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.
March 4, 2014
Common sense law enforcement. A 14-year old gets arrested and charged for streaking and faced with being expelled, prosecuted, and branded a sex offender he commits suicide.
October 27, 2013
Perhaps the most significant factor in an officer's ability to recover from a shooting incident is the level of support offered to him by his department. Departments that provide post-shooting support and advocate for their officers in the media and with health care providers are more likely to benefit from their actions in the long run.
September 17, 2013
For those who finish their law enforcement careers, the breadth of experiences the profession avails them offers all manner of post-career options, and nothing speaks to the heart of the adrenaline junkie like another round in the octagon of law enforcement.
August 17, 2013
"I suspect the only reason 110 rounds was all that was fired was that's all the ammunition they had," Sheriff Grady Judd responded. "We were not going to take any chance of him shooting back."
June 19, 2013
Reynolds saw the muzzle flashes from Wallace's .45 and darted to his left, sprinting across the blacktop and onto a gravel road. Bullets ricocheted off the ground at his feet. He ran for the cover of a telephone pole and returned fire, laying down six rounds of suppression fire. Munro opened fire, too. Wallace shot back.
November 20, 2012
The emergency dispatcher is the police officer's lifeline out in the field: coordinating resources, making notifications, running checks, and getting you help when and where you need it. When your butt is on the line, so is theirs.
September 13, 2012
Officers who underestimate a suspect's resolve to evade capture or overestimate their own limitations or those of the patrol car only enhance the dangers of vehicle pursuits. It's not just the lead unit in a pursuit that is imperiled. Upon hearing of a pursuit in progress, other officers may attempt to catch up and join the chase.
January 12, 2012
No agency wants its personnel speaking ill of the city that funds its department. But to say that all areas of a city are equally safe is patently absurd. That being the case, if an officer knows that a citizen runs the risk of becoming victimized in some capacity, should he articulate the fact?
July 15, 2011
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.
April 12, 2011
The two men continued a rapid fire exchange of rounds, the suspect standing atop the embankment and Reston struggling to move uphill toward him.
April 29, 2010
The Miami suburb of Coral Gables, Fla., is home to a confluence of lifestyles, where the affluent and the amoral intersect and are often one and the same. Its palatial houses and palm tree-lined streets are home to doctors, lawyers, business people, and narcotics traffickers.
February 1, 2007
Orange County (Fla.) Sheriff’s Deputy Jennifer Fulford had a lot on her mind on May 5, 2004. Having just paid for her wedding dress, the logistics of her nuptials were weighing on the 31-year-old deputy as she began her patrol. There was still so much to do, and time was a precious commodity.
January 1, 2006
It was a damned cold night for central Florida. Officer Keith Cowart wasn’t getting any argument from Smokey Stapleter or Gary Markowski on that score. His fellow Melbourne, Fla., police officers had congregated with him for a windshield conference and coffee. Stapleter rubbed his arms to get his blood circulating.
December 1, 2005