Fire and police departments, long respected for their commitment to physical capability, have increasingly relaxed their fitness standards in the name of expanding the hiring pool. Whether justified as a response to recruitment shortages or as a mechanism to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives, the end result is the same: an erosion of Read more »
The petition from Vallejo, California residents urging Governor Gavin Newsom to deploy the California Highway Patrol to assist with rampant crime is a symptom of a broader issue. It raises a fundamental question: Should cities whose leaders fail to back their police departments even have their own law enforcement agencies? Perhaps these cities would be Read more »
By Steve Pomper (Left to right) Seattle City Hall, King County Jail, King County Administration Building (Photo: Joe Mabel, Creative Commons) Well, what do you know? Here we are back in Seattle, my old coppin’ grounds. Though I try to spread the love (and venom—when it’s deserved) around when reporting on national cop stuff, I Read more »
(Photo: Bob Jagendorf Creative Commons) By Steve Pomper I was an officer on one of Washington State’s first (it may have been the first) “Three Strikes law” (a 1993 voter-passed initiative) court cases. The law required that after a person is convicted for a third (qualifying) violent felony, which he was, it’s off to the hoosegow Read more »
By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D The head of the New York State Assembly is a good example of today’s progressive crime philosophy as it progresses in the wrong direction. Carl Heastie is Speaker and is described by commentator Steve Pomper in a recent NPA article as rejecting the fundamental idea that laws can change Read more »
By Steve Pomper I’m not here to convince you who should or shouldn’t hold a political office. However, as a retired cop, I will tell you what public policies I consider better for public safety versus others I view as destructive of the criminal justice system. And I will use examples that we’ve written about here Read more »
By Steve Pomper I’m no fan of the term, lawfare (using the law as a political weapon), but it’s sadly accurate in too much of the U.S. today. Factions use lawfare not only against rival political candidates but also against ordinary citizens, including police officers (wrongly indicted cops), often to benefit lawbreakers. They deploy it to Read more »
By Steve Pomper Washington State Capitol, Olympia, WA. (Credit: Wikicommons, Bluedisk Source) Remember the days when we merely rolled our eyes, chuckled dismissively and promptly forgot the looney ideas some political folks come up with? Well, with the leftist extremists having hijacked so many (to use a “woke” word) spaces, i.e., media, academia, politics—the Swamp, sports, stamp Read more »
By Stephen Owsinski After the weekend stats were in regarding calls heeded by first responders, on Monday, October 2, 2023, Portland Public Safety Commissioner Rene Gonzalez publicly requested that people refrain from calling 9-1-1 unless life-and-death circumstances were present. Why? “Our 911 system is getting hammered this morning with a multiple-person incident — multiple overdoses Read more »