Patrol: Page 53

Uncomfortable With Your Duty Gun?

I wasn't the only one out there that day faking my way through firearms training.

How to Avoid Those Less Romantic Injuries

Going in foot pursuit of some fleet-footed felon is a popular rite of passage for cops. As if the natural dangers of heading off some dirtbag’s escape route weren’t dangerous enough, add unfamiliar territory and conditions of darkness, and you’ve got pretty good odds of ending up in full body traction.

Responding to Civil Disputes

Here you are being thrust into the middle of a situation that took years to deteriorate. Now you are expected to solve it in five minutes or less because you are, in fact, the police department, right?

Patrol Officers Can’t Afford to Hesitate

Sometimes concerns beyond the scope of the incident at hand can make an officer hesitate when his or her life or the lives of the innocent public are at risk.

How to Talk to the Mentally Ill

There’s not enough underpaid mental health professionals to go around, and family members eventually reach their own breaking points. This leaves society’s de facto field shrinks—that’s you, my brothers and sisters—to deal with those who spend more time listening to the voices inside their head than they do voices of reason.

When the "Victim" is Lying

As the handling officer, you are often the first line of defense for identifying the true victim. It's a heady responsibility.

Profanity as Verbal Judo

"Under certain circumstances, profanity provides a relief denied even to prayer." —Mark Twain

What to Do If You Are Working with a Bad Cop

Right now, there are any number of bad cops flying under the radar. People with badges who are exploiting their positions and the people they come in contact with. What to do?

Dangerous Bad Habits

Many cops find themselves dealing with beatings, shootings, and stabbings on a fairly routine basis. And with each call or observation-based incident, one can find himself becoming more and more comfortable. It gets harder to get the adrenaline pumping. And therein lies the danger.

Countering Complaints

There are those who, whether or not they've been given a break, are hell-bent on trying to extract their pound of flesh for some perceived slight. Often, it has to do with the fact that we had the temerity to detain them in the first place. No matter how justified the detention, no matter how strong the probable cause, no matter how polite we may have been, they just aren't satisfied.

Evidence of a Problem

If it wasn't valuable, there wouldn't be so many motions to suppress it. If it wasn't important, nobody would care about its chain of custody. Yet if one watched the haphazard manner with which some cops handle evidence, they might get the impression it was little more than garbage.

Picking Partners

Perhaps the saddest of ill-fated partner pairings goes to those orchestrated by the officers themselves.

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