Policing Matters

Police officers are often terrific storytellers. Many express an interest in writing a book about their experiences, but life can get in the way and few cops sit down to begin the process.

This isn't the case for a guest on this episode of Policing Matters. Jim Calams, a retired member of the Phoenix Police Department and LAPD, recently published “Unwavering Honor,” a book about his career in those departments and also about pe...

Catalytic converter thefts have soared in recent years, thanks largely to the spiking prices of precious metals contained within them. This sudden rise has created an urgent need for police to find ways to deter thefts.

To help law enforcement agencies address the crisis, CARFAX for Police compiled a Catalytic Converter Replacement Report that identifies the most-targeted vehicles nationally, regionally and by state. In addition to...

Following the tragic school shooting at the Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut on December 14, 2012, Troy Anderson managed the Connecticut State Police CISM teams that were deployed on-site and tasked with providing interventions and debriefings for the affected members of the State Police, municipal and federal law enforcement partners, first responder staff, support personnel, embedded clinicians, and state seni...

Digital forensics has been a specialty science in law enforcement for several years now, with emerging technology and investigative revelations happening every year. The science behind digital evidence recovery, be it from a cell phone, computer or even the cloud, takes a skilled investigator who knows what they are doing.

In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley speaks with Deputy Director Caroline Torie of the St. Jos...

Managing police officers is a difficult task since the job is so multi-faceted and often fast-paced. We ask officers to do so many things, and in the process to be smart, thoughtful, judicious, efficient and thorough.

Some people make assumptions that an officer has complete control over their environment. Of course, this is not true. Officers can be well trained, yet may be challenged in dealing with individuals under the influenc...

Since the D.C. Council voted in 2020 to cut the police budget by $15 million, there has been a 28% increase in violent crime, a 55% increase in robberies, an 18% increase in carjackings and, as of 2021, the highest number of homicides in nearly two decades. On April 15, 2022, Salah Czapary published an op-ed in The Washington Post titled "No one asked for fewer DC police doing more work." Salah is a Democrat, a candidate fo...

We are at a crossroads in policing. What are the long-term effects on law enforcement of defunding, COVID-19, the recruitment crisis, and public perception? What about AI? Technology? Less lethal weapons? How do all these things impact officer safety and morale? Wouldn’t it be great to get a glimpse into the future to give assurance to our veteran officers and their families to stay the course and to let new candidates know policin...

In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley sits down with Troy Anderson, the executive director of officer safety and wellness at NLEOMF to discuss officer safety trends nationwide.

Each year, in preparation for Police1's coverage of National Police Week, we speak with someone from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund (NLEOMF), the organization that built and continues to maintain the National Law Enfor...

Sergeant Dalton Webb is a 17-year veteran of the Fort Worth Police Department and founder of Fort Worth's Real-Time Crime Center, which he began when he was an officer assigned to the intelligence section. Since then, the Fort Worth RTCC has grown into a 24/7 operation with 16 sworn officers and is the information and intelligence hub of the Fort Worth Police Department.

Sergeant Webb is now a national expert on the concepts of...

Relationships are difficult to maintain in the best of times. Add the stress of current times, including the economy and the pandemic, and you have a recipe for stressed-out relationships. And if one or both partners are in law enforcement presents a whole array of additional issues.

Do law enforcement couples have a higher rate of divorce than the general public? Are there tried and true ways of making relationships work even in t...

Retired Long Beach Police Department Sgt. Jason Lehman's mission is to reduce violence between peace officers and community through education. In this episode of Policing Matters, he chats with host Jim Dudley about how education and effective communication can improve both officer and community safety.

This episode of the Policing Matters Podcast is sponsored by the Master of Science in Law Enforcement & Public Safety Lead...

In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley speaks with retired Assistant Chief Jonni Redick, leader, mentor and author of The Survival Guide to Law Enforcement Promotional Preparation,” about how officers can prepare for promotion and how law enforcement agencies can (and must) build leadership pipelines. 

This episode of the Policing Matters Podcast is sponsored by the Master of Science in Law Enforcement & Public S...

So many factors are involved before the use of force by a police officer. Officers are training in de-escalation and defensive tactics, and then there are the behaviors exhibited by the subject that officers must respond to. In the aftermath, the critics come out from internal and external review boards, the public, elected officials, the media and even other law officers. Certainly, some use-of-force incidents may be decided by a ...

It is no surprise that most respondents to Police1’s second annual State of the Industry survey indicated that communication is key to being a good supervisor. Along with that, the 2,376 respondents indicated that they want law enforcement leaders who:

Ask any new cop what they want to be doing after they do their time in patrol. Some will say to go to narcotics, or K-9, or maybe to promote up the ranks. Chances are a lot will say they want to be a detective, but not just any kind of detective, they want to work homicide. However, is it really all it’s cracked up to be? This week's Policing Matters guest will answer that question and provide a good look into the life of a hom...

The benefits of higher education for law enforcement officers can include improving a better understanding of laws and policies, to becoming a better communicator, both verbally and on the written page, to becoming more socially aware from interaction with professors and peer students.

The University of Virginia has long been linked to law enforcement practices through the association with the FBI National Academy In Quantico, Vir...