March 2009: West St. Paul, Minn.

Consider the situation that faced Sgt. Brent Nagel of the West St. Paul (Minn.) Police Department and ask yourself the following questions:

An officer's complacency resulted in his being taken hostage. What do you do to stay on top of things and retain good officer safety practices?

Have you discussed with your fellow officers what you would do if you were taken hostage? What would you expect them to do?

What woud you do if a fellow officer was taken hostage?

How do you handle alarm activations? What different protocol, if any, do you have for business activations and residential alarms?

In retrospect, Sgt. Nagel wished he had used his radio to tell the officers to back off from their bank entry. In what type of situations have you found yourself having to intervene on another officer's behalf because of his or her complacency?