During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with Dan Green to discuss the importance of the Field Training Officer and how the FTO's teaching role diffe...
May 23, 2019•12 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with PoliceOne Contributors Todd and Chrystal Fletcher—co-owners of Combative Firearms Training, LLC—about t...
May 17, 2019•12 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with PoliceOne Contributor Tim Barfield to talk about law enforcement leadership—specifically the failure of...
May 10, 2019•8 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA 2019) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with PoliceOne columnist Duane Wolfe, who discusses the importance of approaching officer wellness from...
May 03, 2019•11 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with PoliceOne columnist Duane Wolfe, who in 2012 wrote an article entitled "The day I put a gun to my head....
Apr 26, 2019•11 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with Chief Bill Harvey to discuss some of the keys to multi-jurisdictional, multi-disciplinary response to l...
Apr 19, 2019•12 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with Lee Shaykhet, a renowned police trainer, who talks about predators versus prey—the importance of moving...
Apr 12, 2019•13 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with former editor of PoliceOne Scott Buhrmaster, who talks about how he continues to help law enforcement b...
Apr 05, 2019•14 min
During the annual conference of the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association (ILEETA) in St. Louis, Policing Matters podcast co-host Doug Wyllie roamed the hallways and ran into countless law enforcement trainers and experts, some of whom were willing to sit down and talk about what they're teaching and what they're learning. In this podcast segment, Doug sits down with Below 100 instructors Rod Rifredi and Kim Schlau, who discuss the five tenets of the Below 100 program—...
Mar 29, 2019•17 min
Following the mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida, a great deal of attention was paid to the fact that the gunman had exhibited myriad signs of mental instability—hurting animals, threatening and/or fighting with other students, previous mental health treatment—that may have been enough for relatives or school authorities to ask law enforcement to keep him from possessing firearms. As of February 2019, more than a dozen states have laws on the books that al...
Mar 22, 2019•12 min
In Baltimore, it has been reported that from 2014 to 2017, dispatch records show the number of suspected narcotics offenses police reported themselves dropped 30 percent. The number of people they reported seeing with outstanding warrants dropped by half. The number of field interviews dropped 70 percent. This type of de-policing has emboldened criminals and crime now is on the rise. In September 2018, 37 people were killed in the city, making that the deadliest month in more than a year. Baltim...
Mar 15, 2019•11 min
In mid-February someone called 911 in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina claiming to be Robert McCord, a reserve officer with the department. The caller told dispatchers he’d just shot his wife and was going to kill the rest of the people in the house. Police responded as one might imagine they would respond to such a call—they sent in SWAT to ensure the safety of innocents. McCord exited his home with hands held high above his head, walking slowly toward responders. The incident ended with nobody inj...
Mar 08, 2019•12 min
In 2004, Congress passed the Law Enforcement Officers Safety Act (also known as LEOSA), which allows qualified active and retired officers to carry a concealed firearm in any jurisdiction in the United States—with certain exceptions and restrictions. Recently introduced legislation—the LEOSA Reform Act—would expand where current and retired officers can carry a concealed firearm, as well as reform the qualification standards for retired officers to ease superfluous burdens for anyone carrying in...
Mar 01, 2019•10 min
Some members of the public have put themselves in harm's way to help an officer survive a deadly situation. We've seen incidents in which an officer is struggling with a resistive subject—and potentially on their way to losing that fight—when a Good Samaritan appears seemingly out of nowhere to help bring the suspect under control. We've seen citizens race to help an officer wounded in a gunfight. We've seen citizens pull officers from burning patrol vehicles. We've even seen citizens help offic...
Feb 22, 2019•11 min
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis fired Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel—who served as the 16th sheriff of that county—on January 11, 2019. Many would argue that his firing was long overdue. His agency was derided for failing to take control over a shooting at the Fort Lauderdale airport in 2017. Then, in 2018, deputies with the agency failed miserably in their response to the mass murder taking place at the Stoneman Douglas High School. In April 2018, the Broward Sheriff's Office Deputies Associ...
Feb 15, 2019•12 min
Henry Ford once said, “When everything seems to be going against you, remember that the airplane takes off against the wind, not with it.” This famous quote can easily be applied to law enforcement in 2019, with so many factors seemingly going against the profession. Winston Churchill once said, “Courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen.” Police officers at every level have countless opportunities to listen to citizens and collect infor...
Feb 08, 2019•15 min
In early January, Blue H.E.L.P. — an organization that tracks officer suicides while simultaneously seeking to prevent such tragedies from occurring — issued an announcement stating that in 2018, at least 158 officers died by suicide. This is nine percent more than the total number of line-of-duty deaths resulting from 15 other causes such as felonious assault, patrol vehicle accident, heart attack, and duty-related illness. It is also the third straight year that suicides occurred in greater nu...
Feb 01, 2019•13 min
According to FBI data released in 2018, hate crimes rose by 17 percent in 2017 compared with the previous year. It was the third straight year showing an increase in hate crimes. The offenses were most commonly motivated by hatred over race, ethnicity or ancestry. Nearly a fifth of the offenses were motivated by hatred over religion. Sexual orientation and gender identity hatred were also listed as biases motivating criminal acts. In this week's podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the FBI's fi...
