Articles

Green Is Gone

Bill Siuru  New, lightweight, clip-on technology is allowing viewers to observe full color imagery through their existing PVS-14 night vision scopes.              Night vision devices, like Night Vision Goggles (NVGs), have become an important tool for law enforcement, allowing SWAT teams and other police officers to “see” in the dark of night for such tasks as covert surveillance of illegal activity, apprehension of dangerous suspects, crime response, and search and rescue.  Night vision devices take in small amounts of visible…


Weapon Mounting and Storage Solutions for Vehicles

Sergeant James Post Along with the rise in police assaults and terror threats, the theft of law enforcement weaponry has also risen. This article comes at a unique period in American history. Federal, state and local agencies are seemingly always at varied levels of heightened alert due to terrorist activities at home and abroad, while attacks on American Law Enforcement (LE) are simultaneously at an unprecedented high. Because of worldwide threats and the attacks on officers in our own homeland,…


Turning Blue into Green

Ford® has introduced the industry’s first pursuit-rated hybrid police car. Bill Siuru, Ph.D., PE Ford plans to invest $4.5 billion and put 13 new electrified vehicles on the road worldwide by 2020. These include an F-150 hybrid, a Mustang hybrid, a Transit Custom plug-in hybrid, a self-driving hybrid, and a fully electric small SUV with an estimated 300 mile range.  Also among these new hybrids is the first pursuit-rated hybrid police car, the Ford Police Responder™ Hybrid Sedan. Incidentally, some…


Legal Update

Larry E. Holtz, Esq. DEADLY FORCE: AN OFFICER’S FAILURE TO SHOUT A WARNING In its first decision of 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court renders a determination regarding qualified immunity in a police shooting case. Recently, in White v. Pauly, 137 S.Ct. 548 (2017), the United States Supreme Court addressed “the situation of an officer who – having arrived late at an ongoing police action and having witnessed shots being fired by one of several individuals in a house surrounded by…


Law Enforcement Leadership May/June 2017

Michael Carpenter DEPARTMENTAL CULTURE – WHAT’S YOURS LIKE? Rest assured that your officers are being watched and talked about by the public – both positively and negatively. Your police department is unique. It differs in many ways from other departments – whether it’s the municipal agency next to yours or the county sheriff’s department with which you share a common border. Of course, there may be obvious differences in size, budget, structure, etc., but I think, more importantly, what makes…


Busted! – Real Stories of Genuine Absurdity May/June 2017

James L. McClinton “Ratted out” by a squirrel?… In Meridian, Idaho, a homeowner returned to his residence and noticed evidence of a break-in. He called the police and, when investigating officers arrived, they immediately spotted the homeowner’s pet squirrel (who had the run of the house) and saw that the animal was in an agitated state. Investigators found footprints in the snow outside the house and tracked down the alleged burglar. During questioning, the officer observed numerous scratches on the…


…AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH May/June 2017

Duty-Bound I’m sure you’ve seen the news stories over the last five to ten years about some soldier or airman who refused to be deployed for combat – this in an all-volunteer military. So, you join the military, train to use weapons, train for combat and, then, when your country tells you to go use your skills, you say you’re morally opposed. I missed Vietnam by a couple of years. I worked with guys who were there. You might be…


Please Retire These Range Sayings!

Todd Fletcher  There are a number of catchphrases which firearms instructors have been repeating over and over for what seems like an eternity. Regardless of the instructor’s home base, these phrases are generally accepted and repeated throughout the country without a great deal of critical thought. Instead of offering help to our students, the use of these phrases oftentimes contributes to a lack of improvement. From this point forward, I suggest we stop using the following phrases and truly focus…


5 Effective Ways to Reconnect with Your Community

Kathryn Loving People have stopped talking to each other, and it didn’t happen overnight. Technology has grown so fast that most of us can’t keep up. Suddenly, it’s easier to text, tweet or “like” than talk, yet the absence of human contact and interpersonal relationships leave out a basic psychological need – the need to communicate face-to-face. Police are not immune to this reality and, in fact, law enforcement has had to adapt their methods of communication in order to…


Developing the Next Generation of Police Leadership

Christa M. Miller What are some of the best practices which commanders can utilize to foster millennial officers’ educational aspirations? It may be an understatement to say that American policing has become exponentially more complex in the decade and a half since 9/11. A greater emphasis on local level homeland security has gone hand in hand with higher demand for better response tactics toward the mentally ill, minority communities and other groups. Agencies need officers who can think their way…