Articles - Patrol

Telling my partner that we would handle this, I pulled my badge from out of my pocket, cleared my clothing away from my firearm, walked up on the car and yelled, "Police!"  The female driver slammed the car into reverse, heading toward my partner.

Law enforcement is about 97 percent verbal interaction and only 3 percent physical interaction, according to a recent Rutgers University study.  In keeping with such findings, a new communications philosophy, called Verbal Judo, has been making an impression on how law enforcement deals with the public.

In the early morning hours of Oct. 14, 1998 a call was received at Placer Co. Sheriff's dispatch regarding a report of a suspect armed with a knife and standing in the street behind a four-plex apartment in a high-density population area.  The situation would be quickly ended without the loss of life, but it could easily have been otherwise.

While tracking down fugitives from the law has been going on for thousands of years, this "lost art" is being refined for modern police forces as the new millennium begins.

Personal investigation indicates that only about 25 percent of officers practice on their own time.  Supervisors, concerned by a low hit rate in critical incidents, may push for better handguns and advanced training.  But officers are responsible for their own safety and should practice on their own.

Consider that since 1994, more than 280,000 law enforcement officers have been assaulted or injured and more than 840 killed in the line of duty.  We should ask one another whether some of these deaths and injuries could have been prevented.  Are police officers really trained in the best methods to survive "street fight" encounters?

 "One hundred dollars for a tune-up?!!!" I shrieked as I read the estimate at the auto mechanic's shop for a tune-up on my aging pickup truck.  Alex, the mechanic-in a way only Alex can reply--laughed and said, "Mitch, you cab pay me little bit now for a simple tune-up, or you can let it go and pay me big bucks later for a complete overhaul."

For those individuals who are geneti­cally predisposed to having cholesterol problems, a diet high in saturated fats is the main cause of high cholesterol levels in the blood.

Anyone who has spent any amount of time in law enforce­ment has heard threats. That is one of the reasons we carry firearms while off duty, have unlisted telephone numbers, and maybe have the registra­tion information of our personally owned vehicles restricted.

Nearly 100,000 Americans die each year as a result of alcohol abuse. Alcohol is a factor in more than half of the na­tion's homicides, suicides and traffic ac­cidents