Letter from the Editor – August 2021

August. Two-thirds of the way through the year. 2021 has certainly been different (and better) than 2020 was, but a lot of the concerns from last year remain: COVID, reform, societal perception, etc. While the concerns about such things as COVID will fade, I doubt we’ll see any reduction of focus on police reform, funding and all of the other issues we see too often on TV. It behooves us all to pay attention and, as always, conduct ourselves professionally. Take care of each other. The suicide rate for our profession is high; too high. We lose more of our brothers and sisters to suicide than we do criminal attacks or line of duty deaths. Even those are way too high this year as well. ONE is too many but at the end of June we were pushing 160 line of duty deaths for 2021; a number that used to be our annual average.

In this month’s issue of OFFICER Magazine, you’ll find an assortment of articles that hopefully bring value and information to assist us in reducing our injuries and losses. Contributing Editor Lindsey Bertomen opens with a piece about training with the M&P 15. Too often we have officers injured during firearms training, even if it’s just blood blisters or lacerations from slides. We can do better and should be paying attention. (I used to hate doing “blood paperwork” when someone got injured on my range; required no matter how minor that injury was.)

You’ll also find articles about fitness and how paying attention to it can decrease your risk of injury on the street. This isn’t just about fighting strength or endurance but flexibility, stress management, digestive health and more. On the intelligence side, we have an article about Predictive Policing and, semi-related to that, a cold case investigation that focused on personal knowledge and personality. For those of you chasing promotions, there’s an article on the value of college and command schools—and how important they are (or aren’t?) to your progression through the ranks. For the “gun guys” reading this month’s issue, there’s an article about converting your agency to guns with Red Dot Sights (RDS) and all that goes into doing so. And, more for the gun folks, we close out the issue with a short article on how to customize your personal everyday carry weapon without breaking the bank. We also have a Special Section this month focusing on Drones & Investigations.

As always, we encourage you to offer feedback. My email address is right below my photo (ignore the photo) to the left. We enjoy hearing what we’re doing right or could do better. As August moves into September, remember that schools will be starting and many, if not most, of them are returning to full time in-school education. Plan accordingly to support and participate in school activities the same as your agency did in the 2019-2020 school year.

Stay safe.