Back-Up Guns
I did the cop-thing for about a decade and since then have continued to teach firearms tactics and work with law enforcement officers for an additional 30 years. Over the last 40 years some things have changed, yet many things haven’t. It’s often referred to as “100 years of tradition, unimpeded by progress.” For police, there’s always a re- quest to do more with less. The load continues to grow by leaps and bounds with [...]
Don’t Do These Things
No Matter How Tempted You Are A reader who’s been a sergeant for 4 years wrote: “While recovering from a broken leg, I finally sat down and read my department’s rules and regs and policy manual from cover to cover. I took your advice and highlighted everything I thought was [...]
Off The Beaten Path Training
Wisdom Is Where You Find It. When I was promoted to sergeant in 1974 I went from Investigations back to Patrol and took over a squad on the graveyard shift. The squad’s senior officer, I learned, was Gene Chouinard. He had been a San Diego cop for only 4 years [...]
Tactical Lights
They're Only "Tactical" If They Work! When I became a cop in 1968 there were no cop lights — there were no tactical flashlights at all. We bought our flimsy flashlights in pairs from hardware stores, wrapped them in friction tape and hoped they’d survive simple drops. Even when I [...]
See, Stop And Ask
Rule #1 In Counter-Terrorism Along conversation with a young friend revealed some points worth sharing in two areas, distinctly different but in a disturbing way, very closely related: counter-terrorism and that most basic of cop functions, see, stop, and ask. My friend recently completed a 3-year government assignment doing critical [...]
Hell On A Podium
What Do I Say? Basically you have two kinds of community meeting presentations: First, addressing a specific issue or problem, like gang-related violence, a rash of burglaries, a sex crime series, etc. Your prep for these is pretty straightforward. Gather stats (and get them signed off for release), get position [...]
Perishable Skills, Perishable People
One of our readers, a patrol sergeant, told of a training range incident in which one of his officers wound up splashed with paint; like up to his elbows and with splatters on his uniform and belt gear. While the officer held out his dripping arms, he asked his boss [...]
The File Wars
Organizing Overwhelming Paper Piles When I was a young detective in ’72, I worked for a sergeant who had “the perfect filing system.” I had been amazed at how much paper the PD spewed on me as a patrolman and detective, and stunned at the paper tsunami sergeants drowned in. [...]
The Split Sheet
Simply put, a split sheet is a sheet of paper with a line down the center, divided into sections headed “I Said” and “They Said,” with lines indicating statements or questions and responses in chronological order. It’s a simple, straightforward format, which lends itself to your linear memory of the [...]
On Your Own Dime
Filling In The Training Gap Ask any group of LE trainers if their officers get enough training. I don’t think you’ll hear one “yes” in 100. Ask them what the three biggest barriers are to better training, and the first two will be budget and staffing. Those barriers are just [...]
Not If, But When
Will you be ready? On Aug. 27, 2011, Hurricane Irene made landfall over North Carolina’s Outer Banks and began a trail of destruction stretching all the way to Canada’s eastern seaboard. Irene impacted almost 100 million people, with over 50 million suffering the brunt of her effects. Tens of millions [...]