Statistics are often nothing more than cold hard facts. Here’s the humanity behind the statistics: “She was a very happy person, always laughing with everyone here at the department,” is how Lt. Jason Samspell described Sergeant Kelly Jo Brubaker.[1] On Tuesday evening, November 19th, 2019, officers pulled Kelly Jo’s body out of the surf on Daytona […]

Late last year I contacted Honolulu (Hawaii) PD Chaplains Andy Kikuta and Keoki Awai about the possibility of taking a Winning a Gunfight seminar to the Islands in October of 2020. Both chaplains are friends and we have discussed the possibility of a seminar in Hawaii for a couple years. Andy wrote me in a […]

Attorney General William Barr recently wrote in an op-ed that there is “a deficit of respect” for America’s law enforcement officers. He went on to say, “There is no tougher job in the country than serving as a law-enforcement officer. Every morning, officers across the country get up, kiss their loved ones and put on their […]

It was just after midnight on Tuesday, October 29, 2019 when Denton (TX) Police Officer Urbano Rodriguez pulled over a white 2005 Chevy Malibu for expired license plates. Officer Randy Cole responded as back-up. Rodriguez contacted the driver, 44-year-old Michele Stacy, a person Denton officers were all too familiar with. Antwon Pinkston (33) sat in […]

The beautiful Idaho mountains can drain the health out of a man. At eight-thousand feet water freezes quickly in October, and there’s nothing better than a flowing spring of pure water to quench your thirst. I found such a spring and drank deeply from its waters. It was refreshing, invigorating, and nourishing—not to the body—to […]

“I was paralyzed. I didn’t know what to do,” said mail carrier Isaac Ferreria when he found himself smackdab in the middle of a shootout. We often think the most dangerous criminals lurk under the cover of darkness, but that’s not always the case, and law enforcement officers need to remain vigilant. It was around […]

It was Sunday, and as usual, off-duty Ft. Collins police officer Mike Swihart was at church with his wife Linda. Four years earlier, he was dispatched to a traffic accident where a driver suddenly pulled a gun on Mike and shot him. He returned fire and shot the suspect. It had only been a little […]

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 […]