Killing Our Students
This post is respectfully dedicated to all law enforcement officers killed by other law enforcement officers. May GOD forgive us. I have never used this bully pulpit to promote my personal livelihood of being in the firearms and tactics instruction business. Occasionally, I’ll make reference to something we learned in a class or information exchanged between a student and myself. I have on many occasions aggravated folks with my writing. When I say to use [...]
Six Shots for Sergeants
This came out of a scratch gathering of sergeants, discussing the drumbeat of petty details, the constant “white noise” and perpetual distractions that plague the job, and their worst effect: distracting them from the core elements of their responsibilities. One of their suggestions was to write up a simple “bullet [...]
The Mark II Gimlet Eyeball
Spotting Problems Before They Get You Killed. In mid-May, a patrol officer responded to a call regarding an unruly student on a “special needs” school bus. It was potentially a very dangerous situation, as the kid was allegedly “out of control,” and “attempting to unbuckle the driver and pull the [...]
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 [...]