law enforcement Archives

Midlands Gang and Fugitive Task Forces Merge

Featured, OpsLensNovember 26, 20210Views 0Likes 0Comments

Agency collaboration aids in thwarting violent criminal activity COLUMBIA, S.C. – The multi-agency Midlands Gang Task Force (MGTF) and the Midlands Fugitive Task Force (MFTF) joined forces earlier this year to form The Midlands Gang and Fugitive Task Force (MGFTF): The merger announced during the MGFTF’s most recent meeting in late July. For the past several…

The Abandonment of Due Process for Police

Featured, Military and Police, OpsLensApril 16, 20210Views 0Likes 0Comments

This month has been a bad one for law enforcement. The Derek Chauvin murder trial is live streamed for the world to watch. Then there was the incident where the police in Windsor, Virginia pepper sprayed a black and Latino U.S. Army Lieutenant, in uniform, and clearly were out of line with the stop and…

LEO Widow’s Words of Wisdom for Future Cops

Featured, Military and PoliceJuly 21, 20191View 0Likes 0Comments

Dear Future Police Officer, I want to share some things with you before you start your journey as a police officer. I’m sharing this because I am a proud widow of a fallen hero, and because my son recently started his journey as an officer honoring his father. I was asked how I felt about that,…

One Underappreciated Reason People Become Cops

Featured, Military and Police, Opinion, PoliticsJuly 20, 20190Views 0Likes 0Comments

Early in my career, I was driving to work, when a female caller to a talk radio show made this declaration about law enforcement officers: “You have to be at least a little fascist to be a cop.” She made the comment so matter-of-factly it came across as doubly offensive. What a cynical view. This was…

Lowering the Civil Rights Bar: Memphis Edition

Featured, PoliticsJune 16, 20190Views 0Likes 0Comments

The Civil Rights controversy of the week involves U.S. Marshals in Memphis shooting an armed man identified as Brandon Webber. This shooting has inspired common narratives about predator law enforcement against persons of color. In Memphis it caused riots that injured 35 police officers who had rocks thrown at them. As I look at the…

NYPD/FBI Thwart Another Terrorist Attack

Featured, Military and PoliceJune 12, 20190Views 0Likes 0Comments

As OpsLens contributor Steve Pomper explored recently in an article he composed regarding Atlanta's government pulling their city police force from crime-fighting along with federal law enforcement agencies, here we have an example of why that was a gross error in judgment. Exemplifying the antithesis of Atlanta's faux pas, another grotesque terror plot against citizens in…

Online Police Academy?

Featured, Military and PoliceJune 11, 20190Views 0Likes 0Comments

Bucking tradition, an online police academy launched in Utah is being touted as the answer to attract police officer candidates who live in remote outlying areas far from mainstay (urban area) police academies. Can such a concept hold muster? The gist of the online Eastern Police Officer Academy operated by the Utah State University (USU) is…

Honoring Child with Terminal Cancer, Texas Top Cop Tattoos His Arm

Celebrating Heroes, Featured, Military and PoliceMay 14, 20190Views 0Likes 0Comments

As a writer I get to research storylines involving individuals impacting lives of many others. In February 2019 I penned a piece pertaining to cops embracing children with cancer. In that article I was welled-up over a six-year-old girl whose cancer is classified as terminal. (My keyboard eventually dried.) That child, Abigail Rose Arias, was…

Attorney General Barr Refuses to Cooperate With House Democrats

Featured, PoliticsMay 2, 20191View 0Likes 0Comments

On Wednesday, Attorney General William Barr told a House panel that he would not testify over the Mueller report. Barr has come under fire from Democrats for allegedly trying to shield President Trump and for spinning the content of the Mueller report. His refusal to cooperate with Congress could potentially lead to a contempt citation. Democrats…

Leftist Views of Police Warp Parents’ Priorities

Featured, Military and Police, PoliticsMay 2, 20191View 0Likes 0Comments

Demonizing guns also demonizes police officers. I’ve said it before, I’ll probably say it again, and again, and… After all, no one likes it when people describe something they depended on for their lives for decades described as evil, not to mention people also perceiving them as evil for carrying an important tool of the…

Some So-Called Social ‘Crises’ Are Easily Fixed by Enforcing the Law

Featured, Military and Police, Opinion, PoliticsApril 2, 20191View 0Likes 0Comments

There are serious problems in the U.S. right now, some of them are easy to fix. But only if people truly want to fix them. A couple of cop buddies and I were discussing the “homeless” crisis occurring in Seattle and other cities. Seattle and the state of Washington have governments run by leftist politicians who don’t…

Lowering the Civil Rights Bar

Featured, Military and Police, Opinion, PoliticsMarch 8, 20191View 0Likes 0Comments

