It is impossible to count the number of times I placed suspects in handcuffs during my law enforcement career. I recall being aware that it was possible to pick the cuffs, but fortunately, I never actually encountered anyone who managed to do that. That does not mean it could never happen though. There are individuals…
When the first aircraft struck the World Trade Center what were your thoughts? Was terrorism your first thought? Or, was your first thought more like How could that happen? The first crash caught most people trying to figure out what human or mechanical error could have caused the crash. However, a little over 15 minutes…
We have all done it, felt way to relaxed when dealing with a female suspect. We’re big, bad, tough cops right? Whether we are male or female, we often tend to let our guard down when dealing with a female. We are the ones in uniform; that makes us ten feet tall and bulletproof, Yes?…
Ask any good, seasoned patrol officer the importance of maintaining your everyday equipment and you might get a response like “Do cars need gas to run? Or, does a marathon runner need shoes to run in?” Having clean, up-to-date equipment such as a charged Taser or a full can of OC spray is important, but…
The violent shooting outside a court in Milan, Ital, in early April 2015, in which three people were intentionally killed by the defendant, as well as earlier shooting some four months earlier at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, MA, in which a surgeon was fatally shot by a former patient, as well as other…
Officers often use the term “hidden compartments” when referring to large loads of narcotics hidden inside of vehicles. The term is rather generic and I like to break the term down into more specifics. Hidden compartments can encompass both Hidden NATURAL compartments, meaning areas of the vehicle that are hidden from the naked eye but…
In the spring of 1999 a couple of my Task Force officers, along with myself, were sitting in our office writing reports and discussing several cases that we had just made. Suddenly our supervisor walked in and said “Boys I think we have a meth lab around here somewhere”. Wow, did we give him the…
Greg Ferency Based on combat observations and medical studies by the US and British military it is becoming apparent that methamphetamine use among the terrorist population is on a dramatic increase. Used as a strategic tool methamphetamine offers those in the Iraqi Area of Operations a whole new trend of issues that compromise the safety…
Sergeant Andrew G. Hawkes The average citizen, even the average patrol officer, often fails to realize what type of criminal element is driving down the interstate highways of our country. If you do not work highway interdiction, or as some call criminal interdiction then this element doesn’t really exist to you, all you see are…
Overview of the Current LAPD The City of Los Angeles currently faces a nearly $200 million dollar budget shortfall (Zahniser & Reston, 2010). The mayor has asked all city departments to review their operating budgets and make cutbacks to address and rectify the dire financial situation. The Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD), with its…
