In May 1981, I was an energetic young patrol officer with almost 2 1/2 years of street-policing experience under my belt. I was a member of a progressive agency policing a city of approximately 500,000. I have to admit, at...

This column first appeared on PoliceOne.com "The best cops don't wait for things to happen. They make things happen on their own." That's Pat McCarthy talking, a 25-year veteran of the Chicago Police Department who now shares a remarkable treasure-trove...

It would be optimum if every American law enforcement agency owned a state-of-the-art firearms training facility, but for many reasons, that will never happen. Regardless of how much any given community supports its police department, few citizens want a firearms...

Early in my career, four state police officers were shot and killed in a gun battle with two heavily armed suspects in an event widely known as the Newhall Incident. After this heartbreaking event was scrutinized and analyzed in hopes...

There's an interesting scene in the movie Patch Adams with Robin Williams where the entire medical-school class sits in the auditorium, listening to an introduction to the rigors of becoming a doctor. The dean of the medical school addresses the...

Assume a police officer faces the following deadly force situation: He responds, along with two other officers, to a residence as a result of a 911 call from the homeowner. Dispatch reports the homeowner’s son threatened her with a steak knife,...

Dear Bullethead:

Amid the terrible destruction and terrified crowds following the recent London subway bombings, British police officers rode battery-powered transportation devices made by U.S.-based Segway. The transport units helped officers move quickly and efficiently through streets so clogged with cars and...

There are few areas of our society where technology has made more of an impact than law enforcement. Imagine if a cop from the 1960s were to walk out of a briefing room and hit the street today: Computers, laser...

Digital images are everywhere. From Web pages to billboards, digital photography is fast replacing film as a means for capturing, storing and printing images for two primary reasons: cost effectiveness and ease of use. For these same reasons, law enforcement...