Calibre Press

On December 29th, 2021, Bradley, IL Sgt. Marlene Rittmanic and her partner 27-year-old Tyler Bailey responded to a call concerning barking dogs in a parked car at a local motel. They made contact with occupants in one of the rooms about said canines. Suddenly and without warning they were attacked. Shot. 49-year-old Sgt. Rittmanic died. A victim of violence. She was murdered. Officer Bailey, as of this writing, is critically wounded and fighti... Full Article »

On December 8, 2021 a young police officer answered a disturbance at an apartment complex in Oklahoma City. He immediately encountered 40-year-old Antwon Hill in a breezeway. The officer was alone. Within 30 seconds of the encounter Hill pulled a gun out of his coat’s right pocket which caused the officer to back away and move around a corner. Distance and cover, a tactically sound idea. The question is: What other tactics could have - or... Full Article »

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi said something the other day that I found to be…perplexingly curious. When asked about the crime surge that includes shootings, murders, synchronized shoplifting and gangs robbing, the Speaker said this: "It's absolutely outrageous. Obviously, it cannot continue. But the fact is that there is an attitude of lawlessness in our country that springs from… I don't know where… and we cannot have that lawlessness... Full Article »

“THE ENDS MUST JUSTIFY MY FEELINGS" Kyle Rittenhouse is not guilty of two murders that he was accused of committing and many people are aghast at the findings of the jury. What were they thinking? How corrupt are they? It was so very obvious that the 17-year-old was a maniacal terrorist who ventured across state lines, armed with the intent to commit cold-blooded murder. He mercilessly started shooting peaceful protesters. And he was found n... Full Article »

A 73-year-old woman with dementia and sensory aphasia walked out of Walmart with approximately $13.88 worth of merchandise she didn’t pay for. Employees stopped the woman and took her and the unconcealed items back into the store. She offered to pay for the merchandise but they refused to take her money and let her go. At some point she pulled down the mask of one of the employees. The store then, apparently due to her behavior, called 911 a... Full Article »

Mount Prospect is a suburb of Chicago. Their Village Board recently voted 4-3 to remove the "thin blue line" patch from its police officers' uniforms. In my opinion that decision was—to say the very least—a misguided, political correctness- motivated, cowardly act on the part of those four individuals. The argument over the past two years has been centered on the idea that the symbol has been “hijacked” or “co-opted” by hate gro... Full Article »

It’s impossible to watch the attached video and not be impacted on many levels. The violence. The open warfare. The disregard for the sanctity of human life. The indifference to the law itself in a “civilized” society. But you know what else strikes me about this incident, played out in this day and age where much of the mainstream media, too many politicians and certainly agenda-driven activist groups demonize the police as violent r... Full Article »

In 2004 while I was a lieutenant with 25 years on, I backed up two of my patrol officers on a shoplifting call. A man grabbed a bottle of vodka off the shelf of a liquor store and walked past a store employee who informed him that he would have to stop and pay for the alcohol. He didn’t. The employee followed the man, took down his license plate number and called the police. A rookie cop named Joe got the call. He ran the plate and found tha... Full Article »

We repeatedly talk about speed as a key element to consider when discussing, evaluating and training for force encounters; how quickly someone can pivot to face or flee from an officer, how fast a suspect can close in on an officer after deciding to attack, the time it takes for an officer to perceive and react to a threat, how quickly a suspect can fire a gun. The impact of talking about it, though, pales in comparison to actually seeing dead... Full Article »

“Why do you watch war movies?” My wife regularly asks me that question. We do have some similar interests when it comes to TV and movies, but not much. So, we regularly find ourselves in separate rooms indulging our own particular proclivities. From where she sits, I can hear whiney housewives from various large cities complaining about what a burden their riches are for them and their spoiled, privileged offspring. From mine, well, she... Full Article »

Last month, 22-year-old Anthony Alvarez was shot by a Chicago police officer after several officers approached him and he fled, for the second time in two days. This sparked a foot pursuit. It was apparent that Alvarez had a gun and as one of the pursing officers closed in on him and ordered him to drop the weapon—a command he ignored—he was shot multiple times in the back. Take a look at body cam footage of the incident, then let’s disc... Full Article »

[Editor's note: If you're new to our site and have not subscribed to our free weekly newsletter, you can sign up HERE.] It’s time to ask, “Who actually understands what it’s like to be a police officer?” TV personalities? Office-bound politicians? Sports figures? They are suddenly all experts on law enforcement, controlling violence and making life or death decisions in an instant. At least they are from their comfortable chai... Full Article »

An Oklahoma City police sergeant has been charged with first-degree manslaughter and a lesser charge of second-degree manslaughter for shooting a man in the back three times. A man who seconds before attempted to kill another sergeant, charging him with a knife in hand. The charging document, filed by a homicide investigator, included the following: Mr. Edwards (the deceased) charged Sergeant Duroy with the knife before he changed directions a... Full Article »

A loaded question and a loaded title, right? Calibre Press articles generally focus on police training and decision-making is an essential part of all training. We also address issues that impact the profession and today we find ourselves with no lack of impactful issues. Should You Shoot Someone Breaching the U.S. Capitol? I repeat the title because decisions to use force, especially deadly force, are unquestionably the most critical an... Full Article »

"…the test of reasonableness under the Fourth Amendment is not capable of precise definition or mechanical application." 100% of the people who give their opinions about an officer’s decision-making process and subsequent conduct during an interaction with a citizen captured on video, are giving those opinions in the aftermath. While viewing said video they are experiencing zero stress. As they sit sipping their extra-large Cinnamon Roll F... Full Article »

While on patrol two Phoenix, AZ police officers came across an altercation between a man and a woman in the street. They stopped to investigate in order to find out what was happening. Here's video of the encounter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AYsLMeOydTQ Initially, the man involved walked away from the officers as they approached. Now what? Well, I guess it would depend on what they saw and what they believed to be happeni... Full Article »

In Philadelphia, PA on October 26, 2020, police received a call from a woman who advised she was the daughter to a mother and father who were both being abused by their son. She stated on the 911 recorded line that “they called the cops earlier and the cops is not doin’ nothing he’s over there hitting my mother and father. He got a case for being violent and everything, he got a whole record.” The police arrived and immediately encount... Full Article »

https://youtu.be/vZxJnTKsYRc After a short chase, a deputy caught up with the man and tried to keep him calm and deescalate. But once the deputy went to handcuff the man, he produced a knife and stabbed the deputy in the neck. The title may imply that I’m discouraging officers from attempts of deescalation when dealing with disturbed and/or emotionally charged individuals, which of course is not true. Calibre Press has courses that specif... Full Article »

On September 5th Chicago Police officers responded to a stabbing call in a park at approximately 1:40 a.m. Upon arrival, three officers, one of whom was a female sergeant, came upon a 34-year-old man holding a large butcher-type knife. Officers were wearing body cameras that were activated and in the video of the encounter, you can hear officers shout orders at the man, including, “Put your goddamn hands up. Don’t be reaching for nothin... Full Article »

I’m a real emotional guy. My wife says I live in “full color” with my heart and every other passion on both sleeves. My opinions are shared easily with those I’m close to and they often make it into my columns and books. I’ve been asked by loved ones how I—someone so quick to emotion—could function as a commander of investigations and run a major crimes task force. How could I keep those passions, those emotions, so quick to appe... Full Article »