New Year: New Beginnings
Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com
With every New Year we each enjoy the opportunity for a fresh start; a new beginning; the chance to change something we’re not 100% happy with in our lives. For Officer.com the New Year enjoys a literal new beginning: the start of a new era with a new Editor. Tim Dees is a friend of mine. He gave me a chance to contribute to Officer.com and I’m proud to have done so for the past two years. Now, as Tim explores new beginnings of his own, I explore a new opportunity: Good day. My name is Frank Borelli and I’m the new Editor-In-Chief for Officer.com.
Hopefully some of you know my name. I’ve been writing equipment reviews for the industry for almost ten years now. For the past five years my equipment reviews have been distributed via the Internet through various outlets reaching more than one half million readers each month. I know people have read my reviews because I’ve received the emails from those who disagree with my opinion – and emails from those who have thanked me for pointing them toward good kit.
When I was first approached about the possibility of becoming the new Editor I thought twice… and then some more. I’d seen how hard Tim worked to make Officer.com what it is today: the leader in online information distribution for our nation’s law enforcement professionals. Quite honestly I wasn’t sure if I was up to the task of maintaining what he’d built. Then I realized that I had contributed to that growth across the past two years, and I knew Tim would always help me if I screamed out for help (as if I were drowning). I took on this new challenge and I’m looking forward to it with the kind of energetic nervousness we all experience in new beginnings.
I look to you, the readers, to help me. How? By providing me feedback; by not hesitating to post blog responses; by participating in the forums; and by pointing me toward potential new contributors to keep our content new and fresh.
I look to you, the readers, to keep me in line and let me know when I start talking like I’m from Jupiter – or at least a different reality.
I look to you, the readers, to not always agree with what I’ve said, and to debate the finer points of our profession in an adult mutually beneficial fashion.
Yes, I said “our profession”. I’ve been a police officer for more than two decades and I’m not ready to completely leave the work yet. I’ve been a police trainer since 1989 and a published police writer since 1999. I may find my bottom half planted more often in front of a desk now, as compared to being comfortable in a patrol vehicle, but I go at my work with no less enthusiasm. Help me maintain that as you can.
Welcome to 2008. A New Year. New Beginnings. Stay Safe in the New Year. Accept my wishes for the New Year to bring you nothing but health, peace and prosperity. Look for my next blog entry to be a more in-depth introduction of myself and my outlooks. I’m sure some of us will be on the same page; others not so much. I look forward to ALL of the conversations that those differences of opinion will generate.
To Tim Dees I offer my thanks for the opportunity he offered two years ago, and what it has grown into today. To Officer.com I offer my thanks for their faith in offering me this new challenge. To you, the readers, I say – STAND BY…
Frank: Thanks for the kind words, and I wish you every success in the driver’s seat.
Frank:
Welcome, brother. Clear skies and safe landings!
Steve
Great “roll call” introduction Frank. Best of luck to Tim for a job very well done & to you for the awesome opportunity ahead. My thanks in advance for all of your hard work & that of the http://www.officer.com staff & contributors for the great Info. & perspectives. I just read the article by Mike Quinn on New Years Resolutions & I have to agree after 2006 & 2007 being 2 of the worst years of my life. I can understand & appreciate his experiences as I’ve had some similar ones & of course a few other challenges. As the saying goes, “What doesn’t kill us makes us stronger!” We have to stick together w/ other public safety people, but, we cannot lose sight of the good things in life that we should be a part of also. It is critical to keeping our perspective in balance. Anyway, a great big HUAH to you Frank, officer.com, my fellow “blue people” & “Spartan Warriors” who protect our wonderful country from evil & oppression everyday. My sincere thanks to all of the public safety people, military & intelligence personnel who are there for us 24/7. A very grateful citizen, Don. Here are my favorite mottos: De Oppresso Liber. So that others may live. Semper Fidelis Y Semper Unitas. Seek first to understand, then to be understood. Know the truth & it shall make you free.
Congrats Frank and Good Luck Tim. I enjoy you both and look forward to your writings each time I click open the site.
Frank,
Great opener! As with comments from so many other folks, I too owe the opportunity to have my works published to Tim and O.com and wish BOTH, much success in the upcoming year. I look forward to the road ahead and even more so the opportunity to hang out and indulge in Foo Foo drinks and shop for masculine footwear as I followed your lead in Ohio back in 07. HA! HA!
Much success brotha!
Tim: A sincere thank you for all your great work over the last years. Officer.com has made a huge difference in our profession. Frank, my best wishes for the continued success of this great site. GG
Frank, congratulations on your new position and I look forward to speaking with you in the future.
Frank, I am confident that you will do well and make OdotCom even better than it is. I owe a debt of graditude to Tim Dees as well; he is a fine man and a tireless worker. More importantly, I count Tim as a good friend now, and as I get to know you better I am certain that our writer-editor relationship will culminate in a frienship as well. You will both save many lives thru your dedication to those warriors that put their lives on the line each day. Kudos to you both and God bless you and keep you safe.