Blue Sheepdog

Many times police officers are faced with a community that “didn’t see nothin’,” and doesn’t want to get involved. However, Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) continues to go the other way.
The latest MADD initiative is to put trained observers on the street with the intent of spotting drunk drivers, and then calling them in. […]

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It is well established that as police officers, we often work in diminished light situations. Even officers assigned to day watch have to go into dim areas, such as abandoned buildings, warehouses, and closets, looking for suspects.
Police officers have been trained, however, that using your flashlight can make you a target. Therefore, many […]

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Fortunately, I’ve not had a lot of exposure to meth labs. They are a nasty business. There are many dangerous and toxic chemicals associated with the production of methamphetamine. Take a look in the archives here to see what one match can do to an entire house that was the site of […]

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When the chase is over, are you prepared for a shootout?
The police officers in this video were chasing a suspect when he suddenly slammed on the brake, causing a collision with the officer’s car. This is a fairly common tactic used by subjects, with the goal of causing the officer’s airbags to deploy. […]

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Police officers often find weapons on suspects during pat-downs and post-arrest searches. Sometimes the weapons are firearms, and other times the weapons are knives, ice picks, brass knuckles, and the like. These are generally no problem to spot and identify, right?
Not always. There are many criminals walking around with weapons that are […]

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I have been doing a lot of research and study during the last several years on the subject of sighted fire vs. instinctive shooting. The information out there is very interesting to say the least.
In the coming weeks, I will release a series of articles covering some of the aspects of shooting and visual […]

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For more than two decades, police trainers have preached the virtues of using “contact and cover.” Done correctly, contact and cover offers a very safe method of dealing with suspects. But, are we correctly implementing what we were taught?
Contact and cover is a tactic that is used by two patrol officers when encountering […]

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The staff at In The Line of Duty have brought police officers dozens of high quality training videos for several years now. Their training video on the Trooper Mark Coates shooting left a lasting mark on me that I will never forget.
The same staff is now producing a podcast, available through iTunes. The […]

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I don’t care what your stance on the President, Iraq, or the Middle East is. The fact of the matter is, there are trained terrorists who are intent on killing as many of our children as they can to further their “holy war.”
Don’t believe me? Read Terror at Beslan: A Russian Tragedy with […]

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Currently, there are (among others) two trends in law enforcement: the widespread deployment of M26 and X26 TASERs, and replacing shotguns with AR-15 style rifles. The folks at TASER International, Inc. saw an opportunity in these two trends and have developed the TASER XREP.
What is the XREP? XREP stands for eXtended Range Electronic […]

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Emotionally Disturbed Persons, or EDPs, are common encounters for the street level police officer.
EDPs fall into three general categories: chemical abusers, short term, and long term. Recognizing what category the EDP falls into may help you in how you deal with the subject.
The first category is the chemical abuser. The folks in this […]

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NYPD Police Officer Dillon Stewart was shot and killed during a vehicle pursuit on November 28, 2005. The trial of Allan Cameron starts today. Cameron, who is charged with Stewart’s murder, is also charged with shooting another of NYPD’s finest on November 19, 2005 during a botched bank robbery.
My prayers, and those of […]

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Unfortunately, we are losing more officers this year than we have in a long time.
The officer survival movement that started in the late 70’s, coupled with improvements in bullet resistant body armor, led to yearly declines in the numbers of police officers killed in the line of duty. In 2007, however, this trend has […]

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In the excellent book, Tactics for Criminal Patrol : Vehicle Stops, Drug Discovery and Officer Survival, Charles Remsburg attempts to impress on police officers the idea that each and every traffic stop may lead to interdicting a larger crime if you look for it. The concept is simple: most criminals use cars to move […]

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Most police officers are sent to the range two or three times a year to “qualify.” The police qualification process was originally designed as a yard stick to ensure that officers could properly handle and shoot their firearms.
However, as the years went by, police officers and trainers quickly realized that what happened in qualifications […]

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