law enforcement

Listen up, if you are a tactical officer, you must look the part as much as you act it. Having a great shot with your pistol will only get you so far and there will be scenarios in which you'll need to learn to use your physical attributes. When that time comes, you better be primed and ready for battle, bottom line. With all else held equal, the more fit officer will be superior.

I've had the pleasure of working with the Lexington, KY Emergency Response Unit, a team that finished 3rd in the World S.W.A.T. Games (Original SWAT)! Talk about a bad a** group of guys who can raise the bar. They took every training session to the next level and there was never a dull moment. They were a team that knew how to work together and it showed. My success training them and further study has led me to develop 5 critical points that every officer should follow.

1. Dynamic Flexibility Warm-up
Grumble, grumble. I hear the cries that big law enforcement men don't need any kind of flexibility. If you aren't familiar, dynamic flexibility has pretty much become the standard warm-up protocol in the fitness industry. Why? Dynamic flexibility is a series of active stretches, rather than the classic "sit and hold". You'll gain movement in 'stiff' joints and learn to stabilize the necessary joints. This is important for the law enforcement officer because it keeps their body in proper alignment. As much as some officers drive around to, it's essential that proper posture and alignment be restored after extended periods of inactivity.

At the drop a hat, danger can approach and the prepared officer will be prepared to react--without having to roll the shoulders and stretch the hammies. This warm-up also facilitates optimal movement patterns that help maximize the efficiency of the workout. Don't be a washed-up has-been who used to be great in the field, make sure you take care of the important aspects of your body especially as you age.

2. Do not Bodybuild
Before I get into this, I understand many police officers are recreational bodybuilders who actually compete. That is fine, and having been on stage myself I fully endorse this. However, if we ask ourselves, "what will be most beneficial for the job's requirements?", we can quickly see how body part training can flat out suck.

I cannot stress the importance of being able to manage your bodyweight--chin ups, push ups, various single leg squats are just starters. When you are in the field the ability to handle yourself will dictate your performance in critical times--not your ability to lie on your back and press a weight. Will you be able to handle yourself or be some wimp who's only good with machines?

Most bodybuilding exercises are predominately done in the sagittal plane. In addition, there isn't going to be many opportunities to shoulder press a criminal, save the bodyslam. The elite police officer needs to be strong in all three planes of motion. There are a number of ways to go about this that do not involve BOSU Balls and bands. A great start would be the addition of single legwork to your lower body days--single leg squats, Bulgarian split squats, and various lunges. When you do upper body days, try doing a simple standing single-arm shoulder press; this forces the contralateral side to resist rotation, thus strengthening the transverse and frontal plane. Then try it with a kettlebell or small sandbag. The idea of being strong all over lends itself to the next bullet too.

3. Odd Object Training
There is some aura of odd object training that just screams TESTOSTERONE. What's more satisfying to the Alpha Officer than keg tosses or sandbag carries? The beauty of the odd object training is first and foremost the instability of the tools used. They require unequal loading across the body in various proportions and in no predictable way. For instance, the sandbag is rarely ever in the same position or carried the exact same way, so the cumbersome nature of it helps strengthen in multiple planes.

For a police officer in the real world, odd object has another unparalleled benefit. Under load of a dummy, sandbag, or sled drag you will experience a huge oxygen deprivation (cardio effect) while still toting around extremely heavy weights (strength effect). This combination of strength and cardiovascular activity rolled into one has an accelerative effect on altering body composition. On top of that, you adapt to performing under local muscular fatigue; meaning when you are out of breath, under load, and muscles burning you will learn to push through. This is instrumental in enabling tired officers to move efficiently even when loaded up with their gear.

Remember, fatigue masks fitness, so learn not just to work, but perform while exhausted. I cannot stress the importance of utilizing odd objects such as kettlebells, dummies, sandbags, sleds, and sledgehammers among many others.

4. Performance Under Fatigue
Fact: mental acuity and cognition can significantly break down with fatigue. It is imperative to retain the ability to perform critical and technical skills under fatigue. Have you ever ran a distance and attempted to have a steady aim? If you have, I'm sure you noticed the fatigue. There are a couple of ways to go about this and some are more practical than others.

You can attempt to actually shoot your gun after an obstacle course or some fatiguing task. This is probably only an option if you have an obstacle course built near a shooting range. In more recreational settings it could be beneficial to assume a shooting position, either knee or lying, and attempt to steady your breathing in a effort to control unwanted motion in your arms and torso immediately after finishing a set. Other options include highly challenging stability exercises (no, not the BOSU). The need for stability will naturally alter your breathing patterns and one can quickly learn how to gain control.