Jan 25, 2019•11 min
Walking the beat is a fundamental element to community policing. Other forms of patrol aimed principally at community engagement have officers mounted atop equine partners, and rolling around town on tricked-out mountain bikes. In all these cases, officers on foot create opportunities for the public to connect with their police (and vice versa). Conversely, when officers are wrapped in two tons of metal and plastic, that opportunity for real connection is essentially lost. In this podcast segmen...
Jan 18, 2019•13 min
Proponents of the First Step Act — a bipartisan law aimed at reforming the criminal justice system — say it would significantly improve the prison system. Opponents say there are loopholes that would allow dangerous criminals with a high probability to reoffend to be released from prison. The text of the law says that the BOP would adopt a risk assessment tool, assess all federal prisoners for their risk of recidivism, and categorize them as minimum, low, medium, or high risk. In this podcast se...
Jan 11, 2019•12 min
Last year, rights groups and even Amazon employees and stockholders sought to stop that company from providing its Rekognition software to law enforcement agencies. By all accounts, that effort has failed, as police are using the software—as well as solutions from other vendors—more and more to identify wanted criminals, missing people and suspected terrorists spotted on video. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the use of the technology, its limitations, and its potential for the fut...
Jan 04, 2019•11 min
Traffic stops are one of the most common activities for law enforcement officers on patrol. They are the epitome of proactive, self-initiated policing. They are also, however, sometimes deadly. Officers can be struck by passing vehicles, dragged by a vehicle fleeing the stop, assaulted physically either with personal weapons (fists and feet) or by weapons up to and including firearms. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the benefits of things like the passenger side approach and waitin...
Dec 21, 2018•13 min
In New York, some 20,000 DUI arrests are in jeopardy because of false verifications due to aging and inaccurate equipment. Agencies are required to conduct regular maintenance of a variety of types of equipment, and yet it would appear that in some cases, that regular maintenance is not being conducted, putting not only convictions at risk, but possibly even lives. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the responsibility for agencies to check to be sure their gear is in good working orde...
Dec 21, 2018•11 min
The end of the year is upon us, and looking back it is clear that 2018 zipped by like lightning. During the year, Jim and Doug covered many topics in the weekly Policing Matters podcast. In this special segment, the pair takes a look back at some of the trends and events that mattered in law enforcement in the past 12 months—from lip sync battles to policing the homeless to immigration enforcement.
Dec 13, 2018•30 min
Too often, when we get off work and out of whatever uniform we wear during the day (or night, depending on your assigned shift), one of the first things we do is to plop ourselves in front of a screen of some kind. We open up the laptop, the tablet, or even our phone, and voluntarily allow ourselves to be assaulted by millions of relentless pixels. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss the benefits of "unplugging," such as strengthening interpersonal relationships, reducing overall stres...
Dec 07, 2018•12 min
The Camp Fire in Northern California is the deadliest, most destructive wildfire in the state's history. The entire town of Paradise was destroyed, displacing as many as 50,000 people who now find themselves homeless, possessing only the clothes they wore in the hasty exodus from the disaster area. Among those who lost all their material possessions are some of those first responders fighting the fire and delivering people to safety. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss how first respon...
Nov 30, 2018•11 min
Young people are on social media for many hours a day — posting on sites and apps such as Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and Twitter. Social media posts — even those that have been deleted — live forever, and inappropriate posts can have an adverse effect on a kid's future many years down the line. Furthermore, many online interactions can turn ugly. Too often, a social media post can influence young people to contemplate dying by suicide. In this podcast segment, Doug Wyllie sits down with Bren...
Nov 16, 2018•13 min
Police officers have a unique opportunity to positively influence the lives of countless children — many of whom do not really have very many positive role models in their lives — to become productive members of society when they grow up. Significant opportunities exist for those officers to not just help kids see what "doing good" looks like, but to influence them to have the desire to "do good" themselves. In this podcast episode, Doug Wyllie sits again with Brentwood PD Officer Mitch Brouille...
Nov 09, 2018•12 min
Officer Mitch Brouillette of the Brentwood, California Police Department was the subject of a heartwarming "practical joke" executed by the students of Heritage High School, resulting in a video posted to the Internet that quickly went viral. The students concocted an elaborate ruse, coupled with a live song and dance performance, as well as some incredibly thoughtful gifts in thanks to "Officer Mitch" for all the things he does for them. In this podcast episode, Brouillette sits down with Doug ...
Nov 02, 2018•15 min
The Ninth Circuit Court of appeals unanimously ruled in favor of a lawsuit by people experiencing homelessness that challenges laws making it illegal to sleep on public property overnight. The constitutional ban on cruel and unusual punishment under the Eighth Amendment prohibits "criminal penalties for sitting, sleeping, or lying outside on public property for homeless individuals who cannot obtain shelter," the court said in its decision. In this podcast segment, Jim and Doug discuss how the d...
Oct 26, 2018•9 min
