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October 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
Too many cops think that training only occurs in the classroom, on the range, or on the mat…
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Dave Smith
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September 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
You must always speak of the good, for if you turn your words to the Darkside and you use "The Power of Negative Annoyance" you will soon discover the phenomenon of "Career Setback."
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Dave Smith
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August 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
Honestly, we have a lot of things in life that are like physicals: We don't enjoy them but we need to do them. For the crime fighter the list includes things like depositions, evaluations, and death notifications.
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Dave Smith
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July 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
Sometimes it takes a smack in the face or some other bad event to remind us of the great risks we take and make us appreciate surviving.
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Dave Smith
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June 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
A second later my hood exploded and the cow's rear end smashed through my window.
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Dave Smith
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May 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
“If a man aspires to the highest place, it is no dishonor to him to halt at the second, or even at the third.”
—Marcus Tullius Cicero
One of the early impressions I had upon graduating from the academy was the need to start studying for the sergeant’s exam that I would be eligible to take in three years. Tucson was a fast growing city and its constant growth was making it a great agency for promotion.
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Dave Smith
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April 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
Each of us who wears a badge and a gun gets to live a real-life monster movie.
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Dave Smith
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March 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
The really great thing about a career in law enforcement is all the exciting and wonderful experiences we get to have. Using Oscar Wilde's definition of "experience" as the name we give our mistakes, I have had a lot of "experiences."
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Dave Smith
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February 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
"Watch the Hands!" —J.D. "Buck" Savage
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Dave Smith
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January 2008 - Columns: In My Sights
The thing about being a good burglar is that you have to know when to move and when to stay still. One of the really bad times to move is when a K-9 officer is using the pay phone in front of the building you are burgling.
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Dave Smith
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December 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
"I owe my success to having listened respectfully to the very best advice, and then going away and doing the exact opposite."
—G.K. Chesterson
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Dave Smith
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November 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
Yeah, Mike is strong. But Carrie is even stronger. Mike told me the greatest thing in his life is his wife, who has given up so much for him.
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Dave Smith
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October 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
I would later reflect on the odd incongruity of the K-9's toenails gently striking the tiles in the Junior High that we had just cleared. They were so dainty, almost tentative, as he rounded the corner into the shadows of the dead-end hallway where I hid silently in darkness. After that, he was a blur of snarling teeth and crushing power gripping my extended right arm.
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Dave Smith
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September 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
Tucson Police Department had a classy but oddly untactical uniform. We had blue wool pants, always in fashion in the Sonoran Desert, and a white shirt. Yep, white. We were really visible to the bad guys.
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Dave Smith
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August 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
I have even joked and kidded with the dead themselves at scenes. Truthfully, I have done some of my best shtick talking to dead bodies. OK, they don't laugh, but they also never interrupt.
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Dave Smith
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July 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
Often we think that something that happens to us is a matter of bad luck, yet it changes things so much that it becomes good luck! An example is the day I was "killed."
It was my senior summer, and I was driving a tanker in the Coconino National Forest looking for a small fire that one of the towers had picked up following a thunderstorm. It was extremely rugged terrain, and we could find no way to drive to the site of the fire.
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Dave Smith
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June 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
Not long ago a good friend of mine was killed in an accident. He had gone to the academy with me, been my roommate, and later worked the beat next to mine for two years. We had the bond of on and off-duty friendship and adventures. In thinking of Sam I remembered the scariest building search I ever did.
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Dave Smith
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May 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
One of the most canine-like drives I have ever felt is the urge to chase, to pursue, to catch. I must confess to an odd primal thrill I always felt when a miscreant took off running. I wish I could say my mind thought “Tally ho!” in a thick British accent. But, alas, my inner thoughts were more like, “Fetch the bad guy. Fetch the bad guy…Yup, yup, I’m gonna fetch the bad guy!”
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Dave Smith
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April 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
I was sitting there trying to age gracefully when I noticed a girl in a wheelchair moving up to the edge of the pool as her race was getting ready to start. Since she was paralyzed from the waist down she could not start with a great leap into the water. So she lowered herself into the pool and pushed off with her arms.
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Dave Smith
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March 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
John wayne was the hero of my youth. He won World War II, tamed the Wild West, and generally went through life kicking butt. We hardly even remembered or cared about the name of any of the characters he played; we just went to a John Wayne Movie…period, enough said.
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Dave Smith
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January 2007 - Columns: In My Sights
Fear is a funny thing, not in the “ha-ha” way but in the “sheesh,” eye-rolling way. It has been the focus of countless books, poems, and songs and has probably motivated more innovations than any other human emotion. Philosophers have argued that without fear we cannot have the virtue of courage; for courage is the Golden Mean between cowardice and recklessness and fear is your guide.
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Dave Smith
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December 2006 - Columns: In My Sights
I will never forget the first time I heard myself snore. Yeah, I snore pretty good; just ask one of my ex’s or one of my sergeants. But I actually was so tired once my own snoring woke me up! I was working on the Coconino Hotshots fighting a forest fire near Prescott, Ariz., when our squad leader called a break. I just sat where I was on the line and, the next thing I knew, loud snoring awoke me. I looked around and I was the only one within earshot…weird. Yeah, I was really tired.
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Dave Smith
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January 2006 - Columns: In My Sights
Ah,the first month of the new year. It’s a month of parties, football, snow or snowbirds (depending on where you live), and just generally good feelings. Then the winter wears on. Football ends for nearly everybody’s team; ice appears on the roadways at the worst time (who hasn’t had the thrill of that tactical 360-degree spin en route to a call); and all those resolutions you made suddenly become ancient history.
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Dave Smith
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