March 2008

President’s Message: Speaking Out on Law Enforcement Resource Needs

In the United States, there are more than 18,000 law enforcement agencies and well over 700,000 officers who patrol our state highways and the streets of our communities each and every day. During the...

Technology

Special Focus: Policing Software

The ever-increasing presence of computers in the law enforcement community has resulted in a proliferation in computer applications to assist with numerous agency functions. Software has been develope...

Mass Casualty Attacks

The Challenge of Communicating in an Urban University Environment

After the tragic events of September 11, 2001, in New York and Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon, cities and states across the United States took a hard look at their current crisis management plans (C...

Where do the good ideas come from? In this column, we offer our readers the opportunity to learn about ? and benefit from ? some of the cutting-edge technologies being implemented by law enforcement c...

Leadership

The Ten Deadly Errors of Leadership

Many officers, looking back several years to their basic academy days, can still remember officer survival classes that highlighted the “10 deadly errors” an officer can make. Any of these errors ...

Traffic Safety Initiatives

Traffic Safety: Changing the Culture

Over the past several months in this space, we have applied the judging criteria of the IACP National Law Enforcement Challenge to the basics of a sound and effective police traffic safety program. Th...

Chief's Counsel

Chief’s Counsel: When Does an Employment Disciplinary Action Violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s Protection of the Liberty Interest?

In 1985 the U.S. Supreme Court decided a case that set standards for government agencies contemplating the termination of an employee. The case, Cleveland Board of Education v. Loudermill, examined th...

Recruitment & Personnel

A Look at the 12-Hour Shift

Work schedules based on a 12-hour shift are not yet commonplace in the law enforcement profession, but it is not hard to find agencies that have implemented them. The pros and cons of this scheduling ...