Policing Matters

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...

In law enforcement, wellness can’t be an afterthought — it must be part of the foundation of operations. That means moving beyond surface-level initiatives to fully integrating mental health support into operations, training and leadership strategies. From proactive threat assessment to long-term officer resilience and retirement planning, embedding behavioral health into daily practice is key to building a healthier, more effectiv...

When officers respond to a call that seems routine — like a mental health check — they often have no idea how quickly that encounter could escalate. For Officer Alessandra Winterbauer of the Lincoln (Nebraska) Police Department, what began as a calm conversation with a confused subject turned into a life-or-death confrontation. Her ability to remain composed and rely on recent virtual reality training helped avoid a deadly outcome ...

In a rare bit of encouraging news, the FBI’s 2024 report on active shooter incidents shows a 50% drop in cases — from 48 in 2023 to 24 in 2024. But is this a trend or an outlier?

In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley talks with two of the country’s foremost experts on mass shootings and prevention: former FBI executive Katherine Schweit, author of “Stop the Killing” and host of “Stop the Killing” podcast ...

Domestic violence is often dismissed as unpredictable, but the data says otherwise. Red flags — like strangulation, firearm access and prior abuse — frequently precede fatal outcomes. In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, host Jim Dudley speaks with Captain Eric K. Threlkeld of the Eddy County (New Mexico) Sheriff’s Office, who makes the case that proactive, well-trained investigators can identify these signs and interve...

Over the past 30 years, American cities have seen crime rates surge and fall — sometimes dramatically. No city illustrates this swing better than New York, where murders dropped from more than 2,200 in 1990 to under 300 by 2017.

In this episode of the Policing Matters podcast, former Baltimore cop and current John Jay professor Peter Moskos discusses the story behind that decline, as told in his new book, “Back from the Brink: Insi...

Snohomish County 911 has officially opened a new $67.5 million emergency communications center designed to keep first responders connected and supported — no matter the crisis. The facility consolidates operations under one roof for the first time in the agency’s history, dramatically improving coordination, communications and continuity of service across all 44 law enforcement, fire and EMS agencies in the county.

In this episode ...

What happens inside a jail is often hidden from public view — unless you’ve been booked yourself. But for Flagler County, Florida, Sheriff Rick Staly, transparency isn’t just a talking point — it’s a strategy. By opening his facility to A&E’s “Booked: First Day In,” Staly hopes to reshape perceptions of corrections work, showcase the professionalism of his staff and highlight how modern jails play a vital role in community safe...

Police1’s "What Cops Want in 2025" survey delivers a stark message: officers feel increasingly vulnerable on the job. In a wide-ranging conversation, host Jim Dudley and Below 100 founder Dale Stockton break down the survey’s key findings, exposing persistent safety threats and a growing disconnect between command staff and the realities of front-line policing.

This episode of the Policing Matters podcast is spons...