got a 50% discount, there would obviously be no problem. If the criteria was unrelated to any ulterior motives (you just have to be uniform), then that seems fine. It is only when providing a discount to a government employee with the expectation of a special benefit that would not be conveyed otherwise...

Really? In my city, places can literally hire off-duty cops to stand guard around construction sites or direct traffic. And they show up in uniform and with all the legal powers of a police officer.

I worked at two McDonalds, both in the Seattle area, 20+ years ago. The first one was in Mill Creek (a rich area south of Everett), the cops weren't allowed to take discounts. The second place was in downtown (3rd and Pine); we literally couldn't stay open without hiring an off duty officer. Hiring went through the SPD and was tightly regulated.

Offering a cop discounted food to hang out at your restaurant means, while taxpayers are flipping the bill, somewhere else isn't being covered as well. Hiring an off duty cop for part time security work, in contrast, doesn't reduce coverage.

Yeh always wondered about that. There are a few 24 hour gas stations in Dublin, Ireland that give discounts to on duty officers so it attracts them to be there through their night shift to reduce robberies. But as you said, if they're there, they're not somewhere else. Clever for the gas station, but not so much for everyone else methinks

I'm surprised you needed just one off-duty officer at the 3rd and Pine location. I've eaten there a couple of times and it's quite the experience.

Was it still known as Crackdonalds back then? I can't imagine meth was a big enough thing 20+ years ago that you'd also hear it called Methdonalds?

It was better and worse, we had two floors back then, I worked at night (going to UW during the day), so most of the customers were homeless...no drugs that I could tell, but lots of booze.

Some great people to work with, though (mostly from the Philippines). Also, it was never boring.

The NYPD is definitely prohibited from discounts: http://gothamist.com/2012/07/19/days_of_discounted_chipotle_...

Some departments explicitly don't allow discounts, but a lot of others will allow discounts only if they're offered at the time of service. They can't ask for the discounts, but if they're offered they can accept.

In most states in Australia McDonalds stores give a 50% discount to police. It's at the discretion of each store though it seems to be the standard, at least from every situation I've seen.

A decade ago the fast food place i worked at had a 50% police discount. We never had too many police come in anyways.

I worked fast food a couple of decades ago, and there would always be some new manager trying to give a cop a discount, and the cop having to explain why they couldn't take it. It really depends on the area, I guess.

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