Commander Vinnie Montez of the Boulder County Sheriff's Office in Colorado has taken his penchant for making people laugh from a hobby to what may be his full-time career upon retirement.
There's so much great advice handed down from senior officers to LEOs just coming on the job. It's invaluable institutional knowledge, so if you have the opportunity as a more seasoned officer help out a rookie with something you've learned over the years, make every effort to do it.
Too many active shooter incidents are conducted by assailants with long guns—Parkland, Sutherland Springs, San Bernardino, Newtown, and others—and police officers need to have the appropriate equipment to respond to such attacks.
One component of the Ferguson Effect is the glorification of anti-police sentiment, anti-police protests that turn violent, and attacks on officers—both verbal and physical. The latest social media videos of attacks on officers serve as proof that this wrongheaded thinking undeniably exists.
Acts of heroism happen all the time in big cities and small communities alike. Officers with departments of all sizes rise to the occasion on a daily basis to ensure the health and welfare of the civilians they serve.
The blowback on Facebook against Starbucks was especially vitriolic, leading an outside observer to conclude that mistreatment of law enforcement officers in the company's stores is a pervasive problem (spoiler alert: it's not).
Let's contemplate the words of some of the people who helped shape this great country.
The St. Louis Post-Dispatch made the totally outrageous decision to share on its website the live Facebook stream of a dying officer posted by a citizen.
According to Knox News, Detective Grayson Fritts—who is also a pastor at a local church—delivered a sermon in early June in which he said that the government should execute members of the LGBTQ community. You read that right—he called for state-sanctioned mass-murder of an entire population of people. His comments were reprehensible and anathema to the oath LEOs take to protect and serve their communities.
An organization recently made available to the media a significant database of social media posts—that they deem to be potentially offensive—from thousands of officers from places such as Philadelphia, Dallas, Phoenix, St. Louis, and elsewhere. Internal investigations have been launched at several of those agencies. Here's why cops need to use social media cautiously.
This week's column is about my deep appreciation for the family of the Thin Blue Line allowing me—a civilian scribe from a city and state not well known for supporting police—to be your adopted brother.
The threat of ambush is ever-present. There is a growing war on cops in America, and the probability of being the victim of such an attack is increasing. Be vigilant, always.
Memorial Day Weekend has effectively become the unofficial start to summer. So this is an excellent opportunity to offer some reminders on how to safely conduct your police business as the months get warmer and the vacationers hit the nation's highways and hotels.
During this one extraordinary week you will experience every emotion. In one moment you might be laughing with a group of cops and then mere moments later crying with one guy or gal who is overwhelmed with grief.
It would be a wonderful thing if the addition of a therapy dog to a department's ranks becomes as mundane as the acquisition of office supplies—there would be no headlines because it would not be news.
