Search Result: Best Practices

As for responding officers, the question for us becomes twofold. First, do we appreciate the importance of CSI's role and, second (oftentimes more important), do we appreciate the importance of our own role in crime scene handling and processing?

Any time you react you are processing information and making decisions using the OODA loop. The OODA loop consists of four parts: Observe, Orient, Decide, and Act.

In-progress calls evolve within a framework of controlled chaos. You can help improve your management of the situation by remembering the ABCs of in-progress calls: Assess the situation, Basics rule the day, and Contain it or lose it.

Experience teaches that there is nothing routine about what we do once we hit the streets. Traffic stops are no exception. A traffic stop generally has two threat levels; you are either at risk or at high risk.

You can't single-handedly win the "War on Drugs" as a patrol officer, but keen eyes and attention to detail on traffic stops can make an impact. A simple traffic stop could very well lead to a disruption in a drug supply line.

I've taken and passed with flying colors a fair share of promotional exams in my time. Certain tricks helped me store the information in my head, and they can do the same for you.

To achieve high scores on my exams I had to work my tail off and sacrifice a great deal. Unless you're gifted with a superior intellect and ironclad memory, so will you.

Dealing with oral boards is a fact of life. One of your main objectives is finding a way to distinguish yourself from the other candidates. Like everything else in law enforcement, preparation is the key to your success.

Law enforcement is filled with decision-making. You need to go deeper in your understanding of this near art form. To improve your own skills, you need to learn about decision-making traps and how to use this knowledge to your advantage.

A mindset is developed when you employ a fixed mental attitude that predetermines your response to a given situation. For example, your attitudes toward something help develop your response or approach. Your mindset becomes your approach.

Supervisors and officers tend to dislike dealing with performance evaluations (PEs) as much as they dislike internal affairs investigations and termination proceedings. Supervisors hate writing evaluations and officers hate reading them. But they persist anyway.

We live in an age of political correctness where saying the right things seems to have more value than doing the right things. People use catch phrases to draw attention to themselves and make them seem wise and caring.

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.

The saying "It's not over 'til the fat lady sings" is incorrect. It's not over until the paperwork is done. That includes a report after the fact, as well as an operations plan beforehand.

K-9 teams are considered force multipliers. One K-9 team can do the work of many officers, which frees up officers for other duties. A K-9 team is an effective tool if its use is understood by those that call on them to support their operations.

What most agencies do well is produce managers; it helps with short-term goals but exasperates long-term ones. Please don't tell me you are part of that innocuous group of lost souls that think managing and leading are the same thing, because they're not.

Although many agencies are trying cost-cutting alternatives, it's been my experience as a field supervisor that there is no substitute for a helicopter in the air with a well-trained flight crew. Effective coordination between ground and air units is imperative.

There is an ebb and flow to writing memos. The goal of any memo is either to bring attention to a problem by providing information, or to solve a problem by defining what action should be taken.

Within your first year, however, your experiences tell you that things are not exactly like what your academy instructors said they would be. During your first few days at your agency, you hear words like family to describe your new workplace. And yet somehow, the word dysfunctional is omitted.

Officer safety remains a paramount concern even if some choose to ignore it. We are losing our basic skills by relying too much on modern toys to do our jobs for us. In today's world, one of the biggest unrecognized threats to officer safety and survival is technology.