Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
While plenty of people have jumped on the "End of the World as We Know It in 2012" bandwagon, I don't subscribe to the theory. That said, 2011 seems to be hitting us with more challenges than "normal". Now that we're two-thirds of the way through the year, stop and think back on it - from a national outlook - and ponder what the next few months may bring. Rest assured, you need to be physically and mentally prepared for it, but what is "it"?
In the beginning of the year we saw a high number of ambushes on law enforcement professionals. Our line-of-duty-death rate seemed to be skyrocketing from the numbers set in 2010. It was both unacceptable and deeply disturbing if viewed as a trend.
Throughout the year we've seen active shooter events occur, although not as large in scale as that of Virginia Tech, but significant enough to make national news - and, unfortunately, pretty regularly. Our law enforcement response has been excellent and, thankfully, casualties have been kept to smaller numbers (closer to five than thirty). Is that to say that five is an acceptable number? Absolutely not! But fewer casualties, if there are going to be any at all, are better.
Just in the past few weeks we've seen natural "disasters" that have challenged our public safety responses. Earthquakes on the east coast, in the midwest and on the west coast; hurricanes that have swept the east coast, come into the gulf and threaten the east coast again. Tornadoes - both independent and those connected with the hurricanes - have done severe damage. Wild fires currently range over hundreds (if not thousands) of acres in Texas.
Certainly it's clear that our public safety community faces challenges that seem to grow weekly if not daily. But some things never change:
We need to remain vigilant. There are those in our society who seek to do our communities and our country harm. It is our job to protect all of the people therein.
We need to maintain ourselves properly. We don't do anyone any good if we become the victim of a heart attack or become a stress casualty.
We need to maintain our equipment. If our tools aren't in shape for use in an instant then we might as well not have them; and without them we are often no more than another body on the scene.
We need to support each other. We may not always agree and it's certainly good to discuss our disagreements - it's how we learn from each other. But those disagreements shouldn't be flaunted in the public eye. Those disagreements should be kept private. In public we should be presenting a united front, synchronized and strong, supporting justice and keeping the peace.
We need to stay alert, aware and alive. Ambushes on law enforcement personnel are NOT a thing of the past and will NOT go away soon. We need to
remain vigilant so that we can anticipate and see the problems before we put ourselves in a bad spot. The bad spots aren't always avoidable though, so when we find ourselves under attack we have to be in shape and properly equipped / trained to respond.
Are you?
