Search Result: Officer Psychology

Be prepared for things to go south on every contact you make. You never know when you’ll need to take chase or pull your gun at a moment’s notice.

Law enforcement works a profound sea-change in the blood of men and women who have worn the badge. It makes them more informed voters, neighbors, co-workers, and friends. It makes them better citizens.

Thirty-seven. That's how many New York/New Jersey Port Authority Police officers came to work on Sept. 11, 2001, and never went home. More than 2 percent of the agency's complement of 1,400 was killed in the attack, and to add insult to extreme injury, its headquarters were on the 67th floor of 1 World Trade Center.

What accounts for the difference between the high producers and the lower ones? Simple. The high producers have made different choices than the others.

Hundreds of our own were murdered on September 11, 2001, along with thousands of citizens we were sworn to protect. Terrorism has struck the nation, particularly emergency response personnel. This nation’s police officers have been damaged by these criminal acts of terror; we have been damaged as a group and as individuals.

In this day and age, hostage incidents have become almost commonplace. Hostage-takers and criminals in general view us as "symbols" of an institution (criminal justice system) or a way of life that they despise.

Should applicants for jobs as police be held to a higher standard of moral character than is expected in other fields of employment? These re­cruits, after all, are just the mirror image of the society they will police. Is this pre­requisite fair, or even realistic?

 "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."

 How many times in your career have you uttered the words, "It's dead out," or "There's nothin' goin' on," or any of a million similar phrases that basically say, "I'm bored?"

Police Chaplain Phyllis Poe had been offering comfort and coffee last April at the Oklahoma City bomb site when a police officer, covered in dirt, approached her and said desperately, "You've got to pray with me."