iStock.com/Chesky_W Several law enforcement agencies throughout Colorado are planning to begin dispatching drones instead of officers to respond to 9-1-1 calls.  “This really is the future of law enforcement at some point, whether we like it or not,” Sergeant Jeremiah Gates, who leads the drone unit at the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office, told The Denver Post.  At least 20 agencies in Colorado’s Front Range already use drone technology for certain tasks, such as locating missing people, crime scene mapping, providing overhead surveillance during SWAT operations, and tracki ..read more

Emily Gray (NLEOMF) The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF) is pleased to announce the addition of Emily Gray to the organization as chief development officer. In this role, Gray will spearhead the organization’s fundraising initiatives, providing strategic vision and oversight to NLEOMF’s fundraising efforts with a specific focus on major gifts. With more than a decade of experience in capital campaign management and fundraising, Gray brings a wealth of expertise and a proven track record of success to this critical role. Most recently, she served as the senior vice presi ..read more

iStock.com/ArtemisDiana Artificial intelligence (AI) makes it possible for machines to learn. AI can be used for good (e.g., more accurate IOD diagnoses by police physicians; data analysis of crime hot spots). It can also turn malevolent in both fiction (e.g., HAL 9000 in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey) and in real life (e.g., self-driving car runs over pedestrian in San Francisco) because machines (like guns) are emotionless and without inherent ethics. What people choose to do with it matters, and it should be respected for its potential harm. Current applications of AI in law enfor ..read more

Armitage Tactical Group So, it may just be me. I will readily admit that it could be just my perception. It could be that I am totally wrong about this. You can make your own decision after I lay it out from my perspective. But, just to confirm my theory, I Googled “Ball and dummy drill” right before I started writing this article. Then, I clicked on the first link and read the training article all the way through. I am not going to list the company that sponsored the article because it is of no relevance. However, it did confirm my suspicions. Therefore, I feel totally comfortable posing the ..read more

iStock.com/DnHolm Community outreach to build lasting partnerships is essential for public safety. One impactful initiative is for police agencies to teach, inspire and motivate future community leaders with youth mentoring through a youth leadership program.  Such programs enable youth to realize their potential by empowering them to become effective, compassionate leaders to solve problems and to improve the community. Youth mentoring offers teens greater responsibility and an opportunity to provide public service, as well as enhances community awareness and provides a positive purpose ..read more

Typically, we read left to right. However, this sign reads top to bottom, then left to right. Reading left to right leads to misinterpretation. (iStock/tfoxfoto) Mark Twain famously said, “It’s not what you don’t know that gets you into trouble, it’s what you know for sure that just ain’t so.” Here is the deal: Human nature tends to seek and interpret evidence in ways that align with our preexisting beliefs and expectations, a phenomenon known as confirmation bias. Confirmation bias influences everyone Confirmation bias is not exclusive to policing but affects individuals across all profession ..read more

Todd Fletcher As a traveling firearm instructor, I get the opportunity to see a lot of law enforcement ranges. Some of them are filled with amazing technology. Turning-target systems, live-fire shoot houses, and state-of-the-art force-on-force buildings can be found on some of the more well-funded ranges. Even the most rudimentary ranges have a bunch of useful items like portable target stands, plastic barrels to simulate cover, shot timers and dummy rounds. Unfortunately, many of these ranges seem to use the same targets over and over, creating a visually boring training arena. Even ranges wi ..read more

Fort Worth P.D.Fort Worth P.D. A dog in Fort Worth, Texas, has found a new purpose in life as a drug-sniffing police K-9 for the Fort Worth Police Department — a transformation that took place just months after the pup was rescued from the city’s shelter. “If you talk to me in five years, I guarantee you we’re going to have kilos of records to reflect his service to the city,” Sergeant Charles Hubbard of the Fort Worth Police Department told Fox News Digital. The story of the department’s latest K-9 begins at the Fort Worth Animal Control’s Chuck & Brenda Silcox Animal Care Adoption Center ..read more

President George W. Bush presents Dave Goitia with the 2006–2007 National Public Safety Officer Medal of Valor at the White House. (Dave Goita) It’s becoming difficult to ignore the fact that the “P word” — politics, that is — and law enforcement are becoming increasingly intertwined. We in law enforcement, for example, find ourselves in this repeating cycle of controversial police incidents drawing intense media scrutiny followed by demands, often from activist groups, for some action against law enforcement. And to whom are these demands usually made? You guessed it, politicians. Eesh, the ..read more

With over 681 state and local police academies in the United States training over 60,000 new police recruits annually, there is little standardization. Graduation rates nationwide for recruits hover around 86%. There are 18,000 police agencies, of which about 80% are 50 officers or less. The average-sized police department is only 25 officers in size. According to the most recent Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) data, police recruits in the U.S. spend an average of 633 hours completing the basic academy. Louisiana requires only 360 hours for basic academy training. North Carolina boasts one ..read more