Every year near Thanksgiving, “The Silly Season” kicks off.  It’s almost like you can watch it following Santa Claus down the road at the end of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade.  “Oh, look!  There’s Santa!!”  “Yep.  And there’s supreme idiocy following right along behind him.”  Thankfully, in years past, the idiocy was somewhat contained to specific dates.  Black Friday.  Cyber Monday (and thank God we don’t patrol the virtual world).  Most of December up to and including Christmas Eve.  And that increased stupidity we encountered mostly revolved around shopping.  Welcome to the dawning of a new era. This year, still thinking about shopping, we didn’t get to wait until Black Friday.  Many a...

With 23 different variations of Glock available you'd think they make something for everyone.  I have to confess that, at one time or another, I've owned six of their handguns in 9mm, .40S&W and .45ACP.  Certainly their handguns are reliable, simple and "convenient:" easy to handle, easy to maintain.  Still, I find myself wishing Glock would make two more variations - and I readily admit that it's all about me (as I write this) although I'm sure some folks out there would also take an interest in the fictional weapons I'm going to describe. First would be the Glock Model 40 in 9mm.  For the basis of this model I draw from the frame of the Glock 17 and the slide assembly the Glock 19.  When you think back about the popularity...

9/11/2012: This year, just like the past ten, I'll spend some time this morning remembering that horrific morning eleven years ago; where I was, what I was doing, how I heard about the first tower strike, watching the second one... the man standing next to me turning to me and saying, "Oh my God; we're at war." I'll remember the fear and frustration I felt on that long ride home; my concerns about my family; wondering where my National Guard unit would be deployed to; wondering what my police department would need in overtime coverage. I heard about the crash at the Pentagon on the drive home followed by news of Flight 93's crash in that Pennsylvania field. I remember wondering how many more were going to go down. I had friends working...

After nearly 30 years in law enforcement I've seen agencies that are huge (NYPD as the example), big (Washington DC PD as the example), medium sized, small and only part time.  I've seen campus police departments where the officers served more as armed walking information centers than law enforcement officers.  I've seen agencies that were so small they only had officers on duty 20 hours per day, five or six days per week.  But during those other hours, the officers were on call.  One part time officer was also a volunteer fireman and lived at the firehouse.  He was NEVER off duty if he was within the town's borders. I was struck by that thought this morning and created the accompanying graphic.  The "thin blue line" hasn't been...