Recent stories of New York police abuse caught my eye this month. But it’s not what you might think, officers weren’t abusing people, they were the objects of abuse. As of the end of July there have been at least four separate “water attacks” on NYPD officers. Video footage show officers being doused with water […]

Policing is often described as hours of boredom punctuated by moments of excitement; I can attest that’s an accurate description. The problem is, most calls become routine and it’s these “routine calls” that take officers by surprise. An officer from Sour Lake, Texas was recently surprised at such a call. In the latest census there […]

Gunfire erupted in the Galleria mall in Hoover, Alabama on Thanksgiving night, 2018. Seventy-five feet away were two on-duty Hoover police officers. Fearing the worst—an active shooter event—the officers drew their pistols and ran toward the gunfire as dozens of shoppers scrabbled to get away. The target of a gangland-type shooting, 18-year-old Brian Wilson, was […]

Whiting Sweeting fled on foot into the cold January night to escape the law. With arrest warrant in hand, New York Constable Darius Quimby pursued. The warrant was for trespass, a minor property crime, yet Sweeting vowed not to be taken alive. He ran into the woods, jumped on a large rock, and threatened to […]

Carl Chinn had a chip on his shoulder against law enforcement officers. Although a Christian, officers just rubbed him the wrong way. That attitude changed in 1996 the day he and three others were held at gunpoint by a deranged man who threatened to blow up the Focus on the Family building and everyone inside. […]

“Suicide by cop” is a term used by law enforcement officers to describe a person who threatens to use deadly force against the officer or another to goad an officer to shoot, thus committing suicide by provoking the officer to pull the trigger. Occasionally, the threat is made with a toy gun the officer believes […]

In the January newsletter I mentioned that there were 148 law enforcement line-of-duty deaths in 2018. But line-of-duty deaths are not the only reason officers don’t live as long as the general population. A recent news article caught my eye, “Police suicides rising, union says media vilification is ‘leading cause of despair’”.[1] The article says, […]

The Strong Blue Line Great news, the trip to Sacramento is a go! On January 9th, I’ll be speaking to several officers from the Sacramento area who have been involved in shootings. Each officer will receive a copy of Winning a Gunfight. This is the first trip of 2019 that promises to be one of […]

The Strong Blue Line “I gotta go handle a call, I love you; I’ll talk to you later.” The 54-year-old Ventura County Sherriff’s sergeant didn’t tell his wife the nature of the call on the evening of November 7th. It was for shots fired at the Borderline Bar & Grill in Thousand Oaks, CA. Three […]

The Strong Blue Line Over the summer I met a police chaplain from California and gave her a copy of Winning a Gunfight. Earlier this fall, she called to say she was counseling an officer who was experiencing emotional difficulties after recently being in his third gunfight. The chaplain said, “We almost lost him. I […]