Let's say it's a blistering hot day and you just finished a 60 yd heavy sled drag. The first thing on your mind is going to be laying on the bed of the truck trying to gasp for breath, but you should have a partner ask you a few simple math problems to see how well you can concentrate under fatigue. I'm not saying to join the mathlete team, but little tests of aptitude such as this can create greater clarity in real world situations. In a nutshell, learn to be proficient at both mental and physical tasks when under extreme fatigue and you'll excel in the community or city you serve.

5. Cooperative Training
One aspect of training I slightly allude to is having a partner for this or that. Cooperative training, either with a partner or team, should be the foundation of your training. It's a police force. A military unit. You're not James Bond or some secret assassin.

Tactical officers should train together because they will be working together in the field. The officers that work together will continually make more significant progress that those who don't. When one or more of the team is having an off day, there will be someone there to pick them up. This favor will be later reciprocated when another person sets the bar for the rest to emulate.

Beyond training together, actually be accountable to someone else. Some people have the motivation to stick to a specific plan and reach their goals, but others need the accountability factor and owning up to another person can provide that. If none of the others, follow this tip because some of the others will fall into place naturally, but nothing can take the place of great lifting partners

Street gangs are defined as a group of individuals, usually youth, banded together under a common identity for the purpose of carrying out persistent illegal activity. This activity may revolve around dealing narcotics, robbery, pimping, burglary, racketeering, extortion, vandalism, and the hostile defense of their turf from other gangs. The sorting and cataloging of gang members and the study of street gang culture is a whole branch of criminology all in itself.

The knowledge of street gang activity amongst the municipal police is often so intimate that they can read graffiti messages and know the street names and specialties of each member. Frequently they keep their ear cocked for activity within their neighborhood, and understand the significance of events in a light that makes little sense to those who don't follow gang activities.

In North America, the primary cities which have significant gang activity are Los Angeles, Chicago, Houston, St. Louis, and Detroit. However, any major city may play host to a gang.

Much research is done to study what conditions give rise to gangs. Most experts agree that the causes are a combination of impoverished neighborhoods, racial minorities, troubled homes, and youths who don't fit in. Young men especially join street gangs to prove their machismo, give themselves a community sense of identity, defy authority within the "system", and compensate for low self-esteem and feelings of being an outsider.

The associative signs of identity will vary in form but always be present. The gang members might wear clothing which matches in style, color, or detail, have the same tattoo, same hairstyle, or even a common piece of jewelry. Most gangs have a designated turf, which is their home area, or other places which they claim as their own, and also have an identifiable organization or hierarchy. Usually the leader will simply be the currently most senior member, and a pecking order chains down from there. It is also somewhat common for a gang to be based on a common idea of hatred for other ethnic groups or religions, or promotion of their own race or religion.

Some speculation has suggested that street gangs are also a natural byproduct of the inherent short-comings in any society. Particularly, gang members seem to crave structure. While they reject the rules of society they have their own tight, unbreakable code. While they disdain conforming to society, they will adhere to their own dress code. They have their own value system and honor code. Street gangs may simply be the underprivileged providing their own structure and order when they perceive chaos and disorganization elsewhere.

In dealing with a gang as a law enforcement professional, the best policy is to seek the mentoring of a peer who knows the gang's history. Once in the presence of a familiar authority figure, a gang member may be more cooperative, as long as you aren't asking them to rat out another member. It is because their allegiance is always stronger within their group than it ever will be to anyone else, a gang member's word should never be trusted until you know all the facts surrounding a given case.

In some cases, gangs have become so strong that the influence of the police is effectively dulled. there are sections of divisions in Los Angeles, for instance, where police officers simply will not go unless it's in force, with a whole convoy of squad cars going in at once. At this point, the line between a street gang and a terrorist organization grows very thin. A separate issue is the other varieties of gangs, such as prison gangs and biker gangs. Street gangs might become prison gangs when all the members are incarcerated at the same time, but mainly prison gangs form within prison by the association of previously unconnected individuals.

The Internet has given rise to a new, far more dangerous development, which is the formation of international street gangs. While it was previously a rare thing for gangs to have affiliations outside of their own few city blocks, today there are dozens of gangs with members in several cities and countries throughout the world. amongst others, they are tracked closely by the FBI. The parallel rise of international organized crime is no coincidence with this, and indeed connections between Internet crime and street crime with a common gang identity have been discovered.

