Hi

5:41 PM 27/9/09 CAN YOU SURVIVE AN OFF-DUTY ENCOUNTER?? Hey these situations can and do come up, and frequently. There isn't a day goes by when you may hear about a fellow Officers " war story" on what he encountered when off duty. And these aren't the best situations to be in as you don't have immediate back up, may be in a small jurisdiction where there may only be 1 or 2 Officers on at the time , ( like my buddy in Archie Missouri). have family or friends with you, and don't have the full compliment of your duty belt to help you out. But with planning there is a very good chance you'll come out un-scathed and a happy ending will be had!! I had a close call 5 years ago while travelling in the Western part of my country, in a bar in Calgary, when all hell broke loose. Even with tin in hand and yelling "I'M A LEO" I was almost fired on by one of Calgary's Finest!!! It was most likely my poor planning that put me in the situa...

Tips to help YOU determine if the case before you is a case of child abuse. This review will help you to determine if the child has been abused by burning/scalding. The worse type of offender in my eyes is one who abuses a child that he/she has in their care. They are SCUM and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent. Hopefully my little guide here will help you to determine if a child has been abused/tortured by applications of extreme heat. If YOU know what to look for you can help stop this type of abuse!! When you recieve a child abuse call this will be one of the most trying type of investigation that you may encounter, grown Officers have been known to break down and cry, and there is NO SHAME in that. It is one of our bodies defence mechanisms to help us deal with the situation before us, and it helps to show that you have not been " de-humanized" by the sights and sounds of the job we do daily. Our LE Brothers who are " street cops" don't recieve for...

A Righteous Shoot??? Try to picture yourself in this time and situation: You're young and you're a new police officer in the 1950's. You're riding shotgun in a two- man car with a senior officer when you become involved in a high speed chase of a stolen car. The senior officer tells you to attempt to shot out the tires of the fleeing vehicle. You lean out your side window, take aim with your revolver, and you begin squeezing off rounds. After firing all six shots, you slide back onto your seat to reload. The stolen car keeps on going with all tires still intact. Before you can finish reloading and take another try, the stolen car spins out. After a short foot chase, you apprehend the 15 year boy who was driving the car. Since you didn't hit the tires, you inspect the stolen car to see if you hit it at all. You find only one bullet hole in the driver's side door post. It suddenly dawns on you how close that round came to hitting the driver in the head....

It is time to take a long and hard look at this topic that ' nobody' wants to talk about. I was on my volunteer shift on Cops in Crisis last week and I'm glad I was....I now have a friend in the US who may not have been here today!! Police officers all over the world are exposed to the potential for violence every work day, yet an even more dangerous enemy lurks inside their own ranks…suicide. Police suicide can devastate the morale of entire agencies and leave other officers with intense feelings of guilt, remorse and disillusionment. Under conditions of stress, danger and availability of firearms, one might expect an increased risk of police suicide. Research statistics demonstrate that officers kill themselves more than they are killed by others. Major epidemiological studies have shown that the risk of police suicide is over three times that of the general population and risk has appeared to increase over the past decade. In addition, there is suspicion that some p...

Cops and Stress.... If you're a person who thinks a lot about stress; you find just about every situation stressful, and you constantly complain about stress, do yourself and everyone else a favor and don't become a police officer. Police officers sometimes succumb to the belief that they have the most stressful job on the planet. There's no question that police officers experience more serious stressful situations with more frequency than most people; however, stress experienced in police work can be controlled by the individual police officer. Police officers frequently blame stress on the job when, in fact, the primary source of stress originates from other factors within the police officer's personal life. Without a doubt, marriage is the biggest factor any man or woman must consider when contemplating a police career. If your spouse is adamantly against your decision to become a police officer, you have two very simple choices. First, join the...

A lot of people who contemplate a police career don't associate police officers with guarding prisoners. You may think that once a suspect is arrested, that suspect becomes the responsibility of corrections officers. In most jurisdictions, the process for transferring a prisoner to corrections is my no means an immediate thing. Since the health and well being of persons arrested is of such great concern -- primarily because of the potential litigious implications -- a prisoner who requests, or demands, a trip to the hospital will almost always be granted that request or demand. Guess who's going to be responsible for guarding that prisoner during his or her emergency room visit? Oh...and don't expect to be put at the head of the line. With all the concern these days about workplace hazards, hospitals haven't yet put potentially dangerous criminals on their lists of hazards. There will come a time, many times in fact, when you'll be responsible for a prisoner wi...

My Two Cents worth of Advice for the new LEO You'll learn very quickly that your most important asset will be the people who are working with you. No matter how well trained, and knowledgeable, you think you are, those first months are going to be very difficult. You're going to experience situations where you'll need guidance from others. From the very beginning, you should identify fellow police officers who are competent and experienced. Believe me, it's not a hard thing to do; they'll be the quiet ones. It's just as easy to identify those police officers whose advice you should view with skepticism. They'll be the ones who respond to your questions with, "Don't worry about it." If you consider your question worth asking, that response should confirm to you that it's worth your worry. Some police officers are notorious for taking short cuts, and the short cutter's slogan is, "Don't Worry About ...