Police Gear Innovation

 I was assigned with helping get a lateral officer's reviews up to date because, well, we missed every one once he was off of FTO.  It wasn't my task or responsibility, but I didn't mind helping because he was a good guy, who is an excellent officer, who will easily sail through his probationary period.  Clearly, these reviews are not highly valued since the sergeant in charge of the field training program, the commander over him, the deputy chief over him, and the chief over him and the probationary officer himself did not catch that we were 18 months off.  Since I had to do two periods and 3/4th of the time he was not even on my shift, I was not going to put a ton of effort into these forms.  So I went to ChatGPT and asked for a review, and wow, what a review.  It was the best my commander has ever seen (I did check it and changed some minor relevant language that is specific to our department).  This made me consider the significant positive game changers in my law enforcement career.

1.  When I arrived at the department in 1997, we had in-car MDTs but nothing else. Everything was handwritten or typed (with a typewriter). Phone messages were answered by dispatch or records and written onto little pink forms that were put into your mailbox.  The second you arrived at work, the sergeant would say, "You have a phone message in your mailbox, call them back as soon as we clear rollcall!"  I would always think, I don't think they really want me to call them at 11:00pm about getting a copy of their 10-50 form, but by golly, our supervisors were level 10 hyper about those little pink phone messages.  So by 1999, we had email, voicemail, and computers in our report room.  It was a game changer, and since most supervisors were terrified of them, they basically left you alone when you were using them to conduct department business.

2.  OC.  When we finally (Last in the area to issue) started issuing OC (Sabre Red), it was the first time we had a non-lethal tool that was not impact-based that we could utilize to attempt to avoid a physical confrontation.  It was a real game changer, the offender would ball his fists and say I am not going anywhere and you had a choice that was not a baton, flashlight (6-cell), street fight, or handgun.  What is disappointing is that recently we have been diss-issued them because "It doesn't look good when you use OC".  But you didn't replace it with anything else...so going forward, we went backyards.

3.  Taser-When those probes land, they're magic.

4.  In car cameras and body mics.  I was one of three officers who tested the system (Watch Guard) before we installed it into every squad.  The second day I was using the system when I conducted a traffic stop.  He later came to the station with his son and made many false claims.  When the sergeant said he could fill out the complaint paperwork, and then he would review the camera footage, he got up and bolted out of the station.  The system was pure gold.

5.  Bodycams. See 4, only better. They have drastically reduced false claims, sped up court, and considerably lowered our civil court appearances.

6.  Red dot sights. I am getting old, so matching up my iron (night sites) to the target is getting harder and harder, especially in low light.  The bullet goes to where the dot is, which has brought up my shooting scores close to where I was at my shooting prime.

7.  Tourquets/Vest med kits (stop-the-bleed training). I am a certified instructor. The concept that we are going to stop the bleed in real time before the paramedics arrive was basically unheard of 15 years ago. Just a quick search on the internet reveals plenty of videos of this in use by law enforcement, and lives and limbs saved.

8.  Squad cellphones. When cellphones finally became cheap enough, we were able to issue one to every squad. This has allowed us to use them for minor incident ET cameras and improved communications across the board, especially when the portable radio traffic is busy.

9.  Winter jackets. When I began my career, we were issued leather winter jackets. They were thick and cumbersome, and while they looked warm, they were not. We had to really layer up to make them work for street use. Think of Randy from A Christmas Story. Currently, we are issued winter parkas with fleece removable lining, and if you layer too much, you are going to sweat through your uniform. It is a significant improvement.

10.  General uniform improvements: ball caps rather than weird East Coast state trooper caps, fleece jackets, all-black tennis shoes, winter whisk-away caps, molly on the vest carriers, beards approved, patrol duty golf shirt and BDU pants (the First time I was issued BDU pants, my first thought was, I finally have enough room for all my stuff!).

The gift of having been around for almost 30 years is that I have been part of the before and the after. These 10 were major improvements that, for the most part, our officers just take for granted. One day, they will have my perspective, but I can't even imagine what we will be using 30 years from now.

Long Week

 July 1 12 hours volunteering at the camp's kitchen with my wife-we have an RV at the camp (That there        Clark is what they call an RV)

July 2 12 hours volunteering at the camp's kitchen-both days, interior temp got up to 100 degrees

July 3 Back to work, came in early for OT, 12-hour day

July 4 Came in early for July 4th parade, stayed late due to idiots fighting and shooting, 14.5-hour day

July 5 Off Cubs game with all of the family and a full day of outside fun (5 days of sweat)

July 6 8 8-hour side job and regular shift with adjusted hours, 16-hour day

July 7 Finally just a 8-hour day, well had to race home to give car to my daughter who works midnight                 desk for another department because her car is being repaired.

