Dave Smith
Officer (Ret.)
Police Magazine
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One of the things that never fails to amaze me is how often some precious belief I have turns out to just be a myth. Well, myth is a tough word because some of the meanings of "myth" are important, like: A legend or story that explains or demonstrates a virtue or message.
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Everyone is well aware that humans are visual creatures. It is far and away our most dominant sense and that is one of the reasons I get so frustrated that we have so many distracters in our modern patrol vehicles.
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Code three is lights and siren, and man is it fun. You are lord of the road, racing here and there to accidents, crimes in progress, officer needs assistance, and whatever crisis needs a uniformed hero ASAP.
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Some trainers say it takes 5,000 reps or five years to master a weapon or a skill, but that doesn't match the research. The research says we don't know how many reps or how long it will take YOU to master a skill.
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While in fiction Sherlock Holmes' magnificent intuitive leaps lead to remarkable arrests, we would make a huge number of mental errors if we tried the same tricks. Worse, we might make assumptions that would get us or someone else hurt.
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Even though we now have these marvelous tools, the key to winning confrontations is still what is happening behind our eyes, not in our hands. Yes, great weapons help us win, but we have to have our minds right, before and during a life-and-death confrontation.
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When you're a young officer, moderation seems likely to leave you missing more than a few good times. I think back to the "choir practices" I participated in as a young Tucson cop only to awaken in the afternoon looking for the train that hit me.
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Real optimism isn't just expecting good things to happen; it is how you internally explain to yourself the bad things that happen and what you do about them. Everyone is going to suffer bad events.
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In his book, "Play," Stuart Brown, M.D., explains how play doesn't just reduce our stress and open our minds, it also exercises and grows our brains. Yep, to grow some brain, play a game.
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Your "locus of control" is your sense of controlling your own future, your own happiness, your own life. Too often people blame the commander, the sergeant, the department, a boyfriend, a girlfriend, a husband, a wife, or a partner, maybe even all eight of them for their unhappiness or unfilled dreams.
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