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Dean Scoville

Associate Editor

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.

Articlesby Dean ScovilleJune 24, 2014

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.

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Articlesby Dean ScovilleMay 15, 2014

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.

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Articlesby Dean ScovilleApril 25, 2014

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.

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Articlesby Dean ScovilleApril 25, 2014

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.

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Inside the Badge by Dean ScovilleApril 21, 2014

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.

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Inside the Badge by Dean ScovilleApril 14, 2014

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?

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Articlesby Dean ScovilleMarch 26, 2014

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.

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Inside the Badge by Dean ScovilleMarch 17, 2014

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.

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Inside the Badge by Dean ScovilleMarch 6, 2014

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."

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Articlesby Dean ScovilleMarch 4, 2014

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.

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