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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.
Your notes are legal record. Make them complete as possible and keep them safe and secure. Failure to do so can compromise a prosecution.
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While vehicle crashes attributed to just 26 percent of all law enforcement deaths between the years 1980 and 1982, they comprised 54 percent of officer deaths between 2005 and 2007. Fatalities incident to foot or motorcycle patrol remained largely unchanged, yet deaths in patrol cars spiked.
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A Monday afternoon, a small blue VW, and a one-armed man in a dress suit: Hardly the components one is apt to conjure up when envisioning a firefight.
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Things are not technologically stagnant in the SWAT community. New versions of the tried and true, as well as innovative uses of modern mechanisms, simultaneously bring SWAT teams closer to suspects in the safest way possible and bring situations to safer conclusions.
Read More →The one thing you have undeniable control over is yourself and your response to the situation. Your goal is to resolve the situation using the lowest degree of force possible.
Read More →Generally speaking, subordinates aren't comfortable with the prospect of opening up to some tight-assed supervisor. The perception that such people will always look out for their own best interests—a paradigm that would inevitably color their every decision when it comes to dealing with subordinates—might have something to do with it.
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Whether it was on vehicle approaches, pedestrian stops, or door knocks, I made a habit of having my gun out if I felt there was any possibility of danger.
Read More →The pro forma accusations of racism that I endured on patrol involved detainees who routinely accused me of stopping them because they were black/Hispanic/Asian/albino—despite the fact that their features had been completely obscured by the tinted windows for which I was pulling them over in the first place.
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Gottfried had made threats to his ex-girlfriend that he would kill her and any cop that tried to come between them. Lt. McLane didn't know that when he pulled him over for speeding.
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Our A.G. is seemingly convinced that cops are if not inherently racist, then at least subject to serious lapses in judgment when it comes to race.
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