Year: 2014

Cops and fitness

The fifth in a series from Sgt. Adam Plantinga’s excellent 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman: There are uniformed cops on the street who are grossly overweight. Their prominent bellies make their equipment belt hang so low it seems inaccessible to them and they can’t chase a suspect more than a…
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S.C. State Trooper arrested for bad shooting

Here’s me on Chris Hayes last night talking about the shooting of Levar Jones. And yeah, that’s my bolo tie. You got a problem with a little New Mexico sunshine on TV? Didn’t think so. Update: The officer pled guilty

Youth: The future (prison) leaders of tomorrow

The fourth in a series from Adam Plantinga’s excellent 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman: As a cop, it’s easy to get discouraged about the state of today’s youth. You don’t see much of the honors student bound for Dartmouth, because she doesn’t do anything that would cause her to come…
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The decline of Stop, Question, and Frisk in pictures and numbers

The New York Times examines the decline of NYPD stops with pretty pictures:

On Fighting

The third in a series from Adam Plantinga’s 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman: People give off plenty of indicators that they’re looking to fight. Some precursors are obvious, like the clenched fists and the readjustment of the feet into an attack stance. Others are more subtle, like the lowering of…
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“Will police have more free time once pot becomes legal?”

Good question! And it’s answered by Ted Hesson in his good article in Fusion.net. Spoiler alert: No. Second spoiler: I’m quoted. Third spoiler: I curse (yet again).

We Got Another Kingpin! (14)

It’s been a few months, and actually “we” didn’t get him. But he was gotten all the same. From the BBC: “Mexican police have found the body of Aquiles Gomez, who was thought to be one of the main leaders of the Knights Templar drug cartel.” We win! (for the fourteenth time and counting…) As…
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CRIME (not) SKYROCKETING

The real headline of course, the one you don’t see very often, is that crime is down. So says the BJS. Though I’m skeptical of the NCVS, since it reported a 40 percent increase in the previous two years, which, quite frankly, as I wrote, I do not believe. (The UCR showed an every-so-slight drop…
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On Gunshot Wounds

The second in a series from Adam Plantinga’s 400 Things Cops Know: Street-Smart Lessons from a Veteran Patrolman: The seriousness of a gunshot wound depends on a host of factors, including the type and caliber of round, the distance the bullet travels, and if anything is present to slow the bullet down (a wall, a…
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“Write your own damn book!”

Occasionally, really surprisingly rarely, some crusty old cop takes an instant dislike to me because I write and teach about policing even though I wasn’t a cop for long. I’ve never pretended to have as much experience as somebody with 20 years on the job, but I still find something pathetic when a police officer…
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