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*** FREE CALIBRE PRESS WEBINAR
“When Video Footage and a Cop’s Memory Don’t Match” featuring human factors expert Jamie Borden and Calibre Press’s lead instructor Jim Glennon. Live presentation May 9, 10AM – Noon Central. All registrants get a link to a recording of the program. Full details & free registration form HERE.
Register now – no charge!
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More Things Cops Should Think About Every Day
Last week we shared the first group of nine things a veteran officer from a larger west coast department suggests officers think about every day. Simple, but important. Today, we share the remainder of the list:
6. Don’t be a jerk off-duty and don’t be a jerk to off-duty cops. What does this mean? When you’re not on duty, you should act like a responsible citizen. Don’t go out and play around like you own the city just because you’re a cop and believe you can get out of whatever trouble you get into. Many cases have shown that belief to be absolutely false. You’re only setting up yourself and your fellow officers to take some more bad press. We get enough of that being right. Don’t add to the problem. Try to act in a reasonable and responsible fashion when in an off-duty capacity.
Remember, everybody expects cops to be perfect, model citizens. We’re not allowed to make mistakes in the public eye. Don’t compound things by making stupid, avoidable mistakes.
Similarly, when you’re driving around in your patrol car and you come across some off-duty comrade who has had the misfortune of being the victim of some crime, don’t expect them to do your work for you. Don’t hand them a blank report form and ask them to fill it out. Yes, I know this sounds like an odd thing to do, but don’t do it. Some time ago, my legally parked car was struck by a hit-and-run driver. I called Communications soon after the accident and the dispatcher suggested that I take my own report and wondered why I was calling the police about it. Ha, ha, very funny…for a few seconds. But it gets very old very fast. Think about how you would react in the same situation. Maybe it’s already happened to you—leaves a good feeling inside you, doesn’t it? Think about it…we’re taxpayers, too.
When we’re crime victims, we deserve the same consideration the common citizen gets. Take the report, help the victim. You’re getting paid for that, you know. Don’t assume that just because the victim is a police officer, he or she should take that report.
7. You don’t have to like the people you work with. Just get along with them. Remember this, please. It can make life a lot easier. I’m not saying you have to hide your feelings or pretend that you like someone you don’t like. I’m just saying that it really helps (and is safer) to cooperate with each other. Especially in police work, Put aside petty differences and disagreements and, hey, at the end of the shift you go home and don’t have to see that person anymore. You have a little time away from them.
8. Daydream. No, I don’t mean drive down Central Avenue with your head in the clouds. I mean think ahead. Have a plan. Develop some strategies in your mind. How will you deal with your next radio call? Your next promotion? Your next life. OK, I’m getting carried away. I am saying take the time to consider your next move, whether it be a call to an assault with a deadly weapon or an appointment with destiny. Think about things and consider the ramifications of your actions, especially how it affects you, your peers, your families.
9. Be safe! Sound familiar from the first installment? This is the first and last thing a cop should think about every day. Being safe keeps you alive, it keeps your co-workers alive, and makes for a much happier police department and—even—community.
[Other thoughts on things cops should think about every day? E-mail us! editor@calibrepress.com]
An Officer Speaks to His Community…
The following excerpt is from a book titled, Blue Truth by former sergeant Cherokee Paul McDonald:
Working the street for you and knowing the truth takes a toll on me. I have the same problem many cops have: I believe in what I am doing. I go out at night in my marked cruiser. I have a radio so I can hear you when you call for help. When IT is happening, you don’t call an attorney or a reporter or a judge or a city worker or an influential person. You call me. I have a gun because that’s what the world has come to. I go out looking for those who would steal from you or hurt you.
You sleep, and just outside your bedroom window are people who would violate your wife. They would steal your little girl and leave her body in a canal. They would smash their way into your business, where you have worked so hard to make a living, and take your tools. They would go into your house, your castle, your sanctum, and after they take what they want and smash the rest, they would defecate on your kitchen floor.
Who is out there to stop them?
Me.
Often, I am criticized or reprimanded for my actions. I keep on, though, because I have learned that my critics are hollow relics of what I represent. They fulfill themselves vicariously through my courage, and the paper projectiles they hurl in response to my street actions are just manifestations of their desire to control me.
They have never known the street I know.
They couldn’t function there.
THOUGHTS TO SHARE? E-mail us: editor@calibrepress.com
Regarding item “6. Don’t be a jerk off-duty and don’t be a jerk to off-duty cops”, consider the inherent conflict of interest for an involved officer writing their own incident report and the potential future legal ramifications. Also, reflect that what initially may appear to be very simple and minor issue can explode when presented to some attorneys.
Never forget….a majority of the public opinion of you varies from dislike to hate. Your administration will almost certainly base their decisions of your actions not on fact and truth but on public opinion. Then, smile and wave.
#6 This is paramount. My father was a Policeman for over 30 years and I was a Federal Agent for 27 years.
He taught me one thing and it stuck with me all my life so far.
That being, serve the people with all you have and never forget you are a servant to the public.
Give respect and most times, you will receive respect.
When you don’t let it roll off, unless assaulted.
I would like to submit another item … Don’t be or get too full of yourself. You have an extraordinary amount of power and authority, and it can quickly get out of control of you do not manage your ego. My rule was to put the ego in the back pocket and sit on it.
Treat other people, including other cops, how you would want to be treated.
The other side of that coin – Remember, the biggest idiots you’re going to deal with aren’t the general public, but other cops.
Stop and smell the roses…but keep your eyes open.
A few things I would pass on to new officers when I was an FTO
1) Always wash your hands before (and after) going to the bathroom. Especially before because you know where your parts were last but not your hands.
2) Always have a mechanical pencil especially in winter. You will be outside long enough your ink will freeze.
3) Start paying into deferred comp or the like and every pay raise add to contribution.
4) the job isn’t rocket surgery. Besides your 5 senses you need a sense of humor, sense of compassion, common sense and know who you can and can’t say the F word in front of. Its not unprofessional to curse on occasion it makes you more human to whom you are speaking, play the audience
5) You always hear “don’t take work home” it goes the other way as well. You get into an argument with your spouse etc. don’t take it out on the traffic stop and write every citation in the book just because you are mad.
6) To paraphrase Dalton from Roadhouse “Be nice, until its time not to be nice”