Quality Policing Podcast and Blog

Bratton tweak Operation Impact…

…By putting rookie officers with more veteran officers. This should have been a no-brainer years ago. Partnering dumb with dumber — both right out of the police academy, both sometimes clueless white boys from Long Island — was never a brilliant idea (though even then it did help reduce crime). Rookie cops faced with quota…
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Law and Order, 1932

From Shorpy.com: Washington, D.C., 1932. “Metropolitan police officer on motorcycle.” Keeping the peace in the gashouse district. Harris & Ewing glass negative. Full size image.

Cops aren’t shrinks

The headline in the Daily News says “Cops talked to Elliot Rodger three times before Santa Barbara killing spree, didn’t know he owned guns” So what? What if police did know he had three legally purchased guns and ammo? How would have that changed anything. There was no crime. Anyone who wonders why cops didn’t…
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Baltimore police commissioner disarms man at gunpoint, with punch to face

I had a dream last night that I was back walking foot patrol in the Eastern District, south of Monument St. It was hip and happening! There were cool restaurants and clubs and even a nice museum. Everybody on the street was telling me, and I quote, “It’s like the next Berlin.” I was loving…
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“Anybody want to try the spread?…”

“…The spaghetti with brains is mind blowing.” Sure, it’s not the funniest quip ever, but I said something like that while guarding the crime scene of a 12-person shooting back in 2001. What else are you going to do? Have a moment of silence? I miss the laughs from the job. Non-cops may not understand…
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Guns don’t kill people…

…people with guns who can’t get laid kill people. Can somebody tell me why we won’t discuss legal prostitution in this country? “The gunmanis believed to be Elliot Rodger, 22, who in a YouTube video said he was sexually frustrated and about to go on “a mission of retribution.”” “In severalRodger referred to himself as…
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Baltimore Police Department History

A little over two years ago, William Hackley, retired Baltimore police officer and amateur historian, passed away. Were it not for Officer Hackley, so much of the history of the BPD would have been be lost to time. I was afraid that project would end with Hackley’s passing. Luckily, retired detective Kenny Driscoll has kept…
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Look good. Shoot good.

Just your standard issue 1943 NYPD combo gun holster and make-up kit. On display at the NYPD Museum.

Republicans against bulletproof vests for cops

The program to buy vests for cops started in 1999 under Clinton and the very pro-police vice president, Al Gore (not that most police officers every thanks either of them). But apparently, say Republicans, it’s against the constitution. From USA Today: Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., objected, blocking action on the program, as he did in…
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The jury has spoken

I wasn’t there; I didn’t attend the trial; so far be it from me to assert “the truth” of what happened at an Occupy Wall Street gathering in March, 2012. From the video, she sure looks guilty as sin (bottom left of the frame, at 22 seconds): A jury of 12 thought similarly, and found…
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