Tag Search Result: How-To Guides

There’s one question that all prospective students ask before they sign up for a program that will allow them to complete their college degree online: Is this really any good? Scott Harr has a clear answer: “For some students, it’s better.”

Imagine for a moment that you are a law enforcement administrator who is responsible for evaluating ammunition for your agency. The decisions you make can have a profound effect on the safety of your sworn personnel and the civilian population that they serve. The same is true if you are an individual officer who is allowed to use personally owned firearms and ammunition on the job. You have a responsibility to select the best ammunition available.

As the responding patrol officer it’s your job to properly process the crime scene, including locating, printing, collecting, and documenting all fingerprint evidence on scene — not necessarily an easy task.

In days gone by, “rifle optics” referred to one thing: a telescopic sight with varying degrees of magnification. But today, rifle optics include a new class of aiming devices called combat optics, generally red dot sights.

Burnout is a modern American pandemic. Almost anybody who works an office job in this country has, at one time during his or her career, experienced apathy and lethargy while on the clock.

Training for any agency’s SWAT team is physically, mentally, and tactically challenging. Add in long and changing shift work hours, family obligations, and not enough time in the day, and your goal of joining a SWAT team appears even more difficult. The goal of this article is to assist those police officers currently on the force in achieving the fitness level of Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT) officers.

Before you have to work with the press, you should become thoroughly familiar with two things: the law as it applies to journalists, and your agency’s policies and procedures for interacting with members of the news media.

Navigating the dangers of cookers’ “kitchens.”

You have many opportunities for training outside of your agency. But how do you tell which classes are suitable for you and whether what you learn in those classes will work on the street?

In a major criminal investigation, getting off your ass and knocking on some doors is essential. In fact, it is a crucial element in the early stages of working an unsolved case. The area canvass-knocking on the doors of all the residences surrounding the crime scene-is one of the first tasks a lead detective should have on his lead sheet.

One of the most stressful episodes an officer can face during his or her career is making the decision to shoot and dealing with the aftermath. Officer-involved shootings spawn a variety of questions, and many of them may be unanswerable.

Street racing of automobiles has been an American tradition since the early 1950s and probably long before. It’s not hard to imagine the first owners of Model T Fords staring each other down as they ran their “Tin Lizzies” down the rutted roads of the early 20th century. But the hey-day of street racing was the “I Like Ike” era when kids in souped-up Chevys and Fords would race for car titles and teenage glory.

Much is known about many of law enforcement’s special teams: dive team, air watch, SWAT. In contrast, the hazardous devices team of your department (if you have one) is one that has intentionally kept itself out of the limelight, for good reason.

Old West sheriffs and marshals often carried a Colt .45 called the Peacemaker. But that .45 had the limitations of all handguns, so savvy Western lawmen also kept a short-barreled repeating rifle like a Winchester in their saddle bags. They knew that in a real gunfight, a carbine is the real “peace maker.”

From the scene to the stand, prepare to give effective testimony in court.

The tactical medic must be able to effectively carry equipment and be able to operate in a tactical situation without hindering the rest of the team. So he or she must decide what items and tools will be carried into the field and what equipment will be left in a vehicle or in a larger kit.

The great Bill Jordan once said: "There is no second-place winner in a gunfight." Even if you take nothing else away from this article, I ask that you train to win any gunfight that you become involved in, not survive it, but win it.

How much is a cop’s safety worth? Despite safety concerns, due to shrinking budgets it’s becoming increasingly common for police departments to require officers to purchase their own body armor. Even when agencies pony up some money for ballistic vests, it’s usually not enough to buy the best of the best—which is what most officers want protecting them from bodily harm.