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The obvious follower to the weapons episode - LESS LETHAL!

From pepper spray to super socks, from tasers to flashbangs.  Let's discuss a great variety of less lethal weapons - weapons not designed to kill a person - and how to use and deploy them effectively.

Know your policy, know your less lethal tools, and become more effective in gaining compliance from those that are not!

-LEO

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Your agency likely tells you what to carry as far as weapons - rifle, pistol, shotgun.

This episode is designed to get us thinking about the options we DO have, and to get management thinking about how choosing the correct weapon systems will make police officers safer and more effective.

We will not only be discussing what weapons to use, but what modifications to these weapons could make them more effective tools.  Let's also talk about how to carry them!  The last thing we want is to be in a fist fight and have our gun or knife accidentally introduced into the fray.

I hope you take something useful away from this episode, and at the very least get thinking about what your setup is and how you could make it work better for you.

These weapons are tools, and are useless without proper maintenance, training and availability.

-LEO

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I have harped on the 4th Amendment to the point that we're all ready to throw up.  So let's do it some more!

An episode on Consensual Encounters released last month, and it's a gamechanger.  Knock and Talks are simply an extension of this - it is a consensual encounter, but at someone's home.

Why would you ever do this?  Go to someone's house without any probably cause, knock on their door, and talk to them?

A few options:

-  You work narcotics and prefer to work hard drugs, guns, violent crime groups, and you receive a complaint you have to work on a small level drug user or weed dealer.

-  You work violent crimes and need to make contact with a potential witness, and want the contact to result in cooperation.

-  You are a patrol supervisor and are receiving complaint of underage drinking at a residence.

-  A neighborhood is plagued with shootings and robberies, and you want to speak with community members to gather intel.

The options are limitless.  Learning to execute a successful Knock and Talk will not only help your case, but bolster your career.  This episode will help you with the art and the science - legality, safety and success!

-LEO

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If you've been in law enforcement more than 15 minutes, you have dealt with someone with a severe mental condition.  You may realize there's something off with this individual immediately, or it may be later in the interaction that they mention the aliens listening in on their phone or the FBI hiding in their attic and stealing their flour.

I don't say those things to make fun of these folks - I say it because it's real, and how you choose to steer the conversation when you realize there is a chemical imbalance causing delusion or other issues will effect the outcome of the stop.

In this episode I will discuss some common mental health conditions that you can fully expect to encounter regularly.  People with severe mental health issues often become homeless and involved in hard drug use, exacerbating their underlying conditions.

Let's learn today how to identify these conditions the best we can during our brief interaction, and how to manage the individual safely and professionally.  

There's nothing good about thinking someone is drunk and tasing them, then finding out later that they are severely mentally impaired.  Use this episode to help develop your understanding, so that even though you were dispatched to a drunk and disorderly party, you have the knowledge and thought process to put on your mental health professional hat and transition into fixing the problem.

Happy listening!

-LEO

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Today is the birthday of the United States Marine Corps. The greatest fighting institution that the world has ever seen is 250 years old. Founded in a small bar in Philadelphia in 1775. It has evolved with every conflict and served as the tip of the spear all over the world. First to fight!

I wish a happy birthday to all the Marines that are still serving, but in a different manner. Transitioning to serving their communities and wearing a badge.  I know you will represent us all with honor.

SF devil dogs!

-LEO

Sgt, USMC

Iraq Feb-Sept 2005

Again from August 2006-April 2007

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Over the past couple decades, I've seen a shift from more "old school" police tactics to a desire by upper management to utilize intelligence led AKA intelligence driven policework.

What this means from 1,000 feet up is often similar - using various types of intel to do the job better.

The way it is applied on the ground varies greatly.  How is intel being collected?  Once collected, how is it being used?  IS it being used?  Is it becoming stale through lack of use, then used later when no longer accurate?  Who is the intel available to, and do those officers and investigators know how to access it?

I spent several years as a Human Intelligence Collection (HUMINT) Team Leader in the military.  Many of the same principles apply, with similar but different goals.  

Take from my lessons learned on how to improve the intel collection and dissemination in your agency.  Transition from sub-par collection and disconnection to creating action (search warrants, arrest warrants, other valuable investigative steps).

Once the vision changes from upper management and middle management and officers buy-in, the whole culture of the agency is likely to evolve.  

Targeted enforcement on criminals > Random enforcement actions on everyone

Find the 10% doing 90% of the crime, and the game changes.

-LEO

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As supervisors you will be expected to evaluate your employees and you will be evaluated by higher level supervisors.

As employees and police officers, you can expect to be formally evaluated on your performance.  Your boss may be asked to put a number 1-5 on how you have performed in different areas from job knowledge to communication skills and everything in between.

As the supervisor, it can be difficult.  Most people are uncomfortable receiving criticism.

In this episode, I will discuss what I've learned about how to deliver an evaluation successfully.  When I evaluate an employee, I don't want them to feel lectured and judged.  I want the employee to engage in a dialogue with me.  I want to provide both good and bad feedback in a free flow over the time we work together rather than in a lump sum at the end of the year.

If you are a supervisor and want to improve the performance of your employees, this episode will provide ways that have worked for me to accomplish this without damaging my professional and personal relationships with those I work with every day.

I hope this helps my new-ish Sergeant friend that requested it, and many more!  Share to supervisors you want to help, and if you're feeling rude, share to a supervisor that provides harsh and highly critical evaluations to everyone without giving them any context - kidding, kidding.

-LEO

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Welcome to November!

I have so much content already recorded that I was planning to only use that this month. However, an old friend, that is a new police sergeant reached out to me and asked me to do an episode on employee evaluations.

That will drop tomorrow! I hope this helps him and others to make employee evaluations less of a source of stress and more of a source of open communication and a finding of common ground. 

-LEO

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Good morning, good morning!

The last couple months have been interesting around the country and the world. Troops on the streets of DC, troops on the way to Chicago / Portland and then diverted, troops on the streets of Memphis. Several interviews this month with a career attorney and soldier lead me further to believe that the potential for this to be a step in the right direction is here! He discusses the importance of staying positive in the face of what we don’t Control and figuring out how to help that thing help our community.

I hope that anyone on patrol or new to a proactive criminal enforcement unit checks out the consensual encounter and report writing pieces. Understanding the fourth amendment, what the exceptions are and how to apply them will multiply your effectiveness. Once your unit sees you doing this effectively then they are likely to copy what you’re doing and next thing you know the unit got better! 

Writing a clear, concise police report absent of technical police jargon that matches the body worn camera, and any other video surveillance and witness statements will save your case and more importantly - your career!

Anyone in any level of police supervision has dealt regularly with problematic employees. That’s why managers and supervisors exist. If everyone just did the right thing all the time and knew their job then we could just have a chief and a bunch of officers and detectives.  Especially if you are new to supervision or just being transferred as a supervisor to a new unit, you can expect to have some issues shortly after you arrive. The supervision and leadership  episodes will offer a guiding hand to help you think about the consequences of your actions and how to motivate employees that may have lost the twinkle in their eye.

-LEO

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21 minutes of easy tips and guidance to make you a better report writer.  If you think you're already the best you can be...you're lying to yourself, but OK.

But seriously, if you take one or five things away from this episode that will strengthen a case, protect your job or make the most boring part of the job easier, then it was worth it, right?

I hope you get a huge thrill from this and I challenge you to send it to the worst report writer you know!

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