Dave Smith
Officer (Ret.)
Police Magazine
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The problem we have as humans is we aren't real good at evaluating risk, and if we don't evaluate it properly we can't compensate for it.
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I was recently reading how more and more professions are turning to checklists to improve safety. I have been advocating just this kind of practice for law enforcement for decades.
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Do your kids know the difference between cover and concealment, and how to use both? I am not advocating scaring your family, but preparing your family—and when you do, it will prepare you. You can act more confidently knowing your loved ones are prepared as well.
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I'd like to take a minute to ponder one of the issues that remains an unspoken truth about our natures and at the same time can dominate our attention with great urgency. That is the need for the human body to process waste.
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As a student of human performance I am always amazed at the way we pay lip service to the winning mindset. It seems we think that if we just say this or that to ourselves, or visualize ourselves doing this or that, we will become winners. Simple, right? Wrong.
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A plethora of TV shows, movies, and novels explore all types of the undead or living dead. Future generations will no doubt attribute this fixation to one or another of our social ills, and one certainly has to admit that there must be some strange social collective fear that has made these critters the subject of so much attention.
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Feedback can come from the officer watching himself on a dashcam or a sergeant telling him he turns his back on a violator every time he keys his mic. This is a lot better than spitting teeth out in the back of an ambulance or worse.
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The nature of police work is one of great adventure, great crisis, great horror. You will see more and experience more, both good and bad, in five years on the job than the average person will in 70, so don't fear it; embrace it, accept it. It is your path.
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I had the strangest dream the other night. I was a detective on my way to a homicide and my partner was that big guy from "Law and Order: Criminal Intent" who knows everything about everything.
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I have always been touched by certain images, sounds, and words, and the older I get the more things trigger my emotional reflexes. At the same time I find I am less and less embarrassed by my tears. Now I know the tears are not from weakness but from respect, from the heart.
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