Quality Policing Podcast and Blog

We Got Another Kingpin! (10)

And this one is a big one. Heriberto Lazcano, the founder and the principal leader of the Zetas. Perhaps he’s even the big one. The real kingpin. I guess we won. Ten times is the charm. Let’s savor our victory and bask in a new drug-free world. Update: the body was stolen.

A police officer is…

Great description of a police officer, from a student’s paper: “An individual that does things at his or her own pace while trying to make the job interesting for sanity’s sake, all the while not getting killed by doing it.”

We Got Another Kingpin! (9)

Since I’m still keeping track, I thought I’d share. A Colombian woman known as “the queen of cocaine” was murdered earlier this month. But she was murdered, not killed or captured by the good guys. (Plus technically, she would be a Queenpin, which sounds kind of funny.) So I’m not counting her. So it’s been…
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Keep on keeping on…

As you may (or may not) have noticed, this blog has been on long-term hiatus. For now, not writing blog posts is more fun than writing them. Besides, I have other things to write, some of which might actually get me paid. Speaking of which, Cop in the Hood is still selling (just topped 20,000…
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Good Ideas from the Baltimore FOP

Maybe I’ve become a bit cynical after my time in New York, but I don’t normally think of the police union as a good source for rational and cost-effective advice on better policing (though protecting workers’ rights is an important part of the union). But I’ve got to hand it to Robert Cherry, president of…
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Behave! (Big Brother is Watching)

I was interviewed by Videosurveillance.com about my thoughts on video surveillance’s effect on crime. I’m skeptical. (But impressed that a company such as theirs is willing to print my unadulterated skepticism.) Cameras are no substitute of cops. 

The Pearl of the Levant

Our home in Beirut (near the Greek Orthodox part of town, which my wife swears was just a coincidence). If you look closely you can that our 4th floor landing was once a sniper’s nest. The bullet pock marks on the wall are outgoing (incoming can be found if you lean over and look down).…
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While I’m out…

Check out this lengthy piece (and well worth reading the whole thing) by David Simon about murders, stats, the BPD, the state’s attorney’s office, and the need for main-stream media. (And thanks to an anonymous comment for cluing me in.) The Stat: In 2011, the Baltimore Police Department charged 70 defendants with murder or manslaughter.…
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Fourteen Evenings in Beirut

I’m off to Beirut to see the missus, who has been there for a month already. Yes, Beirut, the Pearl of the Levant, The Paris of the East, Chicago by the Sea.  Except for rolling blackouts, a near civil-war next door (in the country that imposed peace in Lebanon, naturally), and some burning issues in…
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Eliot, by Michael A. Wood Jr.

Need some good summer reading? Why not Eliot? It’s fiction set very firmly in Baltimore’s Eastern District. I know those streets well (even if the cameras are new to me). (and I love that he gives a shout out to Larry, the world’s best dispatcher.) I don’t want to spoil anything, but I will say…
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