Policing Matters

Too often, when we get off work and out of whatever uniform we wear during the day (or night, depending on your assigned shift), one of the first things we do is to plop ourselves in front of a screen of some kind. We open up the laptop, the tablet, or even our phone, and voluntarily allow ourselves to be assaulted by millions of relentless pixels. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the...

The Camp Fire in Northern California is the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in the state's history. The entire town of Paradise was destroyed, displacing as many as 50,000 people who now find themselves homeless, possessing only the clothes they wore in the hasty exodus from the disaster area. Among those who lost all their material possessions are some of those first responders fighting the...

Young people are on social media for many hours a day — posting on sites and apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Social media posts — even those that have been deleted — live forever, and inappropriate posts can have an adverse effect on a kid's future many years down the line. Furthermore, many online interactions can turn ugly. Too often, a social media post can influence yo...

Police officers have a unique opportunity to positively influence the lives of countless children — many of whom do not really have very many positive role models in their lives — to become productive members of society when they grow up. Significant opportunities exist for those officers to not just help kids see what "doing good" looks like, but to influence them to have the desire to "do good"...

Officer Mitch Brouillette of the Brentwood, California Police Department was the subject of a heartwarming "practical joke" executed by the students of Heritage High School, resulting in a video posted to the Internet that quickly went viral. The students concocted an elaborate ruse, coupled with a live song and dance performance, as well as some incredibly thoughtful gifts in thanks to "Officer M...

The Ninth Circuit Court of appeals unanimously ruled in favor of a lawsuit by people experiencing homelessness that challenges laws making it illegal to sleep on public property overnight. The constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment prohibits "criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obta...

The California Legislature recently passed (and Gov. Jerry Brown then vetoed) a controversial piece of legislation — Assembly Bill 186 — that would have allowed entities to open so-called "safe injection sites" — facilities where drug users would be able to shoot up in an enclosed environment supervised by medical professionals on the lookout for signs of overdose. The trouble is, doing so is in d...

Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design (CPTED) is defined as a multi-disciplinary approach to deterring criminal behavior through environmental design. CPTED strategies rely upon the ability to influence offender decisions that precede criminal acts by affecting the built, social and administrative environment. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss how architecture and landscaping,...

There is no argument that police pursuits can sometimes end in fatal collisions — crashes that kill fleeing suspects, police officers, and innocent bystanders. Police pursuits are an inherently dangerous endeavor. As some police agencies examine "no pursuit" policies, others are looking at new GPS tracking technologies that allow police to drop back and watch a monitor for where the suspect vehicl...

DUI doesn't mean just alcohol — it means driving under the influence, and driving under the influence of marijuana is a crime in every state in America. The trick is detecting the impairment, which is now only really done with field sobriety tests — there is no breathalyzer for marijuana, although some companies are getting close to solving that riddle. In this podcast segment Jim and Doug discuss...

At the time of this recording session, 92 police officers in America have died by suicide. In Chicago, three officers died by suicide in the span of one month. In 2017 that number was 154, and in 2016 there were 138 verified instances in which an officer died by suicide. And these are just the officers we know about. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the warning signs for officers to w...

According to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development there are more than 553,000 homeless people nationwide. California alone has an estimated 134,000 homeless individuals. Homelessness in and of itself is not a crime, but a lot of things that go along with it are crimes, and citizens rightly want the crimes taking place on the sidewalks in front of their homes and businesses to stop....

One cannot understate the importance for officers to eat right and stay in shape in order to tackle whatever comes their way on patrol. Officers need to have muscular strength to overcome resistant subjects. They need speed and endurance to apprehend a subject fleeing on foot. Another great physical asset is flexibility, which can help reduce the likelihood of injury. There are most definitely off...

We all know bad leadership when we see it. It couldn't be more plain or obvious when a person in a position of authority loses (or never had) the commitment or allegiance of the people over whom they have authority. It's equally clear when we're in the presence of a great leader — someone we'd follow into hell with nothing but a bucket of water and a hastily assembled plan. In this podcast segment...

In recent years, protesters, politicians, and some members of the press have decried what they call the "militarization" of American law enforcement. Citing things like the acquisition of equipment through the 1033 program — which has enabled law enforcement agencies to remain effective despite diminishing budgets — critics have said that police in America are too heavily armed and armored. What t...

In late June, the FBI released what it called "Phase Two" of the agency’s ongoing examination of active killer events that took place between 2000 and 2013. In Phase One of the study, researchers focused on the circumstances of the active shooting events — location, duration, and resolution of the attacks — but did not attempt to identify the offenders’ motives or any “observable pre-attack behavi...

It's no secret that police agencies across the country are seeing a massive downturn in the number of people who want to join the ranks. Millennials entering the workforce look at policing — with diminishing pay, vanishing pensions, high risk of death or great bodily harm, and of course, a hostile public — and are deciding en masse to choose another career. Policing is not an 8-5 job with weekends...

There have been dozens — if not hundreds — of videos posted to the Internet of individual officers and whole departments dancing and lip-syncing to popular music. It's become "a thing" with multiple mainstream media outlets picking up on the craze and reporting on their local agency's entry into the challenge. Do they do anything to "move the needle" in reducing anti-police sentiment? Probably not...

The United States Supreme Court recently ruled on two cases involving police officers conducting warrantless searches. One case involved a stolen motorcycle secreted under a tarp near the offender’s girlfriend’s residence. The other involved a man driving a rental car that had been rented in the offender’s girlfriend’s name. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the impact these two cases...

De-escalation is the latest buzzword. A couple of weeks ago, we spoke about a Seattle officer who faced some manner of “disciplinary action” for taking down an axe-wielding man because he failed to de-escalate the situation. But de-escalation is not a tactic like Verbal Judo utilizing Dr. George Thompson's concepts or some other communications wizardry. De-escalation is a desired end state. It is...

The DOJ recently released an updated study from the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) showing that 83 percent of prisoners released by states under so-called “jailbreak” programs were re-arrested within nine years of their release. Astonishingly, just days after the DOJ report was released, the House of Representatives passed a “prison reform” bill by a margin of 360–59. Dubbed the First Step Act...

Video recently surfaced showing a Seattle officer taking down an axe-wielding man with a come-from-behind open-field tackle worthy of a Sportcenter highlight. The officer subsequently faced some manner of “disciplinary action” for the apprehension. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the overreaction of supervisors to harshly remind us that no good deed ever goes unpunished.

In mid-April, cops were called to a Philadelphia Starbucks because two patrons who happened to be black refused to either make a purchase or leave the establishment. A Yale University student who was napping in a common room was awakened and questioned by police after a fellow student called 911 and said that the woman didn’t look like she belonged there. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug disc...

For the past three podcast segments Jim and Doug have been joined by Vallejo Police Lieutenant Jason Potts, who brought to the table the value of scientific method in determining policing strategies and tactics. Those conversations have (hopefully) increased listeners' interest in finding ways to use concepts like SARA (Scanning, Analysis, Response, and Assessment) and POP (Problem-Oriented Polici...

During the 2017 holiday shopping season, Vallejo (Calif.) police conducted a crime prevention campaign aimed at reducing auto burglaries in the parking lots of the major shopping centers in their jurisdiction. The campaign, entitled “Hide it, Lock it, Take it” included crime awareness fliers and billboards, undercover surveillance, increased marked patrols, and even decoy cars. Following the campa...