January 2017

Legal Update

Larry E. Holtz, Esq. Discovery of Warrant Saves Evidence from Unlawful Police Stop Evidence discovered was admissible because the unlawful stop was sufficiently attenuated by the pre-existing arrest warrant. Does the Fourth Amendment’s “attenuation doctrine” apply when an officer makes an unconstitutional investigatory stop; learns during that stop that the suspect is subject to a valid arrest warrant; and proceeds to arrest the suspect and seize incriminating evidence during a search incident to that arrest? Recently, in Utah v. Strieff…


Lethal Encounter Firearms Training

George Petronis Training exercises which utilize realistic scenarios coupled with realistic weaponry provide great potential for positive learning through stress inoculation. The last issue of P&SN called attention to the limitations of traditional “on the line” firearms training in preparing an officer for a lethal encounter. On the line training is irreplaceable for teaching basic gun handling, but it will not prepare you for the physical and emotional stresses of coming under fire. Over the decades, there have been numerous…


How to Advance Your 21st Century Policing Career Through Higher Education Part 1

Christa Miller Whether you’re a high school graduate seeking a two year or four year degree, or you’ve begun to seek a graduate or postgraduate degree, it’s likely you’re doing so because you’ve committed to law enforcement as more than just a job. However, it’s also likely that, as a Millennial or Generation X officer, your commitment looks a little different than your older colleagues’.  Effectively demonstrating the value of a different path requires a good plan for your career,…


Adding P.E.P. to Your Use of Force Training

Lt. John Domingo & John G. Peters, Jr., Ph.D., CLS, CT © 2017. A.R.R. For those resistive suspects who are mentally ill or under the influence, the P.E.P. method favors the use of procedures to restrict and restrain physical movement which renders the suspect immobile, as opposed to utilizing pain compliance, wrist lock or arm bar techniques. When I got to the scene, the suspect was poking his arms and legs with a hypodermic needle and yelling that he had…


Safer Building Searches for SWAT and Patrol

Todd Fletcher Responding to alarms, locating suspects, and investigating burglaries are just a few of the calls which require superior searching techniques and tactics. SWAT operators and patrol officers spend a significant amount of time conducting searches of buildings, yards and other areas. As such, both operators and patrol officers need to be properly trained and equipped for conducting safe and thorough searches. Whether deployed on a SWAT mission or working the streets, we need to condition ourselves to look…


Doing the Combat Glide

Al Baker, Jim Weiss and Mickey Davis This natural, smooth, tactical movement style works well with ballistic shield use. The objective of this article is to review and expand the tactics of walking and shooting while employing a handheld ballistic shield. This broader understanding helps to provide effective lethal force to active threats without distracting the operator, thereby achieving a higher level of live fire movement using unconscious proficiency. Developed as a result of over 25 years of firearms training…


SWAT Vehicles

Sergeant James Post The saying on one of my favorite T-shirts reads, “It’s all fun and games until SWAT comes.” The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) is often cited as being the origin of SWAT teams in America; however, the first SWAT team was actually formed in Philadelphia in 1964. This was a 100 man unit organized to combat bank robberies, a far cry from the activities they now perform around the country. The LAPD SWAT team was actually created…


Busted! – Real Stories of Genuine Absurdity Jan/Feb 2017

Fool me once, shame on you!… A woman drove her vehicle through an activated railroad crossing guard outside Garner, North Carolina. To avoid the oncoming train, she sped across the tracks and hit a tree. Two weeks later, the same woman in the same car – with a still damaged front end – was seen driving through the same crossing arm with the same warning lights and bells activated. But, this time, the car got stuck and an Amtrak train…


…AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH Jan/Feb 2017

Why Don’t We Talk Anymore? You can chalk up this entire installment of “…and nothing but the truth” to me being old and outdated, I suppose. It’s definitely going to sound like an old guy railing against modern technology, but I need to vent and there’s no town square with a soapbox for me to climb. The closest I can come is this column and I thank you for reading it. By the way, this column is 30 years old…


Law Enforcement Leadership Jan/Feb 2017

Michael Carpenter “Boss…You Got a Minute?” It starts out innocently. “Boss, you got a minute?” says one of your officers as he walks by your office. And, then, after a little bit of stammering and foot shuffling, your subordinate proceeds to tell you about the mistake he made, thereby dropping the whole thing right into your lap. Now, what do you do? Mistakes are a fact of life. Since they cannot always be avoided, the success of your career may…