It may be unsettling to think that what used to be a handful of rough boys in a neighborhood is now an international organization with it's own web pages, but it's an idea we all have to face. This kind of takes the zip out of all those "cyberpunk" novels we were reading back in the 1980's when we were imagining what the new wired world would be like. It turns out the cyberpunk universe carries it's own problems from the street punk universe... and isn't nearly as much fun as we thought it would be.

Many law enforcement candidates react to reading comprehension questions by thinking, "This part of the test is going to really slow me down." And, to a degree this part of the test will slow you down. However, if you follow the strategies described in this article you will be able to complete your test at a steady pace and gain valuable points.

Most police entrance exams emphasize reading comprehension. Why? Because to properly perform their jobs, law enforcement officers are expected to understand and comprehend what they read.

Reading comprehension questions will typically be based on one or more situational paragraphs, or require a candidate to determine the proper course of action to take based on reading police rules and procedures.

Firstly, I would suggest you do a lot of reading before taking the test. Newspaper and magazine articles can improve your concentration and your ability to understand what you read. Read with purpose. Underscore details and ideas that appear crucial to the meaning of the articles. Identify the writer's point of view and their supporting information. When you finish with an article, summarize it. Ask yourself, what was the author's purpose in writing the article? What was the main idea. What was the article's focus, key information and words?

Another suggestion is to take practice law enforcement exams. The best practice exams will include reading comprehension sections taken directly from actual exams used by law enforcement agencies.

Here are seven proven strategies to help you pass the reading comprehension part of the law enforcement written exam:

1. Skim the answers before reading the passage. This will let you know what to look for while reading. As you read the passage, mark or circle anything that answers a question. Continue reading that passage until you're done. Don't answer the question until you've read the entire passage because you'll break your concentration.

2. Ask yourself after you read a paragraph, "What exactly did that paragraph say?" Spend a couple of seconds summarizing the contents of the paragraph. While doing this look at the paragraph to help you remember where important information is located.

3. Without fail there will be one or more questions asking you to identify the main idea. Usually a passage will have a few sentences stating the author's main idea. While reading, underline these sentences. This will save you valuable time.

4. Underline key words, phrases and facts, such as dates, names and events.

5. If you are totally confused by a sentence or phrase in the passage, read the sentence before and after the difficult sentence to clarify its meaning. If you're still confused, move on. Don't dwell too long or you'll lose valuable time.

6. Try to visualize by forming a mental picture of the events described in the passage as you read. When you are able to visualize something, it's easier to comprehend.

7. Answer the questions based on the information in the passage, not prior knowledge. If you don't agree with something stated in the passage this is not the time to argue your point. Remember your goal is to get the highest score. In this part of the test, you are being tested on your ability to read and comprehend, not your knowledge of the subject.

Do's and Don'ts

Do read actively, not passively. Pause briefly after each paragraph to think about the points made by the author. Jot down a brief outline as you go.

Don't get too concerned with details as you read a passage, especially long passages. Just take notes of where the details were in the passage. You can quickly list statistics, numbers, dates, names titles, etc.

Do pay attention to the passage structure. Is it organized chronologically, by comparison of two or more arguments, or was there some other classification system? This will help you locate details later.

Do summarize the passage. Take a few seconds to recap the main idea of the passage. This may help you answer several questions quickly.

In summary, if you follow these simple tips and strategies you will find reading comprehension test questions far easier to answer correctly. Remember read with purpose. By far the most effective method to help you hone your skills and build your confidence, besides reading newspaper and magazine articles, is to take actual practice exams used by law enforcement agencies.

When people hear about the availability of law enforcement training online, the most common reaction is one of shock and disbelief. In our minds, law enforcement is synonymous with police, and thus with firearms. And of course, learning how to properly care for and use a weapon is not something that can be taught online, even with all the visual aids available nowadays. But law enforcement does not always mean patrolling the streets or catching criminals. There are many different kinds of crime, and the methods of combating of some of those crimes can be taught through books. Or, in this case, through the Internet.

The term "computer crime" refers to a crime where a computer is considered the tool, target or place where the crime is committed. When a computer crime occurs, the case is not handed to patrolmen or detectives, but instead to members who are trained to respond and stop the offenders in situations like these. It is not uncommon for these professionals to have undergone law enforcement training online. After all, what better way to stop a hacker than to learn how he operates?

Training for this branch of law enforcement requires not only intricate knowledge of computer systems and how to use them, but also some practice with programming languages. The fastest way to learn something is to find your way up against it, and that is exactly what happens. Teachers put their students to the test and an online battle is fought during classes: who can hack faster than the other? It is difficult, stressful, and it can not be taught out of books.