News came down this week that the local district attorney in Sacramento will not prosecute two officers for shooting an unarmed black man in what turned out to be his grandparent’s back yard. The original shooting and this news has sparked more protests about supposedly evil law enforcement. And the controversy has escalated the decision…

De-Policing New Hampshire: State Republican Reps Propose Law to Revoke Cops’ Authority to Use Deadly Force During an Arrest

Featured, Military and Police, Opinion, PoliticsJanuary 27, 20192Views 0Likes 0Comments

I love New Hampshire. Spent a lot of time in the Granite State as a kid, vacationing at Lake Sunapee. My oldest son was born there, and I still have relatives who live there, including one of my brothers. Having said this, it’s very hard to believe the anti-cop legislation being proposed in the “Live…

Restaurants Recognized for Routinely Honoring Law Enforcement

Business, Featured, Military and PoliceJanuary 15, 20191View 0Likes 0Comments

National Law Enforcement Appreciation Day was last week, January 9, and both chain-based and independent restaurants were showcased on social media for their support for the guys and gals who don a badge and hit the streets. Despite mainstream media contrarians, there are plenty of eateries which openly exhibit support for police personnel, and they…

Trump Golf Course Accused of Handing Out Fake Green Cards to Undocumented Workers

Featured, PoliticsDecember 31, 20181View 0Likes 0Comments

Supposedly, New Jersey’s attorney general has evidence that the Trump National Golf Club in Bedminster issued fake social security numbers and green cards to undocumented workers. Anibal Romero, who is acting as counsel for several undocumented immigrants, claims to possess evidence that her clients were issued fake documents at the Trump National Golf Course. Allegedly, Romero…

NYPD Delivers a Cop Christmas for Special-Needs Boy

Celebrating Heroes, Featured, Military and PoliceDecember 25, 20180Views 0Likes 0Comments

Aidan Riley is a 16-year-old boy who is confined to a wheelchair stemming from cerebral palsy. Aidan's dad is a NYPD cop. Like most cops' children, Aidan longs to be a police officer himself. Given his debilitating condition, however, that does not seem plausible. So the staff of the New York City Police Department got…

Train Killing Two Chicago Cops Typifies the Unknowns in Policing

Featured, Military and PoliceDecember 18, 20182Views 0Likes 0Comments

On Monday, a Metra train in Chicago killed two rookie Chicago policemen as they were pursuing a potential gun-toting suspect. At the time of the incident, Chicago police brass had scant information to report during a press conference held by Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Chicago police Superintendent Eddie Johnson et al. Today, however, body-worn…

Cops’ Love/Hate Relationship with Living in a Barrel

Featured, Military and Police, OpinionDecember 14, 20181View 0Likes 0Comments

Ballistic vests: that incredible shell lined with Kevlar to protect cops from gunfire is both a marvelous piece of equipment as well as a suffocating barrel which police officers live in like a safe and secure turtle does in its shell. But the minutes, hours, and days of duty in a tightly-wrapped shell has its…

Police Job Applications Plummet Across the United States

Featured, Military and PoliceDecember 8, 20182Views 0Likes 0Comments

Ask kids what they want to be when they grow up and police officer is often among the most frequently cited jobs. When it comes time to putting pen to paper and filling out a job application, however, many pass. Indeed, some 66 percent of police departments are reporting that applications for police officer vacancies…

Law Enforcement Lifelines

Featured, Military and Police, Opinion, PoliticsDecember 6, 20180Views 0Likes 0Comments

Had lunch today with a dear friend who, way back...when I first walked into the halls of police HQ, welcomed me with a handshake. On that fateful day, I presented as a "police intern" candidate from the University of Tampa where I was studying criminology oh-so-many moons ago. This greeter who turned out to be…

Police Service Weapons Equipped with Cameras is Now a Thing

Featured, Military and PoliceNovember 25, 20180Views 0Likes 0Comments

Traditionally, we trusted police officers. For evidentiary purposes we dash-mounted in-car audio/video cameras (great tool to capture actual footage of sobriety tests and police pursuits). Ferguson, Missouri received plenty of attention and ample second-guessing on police procedure from folks who knew zilch about the subject matter. More cops were second-guessed, their every move picked apart…

Police Force Rooted in Politics?

Featured, Military and Police, PoliticsNovember 24, 20180Views 0Likes 0Comments

It's rhetorical, actually. Given that police forces are operated by local, county and state governments —like other public services such as sanitation, fire/rescue, parks/recreation, etc.— politics is a part-and-parcel ingredient with varying degrees of support or havoc. How each political sect sees its police cadre, and the level of relative autonomy or outright control in…