Precious resources
Welcome to our 2014 Buyer’s Guide, full of products and companies you can put to use in your agencies as a resource for purchasing questions and decisions going forward. While the right equipment and products can no doubt help increase productivity and even maybe save lives, no gadget can take the place of good employees at all levels of an agency. That is, men and women making the tough decisions day in and day out using sound decision-making, empathy and a little humor.
It’s not always easy, of course. Many of you face great challenges—manpower issues, lack of proper training and equipment, organizational struggles, financial, even personal. But with a little digging it’s not hard to find continued evidence of a job well done.
Take a look at the numbers. A recent Bureau of Justice Statistics study ‘Requests for Police Assistance’ released September 24, 2013 examined the characteristics and experiences of persons age 16 or older who contacted police to request assistance in 2011. The report describes the perceptions of residents about police behavior and response during these encounters.
Some of the highlights:
- An estimated 1 in 8 U.S. residents age 16 or older, or 31.4 million persons, requested assistance from police at least once, most commonly to report a crime, suspicious activity, or neighborhood disturbance.
- About 85 percent of persons who requested police assistance were satisfied with the police response.
- No statistical differences were found between the percentage of Hispanics (86 percent), blacks (85 percent), and whites (83 percent) who reported a crime or neighborhood disturbance and felt the police were helpful.
- About 9 in 10 persons who requested police assistance reported that they were just as likely or more likely to contact the police again for a similar problem.
Despite ongoing challenges (and media reports to the contrary) men and women in the management ranks continue to dutifully rise to the challenge. And that’s something to admire. As we head into the New Year, I want to know what topics keep you up at night. Is it new communications equipment? Manpower or budget struggles? Email me, too, with your success stories—whether you are part of a huge metro department or a head-up a modest-sized sheriff’s department in a one-horse town. We want to hear from you!
At LET we love to talk technology, but good employees will always trump good products. We know the job you do day and night, at all hours, is not an easy one. Again, we’d like to say ‘Thank you’ to all of our readers and everyone else behind the badge.
