Policing Matters

For most officers, retirement is a finish line they measure in days and years, but few are ready for what happens when the radio goes silent and the badge comes off for good. And recently, that reality hit home nationwide when a Police1 article on police retirement went viral, striking a nerve with thousands of current and former officers.

In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley talks with a retired deputy ...

When the headlines fixate on big-city crime and national politics, the daily realities of small and rural law enforcement fade from view. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley talks with award-winning journalist and rural LEO advocate Kathleen Diaz about the communities where officers patrol alone for miles, train less because grants dry up and keep rolling on bald tires because budgets don’t stretch.

The...

As agencies prepare for a busy 2026 event calendar — including national celebrations, elections and major sporting events, including Super Bowl 60, the FIFA World Cup and America 250 — law enforcement leaders are reexamining how they plan, equip and coordinate special event operations.

In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley speaks with Lieutenant Jon Zimmer of the Anne Arundel County (Maryland) Police Depa...

Law enforcement suicide remains one of the most difficult and urgent challenges facing the profession — a crisis that affects officers, families and agencies alike. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley sits down with researchers Dr. Kathleen Padilla and Jessica Dockstader to discuss their study, “Bearing the Badge, Battling Inner Struggles: Understanding Suicidal Ideation in Law Enforcement.”

Their resea...

You’ve seen K-9s track suspects and detect drugs, but a new generation of dogs is focused on something different — firearms. From school hallways to community events, these highly trained dogs are helping keep people safe while reshaping what modern security looks like.

In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley talks with Andre Lemay, former DOJ firearms task force supervisor and founder of Bullseye K9 Detect...

Across the country, law enforcement agencies are rethinking wellness as more than just good slogans or EAP brochures. Washington State is leading that shift. Through the Washington Association of Sheriffs and Police Chiefs (WASPC), agencies of every size joined an eight-week wellness challenge that treated health as a professional competency — something measurable, trainable, and shared across ranks. The program upleveled from “sel...

After years of climbing overdose deaths, some jurisdictions are finally seeing declines. But fewer fatalities don’t answer a frontline question: what actually works to cut crime tied to addiction? In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley goes beyond slogans and harm-reduction headlines to examine drug courts — intensive, accountability-driven programs that pair frequent testing, treatment and judicial oversi...

Born from a push to professionalize policing, the FBI National Academy has evolved into a 10-week residential program where law enforcement leaders sharpen their fitness, academics and communication while building a global network. On this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley and two recent FBI NA graduates explore what the experience looks like today, from class selection and study habits to weekend field trips and the cap...

For more than a decade, Abby Ellsworth has been listening to police officers, first through interviews in the Seattle area and later through her podcast, On Being a Police Officer. She launched the show in 2020, at a moment when policing was under intense scrutiny and officers faced both public criticism and personal strain from COVID restrictions and civil unrest. Ellsworth’s mission is clear: create a safe space where officers ca...

Training police officers for real-world encounters requires more than classroom instruction — it demands safe, repeatable and cost-effective tools that prepare officers for high-stress situations. This special episode of the Policing Matters podcast, part of Police1’s Police Training Week series, showcases how agencies can expand training opportunities that sharpen skills, strengthen readiness and fit within limited budgets.

In thi...

Fitness, training, discipline and communication are core to good policing, but sleep underpins them all. Quality sleep sharpens judgment, reaction time and restraint while buffering stress and trauma. For officers working long shifts, odd hours and high-stress scenes, better sleep is a practical readiness tool — not a luxury.

In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley speaks with Dr. Leah Kaylor, an FBI clinic...

Online threats amplified by AI — from doxxing and deepfakes to coordinated influence operations — are collapsing the time between rumor and real-world risk. Expect pressure points across campuses and big cities, immigration enforcement and politically charged events, with protests only one piece of the picture. For police leaders, the task is to detect signals sooner, verify and communicate faster, and protect officers and targets ...

Resilience is no longer just a buzzword in policing — it’s an officer safety skill. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley talks with Dr. Stephanie Conn, a public safety psychologist, former dispatcher and police officer, and author of “Increasing Resilience in Police and Emergency Personnel: Strengthening Your Mental Armor.” Drawing from her unique perspective as both practitioner and researcher, Dr. Conn...

Drones as first responders (DFR) have quickly moved from experimental pilots to a central part of modern public safety response. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley talks with Rahul Sidhu, vice president of aviation at Flock Safety and co-founder of Aerodome, about how agencies can successfully launch, scale and sustain DFR programs.

Sidhu shares lessons from his own start at Redondo Beach PD, common pi...

For many officers, the stories they collect on the job remain within squad room walls. San Francisco Police Sergeant Adam Plantinga has turned his into the foundation of a second career, using two decades in patrol, investigations and specialized units to fuel both nonfiction accounts and gritty crime novels.

In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley talks with Plantinga about his journey from Milwaukee patro...

As more women step into command roles, their leadership paths offer lessons for anyone moving up in the ranks. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, Capt. Michelle Tavarez of the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department shares how she built credibility, handled setbacks and now leads some of the agency’s most high-stakes units.

Captain Tavarez oversees LVMPD’s Safe Neighborhoods Bureau, including the gang, vice and narco...

Are public perceptions of police shaped more by headlines than reality? In this episode of Policing Matters, host Jim Dudley speaks with entrepreneur and author Brandon Steiner about what he learned after spending six months embedded with NYPD officers.

With no law enforcement background, Steiner rode along in some of the city’s most violent precincts — gaining a front-row seat to the chaos, complexity and contradictions of urban p...

What happens when a split-second decision on the street becomes a media headline is stripped of context? In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, retired LAPD Captain Greg Meyer joins host Jim Dudley on the Policing Matters podcast to discuss his new book, “Hard Cases: Police Use of Force in America.” Drawing from decades of experience and insider knowledge on some of the most controversial police incidents, Meyer shares wh...

Many agencies still rely on legacy field training models that emphasize evaluation over education — often scoring recruits before they’ve had time to learn. Recognizing the limitations of this approach, law enforcement leaders are moving toward a more effective model grounded in adult learning science.

In this episode, Dan Greene, executive director of the National Association of Field Training Officers, and Sergeant Jason Devlin o...