Officer.com Police Blogs & Podcasts

Ronnie Garrett
Editorial Director
Law Enforcement Technology magazine

It’s no secret: hiring is not an exact science. If it were, I would have never employed someone who informed me before she quit a few months later that she didn’t realize the “hours were mandatory.” I thought it went without saying that a full-time job required full-time hours, but clearly I’d forgotten some of the wisest advice I’ve ever been given: Never assume anything… So, I guess I’m guilty as charged.

It is really impossible to know who you’re hiring from an interview. It’s a lot like dating - everyone is on their best behavior when he or she begins seeing someone new. Annoying quirks and other idiosyncrasies remain hidden until a commitment has been made. Dating’s smooth talker generally comes with an ulterior motive as does the charismatic job candidate who says all the right things but once hired seems more interested in office politics than hard work. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Awhile back there was a poll question generated - but never apparently used - on which television or movie police character was closest to your role model.  One of the reasons it may not have been used is that not everyone would know every character.  There were 9 listed and I am only familiar with 6 of them.  Heck, one of them was from the show “Adam-12″.  Remember that?  But the unused question got me to thinking: what role models do police today have? Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

The age old debate in the firearms community of .45 versus 9mm, or “big and slow” versus “small and fast” has once again reared its ugly head - but in a slightly different context than normal.  I was recently at the range where several of the shooters were qualifying with Glock Model 21 .45ACP pistols.  Others were qualifying with Glock Model 23 .40S&W pistols.  One guy was qualifying with a Glock Model 17 9mm pistol. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Recently Officer.com and Firehouse.com ran a joint poll on our homepages.  The poll question revolved around the need for Emergency Medical Services (EMS) responders to have TASERs or not.  Most public safety personnel are aware that often the EMS folks get to the scenes of violent crimes before the police do.  Hopefully, in bad neighborhoods, they wait for the police escort.  It doesn’t always work that way.  So, the question arose: should they have TASERs as defense tools? Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

So, a couple weeks back I posted a blog about whether or not a college education should be required for law enforcement professionals.  That blog was the most active I’ve seen in some time… and certainly the most active one I’ve ever posted.  There were 35 comments posted that (in general) ranged from “nope; college is a waste” to “absolutely college should be a requirement.”  It occurs to me that college is just one potential requirement.  What might the others be? Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Be warned: I’m getting up on my soapbox.  As one of the few “outside” officers who responded to the tragedy at Virginia Tech last spring, and as a trainer for Active Shooter/Immediate Response tactics, I try to pay attention to spree shooting events such as the recent one in Illinois.  What amazes me still, and prompted me to write this blog entry, was how training with regard to such events seems to be losing focus.

What do I mean?  The Active Shooter / Immediate Response (AS/IR) training boom started after the public outcry in reaction to the police response at Columbine.  All over the country agencies began training their officers in AS/IR.  There were a couple of issues with the level of training delivered, but we all know law enforcement is predominantly reactive in nature.  We trained sufficiently to address the public outcry. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Valentine’s Day: one of the few days in a year that if a man does nothing at all he’s done something wrong.  Unfortunately, some of us don’t learn that lesson until we’ve ruined a relationship or three.  I know that when I got married (the first time) I had a lot to learn about how to be a good husband.  There were a few things I could have learned from veteran officers, but for some reason they either 1) hadn’t learned it yet, or 2) they weren’t sharing it. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

24 miles and four days later, I can brag about enjoying the company of 59,000 of my closest friends.  Typically that would constitute having attended a BIG party.  In this case it was just SHOT Show.  Setting new records (according to the National Shooting Sports Foundation - the folks who own the show), the 2008 SHOT Show boasted more than 715,000 square feet of floor space; 1,950 exhibitors and almost 59,000 attendees. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

SHOT Show is… well, SHOT Show.  It’s quite overwhelming if you’ve never seen it before (and I mean “seen it” as in BEEN THERE).  There are so many vendors that the Las Vegas Convention Center isn’t big enough to hold them all.

Outside in one parking lot are a couple of BIG tents that someone quite imaginatively called “The Gold Hall”.  I think that’s actually because it’s in the Gold Parking Lot.  I have enjoyed several laughs at the idea of something so elaborately named being big tents in a parking lot. Read the rest of this entry »

Frank Borelli
Editor-in-Chief
Officer.com

Here I am, sitting in a hotel room in Las Vegas at 0630 (give or take a minute or two).  The flight out was exceptional as I had the pleasure of sitting next to an Army Colonel with Special Forces command experience.  I HOPE I held up my half of the conversation about our military community and current events with some degree of coherence.  Truth be told, after talking with this man for about two hours I felt somewhat like my life experience was limited and my education was sorely lacking.  Mark, thank you for making the first leg of my journey so pleasant. Read the rest of this entry »