You Can Get There from Here! In the April CERT e-letter, you saw a chart that broke down the equipment and operational capabilities of CERT units from levels one to four. We shared that chart with you because during the past two years, our trainers have identified a promising trend in CERT operations: Team self-audits. I am encouraged by the increasing ...

Much has been said about the Tueller drill which addressed the reactionary gap and how a subject could succeed from a distance of 21 feet when assaulting an officer. The reality is that a person attacking an officer can cover 21 feet in less time than the officer could draw and fire two aimed rounds from a holstered weapon. It is ...

With more than 3,000 CERT teams in the US and 1,000 teams internationally, this article discusses what it means to be a 21st Century CERT Operator. I’m writing this article in response to a number of inquiries I’ve received from the field by clients and attendees who have heard me speak or have been trained by US C-SOG SOU teams. What ...

A Serious Threat to Working Dogs? In early 2002 I was contracted to train a number of dogs for a high end Security Company to work in a closed and controlled research environment. The new and interesting part was the very strict medical screening and various quarantines had to be complete. Over the years I thought I had developed a great ...

PACK INSTINCT This module will enable you to understand the socialization patterns of your dog. For us to really understand and be able to communicate fully with our partner we must first learn to think as he does and learn to relate to them the way they relate to us. To be able to do this we must learn about their ...

Brigham City v. Stuart, involved a fairly typical police event. Officers from Brigham City were called at 3:00 a.m. about a loud party at a residence. Two officers approached the house and heard yelling and what sounded like a disturbance at the rear of the house. The officers documented the fact that they heard “thumping and crashing” and someone yelling “stop, ...

I arrived at C.O.P.S. Spouses’ Retreat the weekend of September 18-21, 2009, at the YMCA Trout Lodge in Potosi, Missouri, after only one month as the Marketing Coordinator for Concerns of Police Survivors. I knew the organization dealt with death, dying, and grief; yet I was not prepared for what I saw. I was instantly introduced to a young widow who ...

Got your attention, didn’t I? Greetings from the Bluebonnet Capital of Texas and welcome to this edition of the Chaplain’s Corner. Okay, Okay…Llano is “officially” the Deer Capital of Texas, but we’ve got so many bluebonnets up and blooming already this year it could go the other way. Well, on to “business.” This is something that’s been on my heart for ...

Early reports on the accuracy of the polygraph technique were largely anecdotal. For example, if ten suspects were administered a polygraph examination on a particular crime and one of them failed and subsequently confessed, the technique was reported to be 100% accurate. Once proper research methodology was applied, where random polygraph charts of verified truthful and deceptive suspects were blindly scored ...

When an employee gives his two week notice to leave a company, the typical response centers around how to find a replacement for that person. What is often overlooked is that the departing employee represents a potential wealth of information in such areas as violations of company policy, theft, sexual harassment, and employee drug use. The reason this employee is a ...

When a police employee acts outside the scope of their employment for purely personal purposes the employer and its insurer will not be liable. A case from the Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2nd Division, decided on April 21st provides an example of the ultimate bad case. Georgia Interlocal Risk Management Agency v. Godfrey, 2005 Ga. App. LEXIS 413 (GA. Ct. ...

When your law enforcement agency conducts an administrative investigation you usually have a complainant and your agency employee. Frequently, the complainant has a witness or two. Your employee often has other agency employees, such as a partner or back-up officer, supervisor and the dispatcher. Other witnesses with little or no allegiance to either the complainant or employee are commonly referred to ...

Hello, and welcome to the Chaplain’s Corner 2009. New Year’s 2009! Wow. I can still remember back in high school when I thought the year 2000 was so far in the future that it would never get here. Doesn’t seem possible, yet here it is again...another new year. A new year. A time of new things. Some of us are lucky ...

This topic has both rattled a number of cages in the past and opened the eyes of many agencies in the community. I am writing this article to respond to the more than 2,000 emails I have received from my initial article on this subject several months ago. This article will pick up where I left off. With more than 3,000 ...

Police Officers historically have had high stress levels in their careers. They are prone to heart attacks, high blood pressure, and premature deaths as a direct result of the job we do. Our stresses within the job vary with each shift, and unlike the steady stresses that occur from financial burdens, home difficulties etc., our stress includes those problems, but is ...

as Statement made during an Ongoing Emergency-in attempt to Resolve Emergency? Was Statement made after Emergency-in effort to prove Past Events for Criminal Prosecution? In Davis v. Washington and Hammon v. Indiana the United States Supreme Court decided companion cases which involved the same issue but resulted in different outcomes. The issue before the Supreme Court was whether prosecutors could use ...

When I transferred to a countywide Drug Task Force in January 1996 I thought I had considered everything that would be relevant to my new assignment. I was wrong. I went from wearing a full police uniform and gun belt to jeans and T-shirts – in other words plain clothes. I quickly was presented the issue of how was I going ...

Congratulations. You made sergeant. At last, the end of police stress. If it suits you, it is potentially the best job in law enforcement. You probably are still in the union, you have status and responsibility over and above what you used to have. You can finally exercise your leadership with the credibility of those stripes, which you worked long and ...

Parking Lot Search Valid Under 4th Amendment On April 20th 2004, the Court of Appeals, 1st District of Indiana upheld the use of canines to conduct general exterior inspections of vehicles parked in a high school parking lot. Myers v. State of Indiana, 806 N.E.2d 350 (IN. Ct. App. 1st Dist. 2004). After the Scott County School Board authorized the use ...

Solis v. City of Columbus, 319 F.Supp. 2d 797 (S.D. Ohio 2004), provides an example of potential agency liability for the failure to have a policy in place that will protect the rights of citizens in their homes. Solis involved the execution of a search warrant by a SWAT team following an investigation conducted by Detective Cox. Detective Cox was working ...