July 8 Just a normal day (18 months to go!)

July 9 Finally, a day off-no camp volunteering

July 10 Training day on a day off (Rdo moved) and a fun topic: Preventing police suicide

July 11 Ditto

July 12 Back to work

Countdown

 18 months to go!

I cursed myself on the 4th of July

 This Fourth of July, I came in early for the parade detail. The detail is double time, so it's worth sweating through your uniform. This year, we have started a drone program.  Usually, I would have either a parade post or overwatch, but this year, there was a drone pilot and spotter on the sign-up detail.  I got to be the drone spotter.  So this 4th I got to sit in a bag chair, under a tree, watching for obstacles for the drone to avoid.  I was quite comfortable.  After the parade was over and we packed up the equipment, I ran the afternoon shift with my co-sergeant.

My son and his wife were in town, and the rest of my family was at a block party hosted by family friends. I was getting off at 21:00hrs, so it was early enough to go straight to the party that would still be going on.  My wife texts me at 19:35hrs and asks me how it's going.  There is an old superstition that you never say it's slow or you're comfortable because if you do, it will change in a flash.  In an unguarded moment, I texted back "So far so good first 4th where I haven't soaked all the way through my uniform".  A half an hour later, bang, I cursed myself.  Four Russian nationals were living in a home that they were remodeling.  They decided to strip into their underwear, get liquored up, go swimming, and end with a fist fight.  When we got the call of a 4 on 4 fight the entire shift and I responded.  The two less injured and I assume less drunk bolted on foot, and we never found them.  The other two were still fighting, and the responding officers had to draw down on them because they refused their orders to stop fighting.  I got there a short time later, and they were sitting on the asphalt, covered in blood.  Neither spoke English, and the closest Russian-speaking officer was three towns away.  It took us two hours to arrive at no complaints to be signed, no arrests to be made, and both refused medical treatment (One needed to have his face stitched up, but he insisted that no medical treatment was required).  So now the uniform is totally soaked through.

Back at my desk, I was due to sneak out a little early to get to the block party, and the other sergeant was staying until at least 23:00hrs, so he was just going to pick up the shift after he was done with the fireworks drone overwatch duty.  At 20:45hrs, a shots fired call came out in one of our neighborhoods.  Two shots had come into the home from the backyard area, one barely missing the homeowner and her baby.  The entire shift responds (Midnight shift was forced in early for the fireworks detail, so I had access to afternoon and midnight officers).  Half go to the victim's home, the other half to the house that is in line with the two shots.  Very quickly, we find multiple shell casings in the backyard and no one in the offender's home would admit to firing the gun (At the time, we had not recovered it).  The suspects consented to being interviewed on station, so we shipped them off and locked the home to get a search warrant.  First, I got to sit on the spent casings in the backyard so that I could hand the scene to the ETs once they got there.  After that happened, I held the scene until I was relieved.  I actually soaked through my vest carrier this time.  I was the first officer to be able to get off shift, and that was at 01:00hrs.

So, had I just said I was uncomfortable and busy, I would have gone home early, sweat-free, and made it to the party in plenty of time.  Because I was an idiot, I was basically swimming in my sweat, having no party, and just going straight home to bed after a 14-and-a-half-hour shift.  *Sigh*

Last Duty Gun

 I am down to 19 months until retirement with 30 years on.  I thought that this would be a good excuse to purchase my "plaque gun" (Wife is still irritated, however).  I will be transitioning from my Glock 22, Glock 27 combination to the Shadow Systems DR920P and a new Glock 26 (For some reason, their subcompacts have their own magazine system.  They should have a cross-over magazine that uses Glock or comparable magazines (I will be using Magpul)).  I originally purchased a Staccato P 2011for the "plaque gun." It was expensive, but they have a fantastic law enforcement discount.  However, when I presented it to our rangemaster, he was entirely against it.  It comes down to the differences in triggers in that the Staccato is very short, and the Glocks that I have been using for 28 years have, basically, a long two-stage trigger pull (Called taking out the slack).  Unless I put 1000 or more rounds out of it, I would be in the field and making the shoot or don't shoot decision, and I would fire the gun before I was ready.  Thus, I got to buy two new guns to be my last gun (Again, my wife is not happy).

I have a Holosun HE508T site and a Streamlight TLR-1 for its setup. I will be getting a duty holster from Tier 1, the Centurion. I had a very difficult time finding a duty holster above level 1 (for on-duty, non-concealed patrolmen's carry, general orders demand a level 2 or more holster to be worn).  I am already shooting it better than I have been with my Glock 22.  I will do a full review of the Shadow and the holster in a later post-need to use them more on duty first.

Have a safe and awesome July 4th.  Since time is running short, I am going to be active with the blog again.  I know that I have typed that before, but this time I am serious.