When you began your law enforcement career, your organization sent you to a training academy and then, likely, provided you with a field training officer or senior officer with whom to work.  However, when you promote to sergeant, there is little training and nothing like the mentoring of a field training officer system.  Moreover, the transition from police officer to sergeant ...

You get one chance to make a first impression. This is the motto all Honor Guard commanders and coordinators should have when planning the funeral of a fallen officer. I have had the unfortunate task of coordinating three line-of-duty funerals for the Fairfax County, Virginia, Police Department in my 18 years on the team. It will be one of the most ...

While crime has gone down, according to published crime statistics, incidents involving assaults and worse on crime fighters are still prevalent. Luckily, in the face of all the danger, law enforcers have not backed down and continue to honor their oath and their mission. But what of incidents that occur when you are off duty. The question comes up regarding off-duty ...

[photo:489662] September 11th was the most-witnessed event in American History thanks to today's technology. This album presents some of those captured moments as well as the resulting swell of American Pride. Feel free so submit your own 9/11 photos to our albums page. See The Photos >>> [page] Next Photo >>> [page] Next Photo >>> [page] Next Photo >>> [page] Next ...

With a public always looking to give law enforcement officers the benefit of the doubt and high profile police officers and deputy sheriffs never making mistakes that catch the public eye, this article is devoted to giving the aspiring and veteran law enforcer alike ten sure fire tips on how to generate complaints from the public and your supervisors. If you ...

The Glock 23 and its larger sibling, the Glock 22, are by far the most popular pistols with today’s local state and federal law enforcement agencies. The compact G23 version generally sees the majority of service as a plainclothes or undercover pistol, while the G22 is a uniform duty gun. Quite naturally, the Glock 23 Gen4 version shares many attributes and ...

*During a drug arrest, may the suspect’s phone be searched incident to his or her arrest and may that phone be searched back at the station?* Over the last ten to fifteen years, cellular telephones, pagers and other digital devices have become common items that are carried by just about everyone. Almost everyone has a cellular telephone. The purpose of this ...

May 1, 2011 marked a historic day for the United States when President Obama made an official statement announcing the death of Al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden. In celebration of the incredible job our U.S. armed forces have displayed, as well as the swelling of American pride, we share with you this collection of photos over the last 48 hours. ...

It was on a priority call for police service as I steered my Chevrolet Caprice patrol car left through a sharp high-speed curve that it hit me. As I strained to grip the steering wheel and maintain my position in the driver’s seat, so I wouldn’t slide to my right across the bench seat, I realized how close I came to ...

What is the best stance for officers in the field to work from that gives the most options in the most situations they may face while on duty? Debated and discussed often and especially during firearms training, it comes down to what they were taught and its compatibility to basic body functions under stress. Deciding what to present to students can ...

*1. Initial Tactics* p((. Radio vehicle plate, description, occupant info p((. Communicate high-risk stop decision to other units p((. Pre-plan location for stop p((. Initiate stop & position units (Contact / Cover) *2. Initial Instructions (Contact Officer)* p((. Assume position of cover p((. Announce: p((((. • “Turn off engine” p((((. • “Don’t move” p((((. • “Throw keys out window” p((((. • ...

An area of liability that is sometimes given very little attention is handcuffing. Clearly, handcuffing is a frequently recurring law enforcement task, but is it a high-risk critical task? There can be little question that handcuffing is a high-frequency/high risk critical task. Consider two cases reported in the media. The first involved a Florida neuro-surgeon, Angelo Gousse. Dr. Gousse was visiting ...

In defensive tactics for policing, we're always looking for ways to *control* (that operative word is bolded on purpose) the behaviorally challenged individual. Unfortunately, not all wrists come in a convenient size to fit our handcuffs. Many people with slender wrists, particularly juveniles, are able to slip out of the cuffs despite our best efforts to do the right things. This ...

In the past several months, inmates have escaped custody during transportation. Because the escapes have been fatal to the transporting officers and dangerous to the public - and because they put the media spotlight squarely on the faces of administrators, corrections experts are taking a long, hard at inmate transportation. We're corrections experts, and in this article we look at transportation ...

These two side arms are said to be the most argued in the self-defense world, law enforcement and military included. Let’s focus for now at these pistols in the back-up role. The most important quality of a secondary weapon is reliability. This quite simply means functioning 100% of the time, no matter what. This being said, the Glock pistols are known ...

Everyone who’s been in the popo business for any amount of time knows that the two most dangerous activities law enforcement officers engage in are (I’ll give you a moment to guess)… domestic disturbances and traffic stops. With traffic stops, you just don’t know whom you are stopping. The person could be an emotionally disturbed person (the politically correct phrase for ...

The twenty-one gun salute is one of the most ceremonial honors paid to officers that are killed in the line of duty. I want to talk about this honor in some detail to give Honor Guard Commanders an understanding of the protocol involving the use of a firing party at a police funeral. _Firing parties should only be used when an ...

United States v. Concepcion-Ledesma, 447 F.3d 1307 (10th Cir. 2006) Just the Facts… On May 16, 2006 the 10th Circuit Court of Appeals, in the above case, held that the presence of a hidden compartment in vehicle, taken with the totality of the circumstances, provides probable cause for a warrantless search. In this case, a Kansas State Trooper observed a group ...

Everyone who watched the ending of one of America’s favorite shows, the Sopranos, had to realize how masterfully David Chase, the creator and writer, fooled all us fans yet again. The ending was deceptive, simple yet complex, and left you wondering what the hell was really going on. I think it wasn’t Tony Soprano, but the audience who got “whacked.” That’s ...

Law enforcement officers have an uneasy relationship with the rest of society. The police subculture, dominated by social solidarity and isolation, serves not only as a protective shell against the harsh elements of our dangerous society, but it can breed deviant conformity if not checked by good recruitment, training, management, and early warning systems. With mass cop-killings and deadly assaults on ...