Dean Scoville

Author Dean Scoville

Former associate editor of Police Magazine and a retired patrol supervisor and investigator with the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department, Sgt. Dean Scoville has received multiple awards for government service. He was the author of Shots Fired, Police Magazine's monthly column examining officer-involved shootings as experienced by the officers themselves.

From Dean Scoville
Patrol
Alone Against All Odds
Cops are accustomed to answering calls for help, and generally think no less of those who ask. But officers themselves are often hesitant to ask for help, and that can be very impractical and even costly.
June 23, 2014
Photo: Mark W. Clark
Patrol
Shots Fired: Mt. Orab, Ohio 01/03/2010
Officer Conley had taken a bullet to the back, but he was still conscious, breathing, and mobile—and therefore able to fight.
May 14, 2014
Photo: iStockphoto.com
Training
Whistleblowers Sounding the Alarm
Regardless of how they are viewed, whistleblowers' capacity to effect change within their agencies often eclipses that of those with more formally acknowledged power.
April 24, 2014
Photo: Mark W. Clark
Patrol
Shots Fired: Bloomingdale, Illinois 10/26/1998
Officer Beck saw the man once again standing toward him, a 14-inch butcher knife still in his hand and pointing at the throat of a terrified 6-year-old girl.
April 24, 2014
Photo: iStockphoto.com
Patrol
On Dealing With - and Being - A Difficult Person
Recently, I found myself dealing with an individual who I've suspected of harboring some animosity against me for me for some time now. And that's fine - it's not like he's lacking for company in that department. All the same, I would have hoped that we could conduct our lives along unacknowledged parallel paths. You know, that "you do your thing, I'll do mine, and we'll share an unspoken but enduring sense of being mutually unimpressed" thing. But it wasn't to be.
April 20, 2014
Patrol
Just What the Hell Are We Protecting?
I do wonder to what extent the federal employees among our ranks ask themselves whether or not these people are worth protecting and their laws worth enforcing? Just where are the conscientious objectors within the federal fold? Are its ranks really filled with men who are content to be given their marching orders and sent out to wreck havoc? And do they really think that all this won't some day come back to bite them in the ass?
April 13, 2014
Patrol
Shots Fired: Berks County, Pennsylvania 06/30/2011
Upon their crossing, the trackers noticed that leaves blanketing the side of a steep hill had been disturbed. Regrouping with his K-9, Pagerly gave him the search command and released him again. Jynx appeared to immediately find an odor and began moving rapidly up hill and toward Hawk Mountain Road.
March 25, 2014
Photo: iStock
Patrol
The Law is An Ass (At Least When it Comes to Photographing One)
Making my way to the urinal, I was passed by a man who'd stepped out the adjacent stall in a hurry. As he did, I noted the presence of crumpled tissue paper on the floor about the toilet. The man's presence in the stall had not been diet-related. Normally, this would not have been something I'd have felt compelled to concern myself with. Different strokes for different folks.
March 16, 2014
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Patrol
A Hollywood Lesson in Heroes
And so I sat down and waited for highlights of hero-celebrating fare, looking forward to clips of "End of Shift," "Ladder 49," and "Backdraft." I figured I'd maybe catch a glimpse of a pre-"Cheers" Ted Danson in the role of ill-fated LAPD Officer Ian Campbell in "The Onion Field."
March 5, 2014
Photo: Kelly Bracken
Training
Reserve Officers: For Love of the Job
At minimum, an LASD reserve officer's service will include logging 20 hours a month regardless of obligations posed by the reserve's regular job and family responsibilities. He may find himself working his own patrol car, standing guard in the cold along a parade route, or handling that "change of shift" report nobody else wanted.
March 3, 2014
Photo: iStockphoto.com
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