Policing Matters

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...

When the Vallejo (Calif.) Police Department began considering the purchase of Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs), they didn’t just take the vendor’s word that the equipment would be successful in helping to capture criminals and reduce crime. Command Staff wanted to have proof, so with the assistance of a group of researchers from New York University, they employed what has become known as Ev...

In 2014, California voters overwhelmingly (59 percent to 41 percent) passed Proposition 47, a law that downgraded a variety of crimes — such as burglary, shoplifting, and grand theft — from felonies to misdemeanors. If the value of the stolen property is under $950, the perpetrator will likely receive no penalty, creating a “green light” for bicycle thieves. “A thief may now steal something under...

In late April, police arrested a 72-year-old Joseph James DeAngelo for a series of rapes and murders committed in the 1970s and 1980s. Dangelo (a.k.a. the Golden State Killer) was apprehended when a surreptitiously obtained DNA sample matched the DNA of relative on the other side of the country who had registered with a website and service that enables users to trace their family heritage. In this...

A trend in retail sales is to instruct employees to not attempt to stop a shoplifter. Such “no pursuit” policies among retailers have implications for police. Principally, this turns a responding officer into little more than a report taker, not an enforcer of the law. Further, those same stores that refuse to prevent the loss of products to theft simultaneously demand that officers be more presen...

While attending ILEETA 2018 in Saint Louis in late March, I heard from multiple reliable sources that at least one nearby restaurant had something of a “sick out” among employees when they learned that the hotel next door was hosting some 800 of the most elite law enforcement trainers and educators in North America. Subsequently, service at the restaurant was impossibly slow. I didn’t experience t...

The year is 1983. A University of California Santa Barbara student named Marcy Nicholas is stalked by an ex-boyfriend and brutally murdered. A week after Marsy was murdered, her mother and brother are confronted by the accused murderer in a grocery store. They had no idea that he had been released on bail. Dr. Henry Nicholas — the key backer and proponent of Marsy’s Law — notes that criminals have...

Recently, Sacramento police officers were investigating reports of a man who had been smashing car windows and was bounding fences in people’s backyards. In the body camera footage released soon after the OIS, one can hear an officer shouting, “Show me your hands! Stop!” The subject continued to flee. The officers continued their pursuit. Upon making contact with the individual, one cop shouted “S...

United States Attorney General Jeff Sessions recently issued a one-page memo calling for death penalty for drug dealers when it is “appropriate.” Sessions asked prosecutors to seek the death penalty for drug-related offenses as part of an effort to combat the opioid crisis. The memo said, in part, “Drug traffickers, transnational criminal organizations, and violent street gangs all contribute subs...

April is Child Abuse Awareness Month. Police are among the people who are “mandatory reporters” of suspected abuse or neglect. Abuse can take many forms — from physical harm to emotional damage. One relatively unknown form of child abuse is Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) — the practice of the removal of a female’s clitoris and labia. Women in places like Dijibouti, Egypt, Guinea, Mali, Northern S...

At a crime scene, patrol officers, investigators, and others need to do a lot of things simultaneously. They must create and maintain an inner and outer perimeter, ensuring that access is only given to those who warrant it. They must begin a crime scene log and maintain it all the way through. They must preserve evidence, and make note of how evidence may have been affected by responding EMTs and/...

A study by two professors from the School of Professional Psychology at Pacific University examined 47 officers with an average tenure of nearly 14 years from police departments around the Pacific Northwest who engaged in exercises designed to enhance their physiological and psychological resilience. They practiced body-awareness exercises, mindful movement, martial arts exercises, and meditating...

The most fundamental aspect of community policing is having cops personally and proactively interacting with the community. That’s mighty difficult to do when you have two thousand pounds of police cruiser wrapped around you, with the windows rolled up and the radio chirping. In recent years, we’ve seen many agencies increase their foot patrols, especially in downtown business districts where ther...