By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D The National Police Association (NPA) is pitching in with expert analysis of an important upcoming SCOTUS case: Kyle Smith, et al. v. Rochelle Scott, et al. The primary issue is whether the use of body weight to control a combative person is an acceptable use of force. For the sake Read more »
The recent arrests of nearly two dozen Trinitarios gang members in Massachusetts should be a wake-up call to every law-abiding citizen. These arrests, part of a sweeping federal RICO conspiracy case, reveal a chilling reality: ruthless criminal gangs like the Trinitarios are operating in our communities, engaging in violence, and spreading terror. In Massachusetts, federal Read more »
By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D Not gonna lie, running lights and siren is still a thrill. These days for me it’s only when I am doing a ride with an agency for research, but the red, white, and blue swirling lights and the pulse of the siren makes my brain generate adrenaline and I’m Read more »
By Stephen Owsinski As we continue to resound Hold the Line! day after day, witnessing our nation’s cops chronically withstand immense pressure from all sides, help comes from within, with the blue family launching support services for the brave men and women who forge to the frontlines and push back on those in society who Read more »
By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D When a suspect is subject to arrest under exigent circumstances or a warrant and fails to surrender, the consequences for public safety can be dire. On July 2, 2024 officers in Oklahoma City, OK responded to a report of a man holding another person at gunpoint inside a home. Read more »
By Stephen Owsinski With the rampancy of retail theft burgeoning due to ludicrous legislative acts essentially making it a free shopping (shoplifting) excursion, many businesses locked the door for the final time…a sign they felt hampered and defenseless against marauding kleptomaniacs. Despite this, law enforcement agencies and crimefighting personnel maintained a stance publicly avowed when Read more »
By Stephen Owsinski Although I make every effort to keep abreast of the latest innovations for law enforcement officers to efficiently perform duties and harness officer safety, my window to the world was Windexed when I came across Flagler County deputies deploying a “Shatterball” to rescue a child from the locked, heated confines of a Read more »
By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D Twenty-eight-year-old Germaine Davansha Small wasn’t on a casual stroll on the first weekend of April. Hiding a pistol under a shirt draped over his shoulder, Small first engaged in a brief contact with the occupants of a car that had just pulled into the parking lot of a St. Read more »
By Chief Joel F. Shults, Ed.D Not all of the great technology that has been applied in law enforcement has been accessible to small agencies, and some have limited value anyway. The exception appears to be the advent of the drone. More appropriately described as unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), the machines became famous in warfare Read more »
By Stephen Owsinski It is widely held that people working in public safety such —police, fire/rescue, and EMS—often work together on incidents requiring feats of selflessness toward incredible lifesaving operations. First responders don’t boast, with words such as “Watch what I can do!” They just do it. They perform the demanding duty at hand. They Read more »