Search Result: Patrol Morale

Becoming a better cop may not ensure formal recognition such as a promotion, but it'll virtually guarantee it informally. It'll simultaneously help you to do your job faster and increase your prospects to work elsewhere.

Anthony Batts, who was picked to lead the Oakland (Calif.) PD, spoke with POLICE Magazine about his plan to upgrade technology, improve patrol morale, and bring additional resources to a department facing budget cuts and the grief from the loss of four officers killed pursuing a desperate parolee. Batts arrives from Long Beach, Calif., a city with similar demographics, where crime fell in six of his seven years as chief.

At some point in his or her various travels, the patrol officer will ask a question that pertains equally well to the task at hand and his or her career in law enforcement: Just how the hell did I get here, and where am I going?

A recent e-mail from a reader asked me how a leader brings out the highest levels of motivation from police officers. It seems like a great topic to write about.

"Laughter gives us distance. It allows us to step back from an event, deal with it, and then move on." — Bob Newhart

Morale. It is a very subjective word. In law enforcement we often hear that a department has poor morale or great morale, or maybe no morale. But what exactly does that mean?

Not all police misconduct is plastered across national newspapers, but it all has the same results. It erodes the public’s trust in law enforcement and it damages good cops, sometimes destroying their careers.

Judith Gentry’s husband Tom killed himself six years ago in their bedroom. A trained ICU nurse, Gentry’s no stranger to the stress and trauma of emergencies, but when she heard a gunshot and found her husband dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound to the head, she called a girlfriend instead of dialing 911.

Why do cops almost always choose guns as the way to take their lives? Cops are familiar with guns.

Officers of the Hempstead force say they have learned to accept the glares of hate. What they find more unsettling is that they are being surveiled.

Holidays can be a trying period for many, but particularly for the police officer. Sandwiched between familial obligations and departmental expectations, pulled from one preventable call to the next, you find your emotions stretched to the point where you'd like nothing better than to find some nice, dank chimney to climb into and hide.

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

According to media accounts, nearly 100 officers who joined the force during a 1989-90 recruitment drive-when background screening and standards were all but non-existent-were later charged with criminal wrongdoing.

It might look easy, but you better be ready for training and lots of exercise before you trade in your cruiser for two wheels.

 "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."