If you’re a criminal justice professional—or just an ordinary citizen who keeps up with the news—you know that US crime rates have been dropping since the 1990s. Every type of crime has been declining, including the violent categories of homicides, rapes, and robberies. In many areas, the decline has had an impact on budgets for [...]

Training for reality is the Holy Grail for police trainers. Iconic incidents from the Newhall incident to the Boston Marathon bombing manhunt continue to demonstrate that we need to train for the “real world”. Tactics are forged in the heat of battle. The mistake many trainers make is that they try to incorporate all of [...]

Every year tens of thousands of law enforcement professionals gather in Washington D.C. for National Police Week. Officers past and present, fallen and living, will be honored at events that include a Washington Nationals baseball game and a Memorial Service at the United States Capitol. But some officers have already had their own spontaneous celebration, [...]

Police Week is here again. My department, like many across the nation, has asked its members to recommend officers for recognition of their accomplishments over the last year. Some will receive awards for solving cases or making major arrests. It made me wonder however, about the officers who, despite the little things they do every [...]

Peace Officer Memorial Day celebrated on May 15 was first designated in 1962 by President John F. Kennedy.  In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed legislation which requires the America flag to be lower to half-mast on May 15. The tradition of honoring our Law Enforcement who have died in the line of duty has grown [...]

Sound is composed of the vibrations that travel through the air and can be heard by the human ear. There are sounds all around us, some familiar and some foreign. The sounds of the police siren bring about many visions in our thoughts and minds. We immediately see the blue and red lights, the uniform [...]

Police week is here again. It is the time of year when officers are acknowledged and recognized for their hard work and dedication. We do this job because we love it. We love the feeling of accomplishment as we are able to help a person in need and make their day a bit better. We [...]

National Police Week is a collaborative effort of many organizations to honor the law enforcement community.  However, for those within this community, this family, there are different layers and depths and emotional stirrings which are evoked as National Police Week makes its way to us each year. It is ceremony, remembrance, and reflection for some.  [...]

There is not a day that goes by that I am not reminded of the sacrifices that have been paid by our fallen officers which we now honor during Police Week.  When my husband was shot in the line of duty, he was not expected to live.  If he did live, I was told he [...]

It may sound a bit strange and morbid to think of death as a motivator, but for me it is. Back in 2007, before the Cleveland Clinic outfitted me with 4 spinal implants, a doctor told me that I wouldn’t live longer than 6 months – due to the severe nerve damage I suffered tackling [...]

Greta Van Susteren hosts the popular Fox TV show On the Record w/ Greta Van Susteren. On May 9 she posted the leaked police report that describes how three young women and the young daughter of one of them were rescued from the Cleveland house where they’d been imprisoned by alleged kidnapper Ariel Castro. The [...]

Are the officers in your department trained to defend themselves against or even to recognize the types of attacks found in Mixed Martial Arts competition? There is an increasingly likelihood that the average dirtbag wreaking havoc on the mean streets of America has been trained in once rare and exotic but now commonplace strangulation and [...]

On April 22, a 16-year-old student at Bartow High School went into the school’s parking lot to conduct an experiment connected with a science fair project she was planning. Using a small bottle, she mixed some toilet cleaner with aluminum foil. But instead of the smoke she was expecting, she heard a noise like a [...]

The Sandy Hook tragedy is still fresh in our minds.  We all agree that we must do everything possible to prevent another tragedy like this one. While we sit back and listen to the debates on how to deal with those mentally ill people that become school shooters and the need to stop their access [...]

If an officer is to be involved in a shooting, it will most likely occur in low light conditions. It is in the dark that misidentifications of weapons or people occur that can result in tragic consequences as well as civil liability and the loss of officers. Under stress, officers respond the way that have [...]

This morning’s journey to begin the day feels like any other. Our minds are amazing machines! We become conditioned and prepared for any new normal that we experience. After a time, we do not remember a time when we once jumped out of bed at the sound of a telephone or pager without a second [...]

The Director of the Arizona Department of Public Safety, Robert Halliday, reports that Officer Tim Huffman, 47, was killed when his patrol car was struck by a tanker style tractor-trailer on I-8 near Dateland, Arizona, at approximately 5:00 pm. Officer Huffman was assisting other officers in closing down a traffic lane to allow additional emergency [...]

Recently, I was a member of the Public Safety Suicide Prevention Panel at the annual Massachusetts Department of Public Health Suicide Prevention Conference.  It was a great workshop hosted by Riverside Trauma Center and I was joined by a retiring Springfield, Mass. Fire Captain and a Deputy Sheriff of the Middlesex County (Mass.) House of [...]

September 11th, 2001 was a tragic day for our nation and will remain unforgotten in the American history.  Many innocent lives were lost and many more were affected as the days, weeks, months and years pass. As a result of this tragedy, our lawmakers worked together to formulate a domestic plan to try to prevent [...]

There is probably not going to be much argument in saying that it has been an eventful year since the last National Police Week.  If the trend continues, by the end of the year, more officers will have died in the line of duty than last year.  National Police Week 2013 brings with it a [...]

In January, Chicago’s Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Police Superintendent Garry McCarthy announced that 200 police officers were going to be reassigned to patrol work. Two weeks later, McCarthy had more news for Chicago residents: He is proposing an ordinance to authorize arrests for unpaid tickets for public urination, public consumption of alcohol, and gambling—“the three [...]

Kevin Murphy, police chief in Montgomery, Alabama, wasn’t even born when a Greyhound bus full of Freedom Riders was brutally attacked by a racist mob in 1961. Thirteen black and white activists made a dangerous journey from Washington D.C. to Jackson, Mississippi, to challenge segregation laws. When the bus pulled into Montgomery, a violent crowd [...]

Superintendent William F. Phillips of the Shenango Township Police Department confirmed that Patrolman William J. “Jerry” McCarthy IV, 60, was killed in a motor vehicle crash that occurred about 10:00 p.m. Thursday in New Castle.   He was a detective with a district attorney’s office, but was working part-time as a patrol officer in another jurisdiction. [...]

There has been a great deal written about the topic of social media and its influence on law enforcement.  Law enforcement has become relatively savvy in their use of social media as an investigative tool.  Law enforcement has also embraced the use of social media to effectively communicate with the community.  Unless you have been [...]

Starbucks is my happy place…I write there, edit a lot of LET articles there, and drink plenty of Skinny Mocha Lattes.  My colleague jokes about the time we spend at Starbucks, calling it a trip to “Corporate Headquarters.”  Years ago, I took a blind friend to Starbucks for the first time. After walking across the [...]