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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.
I could have defused the situation early on. Never mind whether or not I was in the right.
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When called to suicide scenes, emergency personnel don't always know what they're up against. With some 90 percent of chemical suicides posting warnings on the windows of the cars and rooms in which they kill themselves, one would hope that officers and firefighters would think twice before opening doors and breaching windows.
Read More →In recent days I've been thinking about the language that we use in law enforcement, not just the words we say daily, but also the words we seldom get to say. Here's a look at some words and phrases that all cops would like to be able to say more often or should say more often to make their jobs easier.
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Seemingly as insensate to his own pain as that he inflicted on others, Donald Graham also possessed a reputation as a man who backed his words. And no promise meant more to him than the one he'd made his wife that he'd never go back to prison. He'd do what he had to do.
Read More →I thought it was universally understood throughout our profession that when we fail to train, we train for failure.
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Caught between diminishing tax revenues and citizen demand for greater police protection, law enforcement leveraged the challenge onto the backs of its patrol personnel. By splitting two-officer units into separate cars, police agencies were able to effectively double the area of patrol coverage.
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Kentin Dion Brooks' life had spun out of control long before his car did. Pinellas County Sheriff's Sgt. Raymond Fleming's only misgiving about the tactics of the incident was the relative proximity of Brooks' vehicle to the deputies' cars at the terminus of the pursuit. But even this is understandable given the speeds and the officers' needs to react to its sudden conclusion.
Read More →A little charm can go a long way. By catering to their ego without emboldening them - "You play college football?" - you might even get them empathizing with your desire to secure them before searching.
Read More →Traffic on the I-10 Freeway was non-existent, save for those who absolutely had to go to work under a hazy film of smoky clouds. I remember thinking that all of the other commuters must have been either cops or firefighters.
Read More →Insight gleaned about how and why a suspect committed his crime might put him back on your radar-even aid in a subsequent trial-should he adhere to a unique M.O.
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