Policing Matters

Following the tragic school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, Troy Anderson managed the Connecticut State Police CISM teams that were deployed on-site and tasked with providing interventions and debriefings for the affected members of the State Police, municipal and federal law enforcement partners, first responder staff, support personnel, embedded clinicians, and state senior executives.

In this episode of Policing Matters, Troy speaks with podcast host Jim Dudley about the key lessons learned from the critical incident stress management and peer support process following the Sandy Hook shooting, plus recommendations for how agencies can implement effective peer support ahead of a critical incident. Troy currently serves as the executive director of officer safety and wellness for the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF).

Digital forensics has been a specialty science in law enforcement for several years now, with emerging technology and investigative revelations happening every year. The science behind digital evidence recovery, be it from a cell phone, computer or even the cloud, takes a skilled investigator who knows what they are doing.

In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley speaks with Deputy Director Caroline Torie of the St. Joseph County Cyber Crimes Unit in Indiana. Caroline started her career as a law enforcement officer in September 2021 after five years as a television reporter for WSBT-TV, a CBS affiliate in Indiana. She covered police investigations as a journalist but wanted to do more to impact the pursuit of truth and justice in her community and so she started working in law enforcement herself. Now, she’s the recipient of a Magnet Forensics Scholarship Award that will allow her to train for a year under digital forensic experts.

This episode of the Policing Matters Podcast is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

Managing police officers is a difficult task since the job is so multi-faceted and often fast-paced. We ask officers to do so many things, and in the process to be smart, thoughtful, judicious, efficient and thorough.

Some people make assumptions that an officer has complete control over their environment. Of course, this is not true. Officers can be well trained, yet may be challenged in dealing with individuals under the influence of alcohol, drugs, or in a mental health crisis. They are often asked to go into situations where people are in conflict or combative. In these cases, de-escalation may only be a theory, rather than an achievable act.

Many agencies use a system to help detect problems by looking at statistics accumulated in an early intervention system. In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley speaks with Chief Robert McNeilly, Jr., about how an early intervention system can work best for agencies, officers and communities.

During Chief McNeilly's 37-year career, he guided the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police through 10 of its most turbulent years, taking office one week after a series of lawsuits filed against the city by individuals and the ACLU led to a U.S. Department of Justice investigation and the first civil-rights “pattern or practice” consent decree in American history. He is the author of "Blue Continuum: A Police Chief’s Perspective on What’s Wrong with Policing Today and How to Fix It," and a leading trainer and consultant in police management techniques.

Since the D.C. Council voted in 2020 to cut the police budget by $15 million, there has been a 28% increase in violent crime, a 55% increase in robberies, an 18% increase in carjackings and, as of 2021, the highest number of homicides in nearly two decades. On April 15, 2022, Salah Czapary published an op-ed in The Washington Post titled "No one asked for fewer DC police doing more work." Salah is a Democrat, a candidate for his party's nomination for D.C. Council Ward 1, a former D.C. police officer and special assistant to the Chief of Police.

In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley speaks with Salah about the challenges facing the Metropolitan Police Department and real-world initiatives that would improve community safety. To learn more about Salah, visit https://salah2022.com/.

This episode of the Policing Matters Podcast is brought to you by Lexipol, the experts in policy, training, wellness support and grants assistance for first responders and government leaders. To learn more, visit lexipol.com.

We are at a crossroads in policing. What are the long-term effects on law enforcement of defunding, COVID-19, the recruitment crisis, and public perception? What about AI? Technology? Less lethal weapons? How do all these things impact officer safety and morale? Wouldn’t it be great to get a glimpse into the future to give assurance to our veteran officers and their families to stay the course and to let new candidates know policing is still a noble profession worth entering?

Today’s guest on Policing Matters is Scott A. Cunningham, a 38-year police professional with 12 years as a chief of police. He holds a Ph.D. in Adult Education and Organizational Management; teaches police officers, students, citizens, and communities on numerous topics; and is a team leader for CALEA. Scott recently authored, “The Future of Policing: 200 Recommendations to Enhance Policing and Community Safety,” and shares his top recommendations during a conversation with podcast host Jim Dudley.

In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley sits down with Troy Anderson, the executive director of officer safety and wellness at NLEOMF to discuss officer safety trends nationwide.

Each year, in preparation for Police1's coverage of National Police Week, we speak with someone from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), the organization that built and continues to maintain the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial. NLEOMF is a principal organizer of National Police Week events, including the annual Candlelight Vigil held each May 13 to honor all fallen officers. In addition, the Fund maintains the largest, most comprehensive database of line-of-duty officer deaths, conducts research into officer fatality trends and issues, and serves as an information clearinghouse.

Sergeant Dalton Webb is a 17-year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department and founder of Fort Worth's Real-Time Crime Center, which he began when he was an officer assigned to the intelligence section. Since then, the Fort Worth RTCC has grown into a 24/7 operation with 16 sworn officers and is the information and intelligence hub of the Fort Worth Police Department.

Sergeant Webb is now a national expert on the concepts of integrating technology into a policing agency and effectively using these tools to drive the policing mission. He is currently writing his first book on technology-driven policing and believes that most policing agencies in America will operate some form of a real time crime center within the next 10 years.

In this episode of Policing Matters, Sergeant Webb discusses the impact of technology-driven policing on officer safety and crime prevention.

Relationships are difficult to maintain in the best of times. Add the stress of current times, including the economy and the pandemic, and you have a recipe for stressed-out relationships. And if one or both partners are in law enforcement presents a whole array of additional issues.

Do law enforcement couples have a higher rate of divorce than the general public? Are there tried and true ways of making relationships work even in these high-stress times? Today's guest on Policing Matters may have some answers. Cyndi Doyle is the wife of a law enforcement officer and a licensed therapist who focuses on marriage and relationships. She is also the author of Hold the Line: The Essential Guide to Protecting Your Law Enforcement Relationship and hosts the podcast Code4couples.

Retired Long Beach Police Department Sgt. Jason Lehman's mission is to reduce violence between peace officers and community through education. In this episode of Policing Matters, he chats with host Jim Dudley about how education and effective communication can improve both officer and community safety.

This episode of the Policing Matters Podcast is sponsored by the Master of Science in Law Enforcement & Public Safety Leadership Program at the University of San Diego. Learn how this nationally ranked online program can help you be a force for change at sandiego.edu/police1.