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.

Missed Opportunities: Could have Improved Morale

 Morale in a police department is a tricky thing.  Most of the time the budget is set a year and a half in advance and has little flexibility to add something incredible for the officers to enjoy, unless it costs nothing.  Morale builders that cost nothing are unicorns.  In my department, the Chief missed an excellent opportunity to improve morale and, in reality, decreased it.  My father-in-law (who has since passed) was the chief of two police departments in my area.  Every Thanksgiving and Christmas, on his own dime, he would buy each shift a meal, knowing that they were sacrificing their families and holidays to be patrolling the streets.  Most departments in our area do it or get with their fire department colleagues and share a meal.  It makes a bad situation, better.

The PD has never provided anything for Thanksgiving or Christmas in my department.  The Chief would give out small gift cards, and we would partner with the FD for special meals.  Somehow, with time, we no longer eat with the FD.  So this Christmas, the chief did not bring dessert, provide a meal, give a gift, give out cards, or anything.  He didn't even wish the sworn a Merry Christmas, either in person or through email...I mean...nothing.  So that, our course, was the talk of roll call for Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, New Year's Eve, and New Year's Day.   The consensus was that the chief cared little or not at all for the wellbeing of his patrolmen and patrolwomen.  That idea was brought home when it was discovered that he took our social workers and support staff to Christmas lunch.

Before I was promoted, I worked closely with the Chief, and if I had told him his employee's feelings, he would have been shocked because he believed himself to be the "Chief of the People."  A quirk of this chief is that his likes and dislikes he assumes are also everyone else's likes and dislikes.  He will even argue with you when you say you like something, anything he doesn't like, he will tell you no, you really don't like that.  He doesn't care if someone does something nice for him on a holiday or even wishes him a merry (holiday here), so he doesn't think to do anything for the officers away from their families.  It also doesn't occur to him because he is home for the holidays.

So, for the price of a few meals, there was the opportunity for a real morale builder, but instead, it was a morale killer and won't be addressed because the head of our organization would never even think about it.

Have a very merry Christmas

 

Merry Christmas

 One of the overlooked aspects of law enforcement (And FD, RN, and PW) is working weekends and holidays, when almost everyone else is off.  Today, for me, its 8 hrs OT at the desk (Double time how can you pass that up) and then 8 hrs regular shift...so my wife and daughter are on their own for Christmas Eve.  This is a common occurrence.  I work a 6 and 3 schedule so 1 out of 3 years I get the holiday off naturally.  As an example I got July 4th off but have to work Christmas Eve and Day.  So to all my fellow first responders and holiday workers of all kinds, have a merry Christmas and thank you to all the support family members that have to celebrate it alone.

Change for the Better

 Police officers are fixers.  To fix something, you must identify the individual elements, understand their integration, and devise a solution.  Typically, most of an officer's experience is within patrol, so you must have a solution before going home.  As a result, officers tend to be hypercritical and detail-orientated.  It's a good thing for the job, but it is bad for job satisfaction and a bad thing for your personal life.  I find myself falling into this mindset often.  Specifically addressing job satisfaction, roll call, breaks, and meals tend to focus on what is wrong or not going right.  So, being intentional about focusing on the positive aspects of this profession is needed.

In this vein, there is positive change for law enforcement in Cook County, Illinois.  For the majority of my law enforcement career, the attitude of the Cook County State's Attorney's (ASA) office and our sitting judges was that we signed up to be attacked by offenders on the street.  This was reflected by the ASA's absolute refusal to approve aggravated battery to a police officer (Felony level crime), and if it made it past them unless it was horrific, it either was dealt down or dropped with the judge's approval.  Basically, it started with a broken bone, and really, you needed to be shot to have this charge go through approval, not be changed to a lesser charge and have the judge convict.  This was so commonplace that routinely, when we would get a black eye, bloody nose, broken finger, or twisted knee due to the criminal actions of the offender, we wouldn't even call felony review; we would just charge simple battery (A misdemeanor) and go to court, where it would not be upgraded to a felony.

However, it appears this attitude has changed or is changing.  Recently, two of our permanent homeless men were drinking at the rear of an abandoned store.  Both suffer from some significant and untreated mental illnesses, so one got upset at the other and punched him in the eye (For snoring too loud).  My guess, by the way it looked, is he had a broken orbital bone, but while he insisted on being taken to the hospital, he refused any scans but got stitches.  The Asa's will not charge the aggravative battery without a medical diagnosis of significant damage.  When it came time to arrest his buddy for simple battery, he decided while screaming profanity and something...he was hard to understand...at us that he did not want to go without a fight.  The officers had their hands full but were able to get him into custody with very little injury to anyone despite our offender really going for it.  We got him into an ambulance and to the hospital, where it took two full doses of Ketamine to get him quieted down.

A little later, one of the officers came into the report room and pulled up his pants legs.  One side was a small laceration, and the other had a small abrasion.  We reviewed the video footage of the incident, and the offender was purposefully kicking our officer.  I said well, we might as well try to aggravated battery to police officer, but I highly doubt we will get it.

After working the case for two and a half days, the primary reporting officer called felony review...and got it!

Change for the better and something good to focus on.