Do you currently have a wireless network deployed?
Much of what I learned in basic academy in the late 1960s is no longer good law. If I were still operating on the basis of 40-year-old understandings, I wouldn't be very effective.
The first year after your academy graduation is critical in building the foundation for the remainder of your career. A great deal of it starts with the personal relationships you build with your peers during your first year on the street.
Although it's often called a bulletproof vest, ballistic armor can't make you invincible. It can, however, save your life should you be shot in the vest. And this is no small thing. Just ask anyone who's lived to tell the tale.
On Easter Sunday 1998, I was injured when a suspect ambushed another deputy and myself with an AK-47. In the shooting's aftermath, I considered how I owed my survival to formal and informal training that others had given me.
They may seem disorganized, they may act stupid, they may look really young, but they are deadly and cunning as sharks.
Sometimes you can use finesse to gain compliance and stop a situation from escalating into violence.
During this critical period, your agency and your fellow cops are checking you out; make sure they like what they see.
“Forward then. Forward! Let us go forward without fear into the future and let us dread naught when duty calls.” - Sir Winston Churchill
Everyone has their own list of local "Good Guys To Know." While it's great to have a guy on call to get the best restaurant recommendations and a killer deal on that new truck, it can be just as useful in your career of law enforcement.
“Let us stop being selfish…to the ideas of the common good and of our existence, everything must be sacrificed…” —General Jose de San Martin
Most departments forget to train officers for one very dangerous time on the job: the “safe” times, after a suspect has been arrested.
Sometimes just knowing a few words in a foreign tongue can make you safer and help you do your job better.
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.
Ask risk managers to tell you what causes the majority of vehicular accidents, and they will all sing the same tune: “Backing Up Is Hard To Do.”
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.”
Most of us are leaders in some facet of our lives. Any police officer who doesn’t think of himself or herself as a leader is just plain wrong. I doubt that a cop who is also a parent could argue being a parent isn’t about leadership, because it most certainly is.
Working perimeters can be tedious, but it’s important that we remember the basics of this role.