Blue Sheepdog

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 podcast features round table discussions about current topics in law enforcement. Most of the topics are officer safety oriented, but they also will talk about other police issues that might be making headlines.

The panel is moderated by an In The Line of Duty staffer, while the panel itself is made up of various people from law enforcement or allied resources (such as college professors or psychologists.)

I sometimes find the information they provide to be useful. Other times, the ideas floated are clearly not the best. Generally, I find the quality of the information to be a step below the video programs.

Part of the issue, I think, is that many of the panelists are retired and/or administrators. In other words, the people offering officer survival advice are people not in “the game.”

Still, I do find much of the information to be helpful. As such, I download each new episode onto my iPod, and listen while i work out or mow the lawn. The audio quality is good, and they publish fairly frequently.