Articles - Patrol

I was recently reading how more and more professions are turning to checklists to improve safety. I have been advocating just this kind of practice for law enforcement for decades.

When planning events, you'll want to involve the event coordinator (or committee); fire and ambulance services; information technology and communications; public works; the media; and organized volunteers.

Police use of technology to catch criminals makes the U.S. Supreme Court nervous, as was evident in the recent Jones decision. In the absence of a recognized basis for a warrantless search, Jones does mean that a warrant must be obtained for installation andmonitoring of a GPS tracker on a suspect's vehicle.

Recent news that Congress is considering a bill that could strip federal fish and game officers of their firearms struck a nerve with me. It's another example of civilians not realizing the dangers faced by these dedicated officers.

Last month, we gave you a look at some of the items from SHOT that immediately caught our attention. This month, we're going to open up the briefcase, and the boxes, load the CDs and the jump drives, and give you our Best of Show report.

On the 15th anniversary of one of the fiercest gun battles in modern law enforcement history, patrol officers are much better armed, equipped, and trained than they were in 1997.

In 26 years, Officer Dan Foley has served continuously in the honor guard and successfully lobbied to start its first K-9 unit, for which he was a handler for 14 years with two different dogs. He has been selected as the February 2012 Officer of the Month.

As its name implies, the ASP Triad USB uses a Micro USB port to make charging the lithium-ion-powered duty light a snap anywhere. If you have your cell phone charger with you—as most of us always do—you have a way to recharge your flashlight, even at home or while traveling.

For most of us winter means cold, wet, and/or snowy shifts. Mother Nature has a habit of making days as an officer or first responder miserable. Fortunately, Danner can help tame the weather with its DFA boots.

There is a tendency to shy away from DUIs unless you are part of a specialty unit that deals with them all the time. But I think we can reverse this trend through understanding and training.