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 [...]
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 [...]