Of course, computer crime is not concerned with hackers alone. The branch includes fraud, theft, blackmail, forgery and embezzlement and many more, as long as a computer is used at some time during the crime. Police departments often work hand in hand on cases such as the ones mentioned above; the division concerned with cyber crimes will focus on tracking them down through the computer, while others will look for answers in the real world.

Cases are solved faster this way, and the mistakes made during the process are less. In the end though, it doesn't really matter if you got your basic education on law enforcement from your local training school or from law enforcement training online; your performance will be what distinguishes you as an officer of the law.

Need a change of pace? Or perhaps you'd simply like to be more versed in a particular language, to give yourself an advantage in your law enforcement training? You could sign up for law enforcement training online - not just for the criminology lessons, but also for the language lessons!

Some specialized schools such as ones offering law enforcement training online are able to offer language learning courses, as well. Admittedly, they are not many. If you are a non-native English speaker aspiring to become a police officer in an English-speaking country, say, you may need to take two courses separately: a criminology training course and a language learning course.

Why the need for a criminology training course? Aren't all bad guys the same everywhere? Virtually, this is the case - although realistically, different governments will have different guidelines for capturing bad guys. As a law enforcement officer, you will still need to be trained in the proper apprehension procedures of the country you wish to serve in.

And in line with this, you will also need to know the language which you will use to handle cases. You must be able to express yourself clearly and correctly to the people you work with. You must also be able to properly interpret the signals and cues that your fellow law enforcement officials will give.

It also works the other way around. If you are a native English speaker who wishes to serve in a non-English speaking location, being versed in the language of this location is certainly going to be a plus. Don't get caught empty-handed - make sure you have the right skill sets to do your job well!

It may not be necessary to sign up for two separate courses, if the right resources are available. There are some law enforcement training online schools that offer language learning lessons as well, although they are quite few. Still, one must ask if it is practical to sign up for such courses, or sign up for a separate language course, where you'll be able to focus on the guiding principles of your new language, and get more practice with general phrases.

If you find yourself strapped for resources, consider signing up for law enforcement training courses, and language learning courses on the side. You may be paying a bit more and expending more hours studying, but the effort will be worth it. If you take both courses online, you can work on your own schedule!

As a law enforcement officer, you know that staying in shape is an important part of your job. You also know that it's extremely difficult to find the time to work out consistently.

Let's face it, fitting in an hour or two of exercise every day is just not very realistic in your hectic, demanding schedule. That's why you need to focus your work outs on the type of exercise to give you the best results in the shortest amount of time.

And the type I recommend is high intensity exercise - especially hill and stair sprints. These techniques allow you to get the most out of your precious workout time. Helping you build strength, power, speed and stamina while burning maximum amounts of fat - all in much less time than a traditional workout.

There are numerous reasons that high intensity is the way for you to go. Here are the Top 3:

1. Hill Sprints Build the Stamina Necessary For Your Job Demands.

Endurance is something that every law enforcement officer needs - but it is a special kind of endurance. If you want to perform at your peak, then long, slow distance types of cardio just won't work. Your endurance training needs to mimic the demands of your job. Those needs being - short bouts of intense exertion alternated with periods of long periods of lower intensity.

Think about it. How often does your job require you to jog at a low intensity for long periods of time? Or even run at a steady, moderate pace for 20 or 30 minutes in a row? Yet, these are exactly the types of demands that long, slow cardio workouts prepare you for.

On the other hand, high intensity work, like hill sprinting, provides you with interval training that meets your needs. It will take your heart and lungs to intensities far greater than those found in jogging or traditional types of endurance training. Your body will become used to reaching these higher levels, and recovering quickly in between the "sprints." Not only that, with hill sprints, you will be able to spend much more time training at that high intensity than if you try to "go hard" at a steady state.

This type of training can lead to more protection for your heart and lungs than traditional "cardio". Long, low intensity cardio can actually shrink the size of your heart and lungs because your body is excellent at adapting to the stresses placed on it. Training long and slow encourages your body to become as efficient as possible to make the exercise easier. The result: it shrinks muscle mass along with your heart and lungs. This has the effect of decreasing your reserve capacity - the ability of your cardio-vascular system to respond to high stress situations (exactly the kind your run into in your job). Without a high reserve capacity, your heart and lungs may be at risk during stressful events. High intensity training can help raise your reserve capacity instead.

Not only that, but more and more scientific studies are showing that VO2 Max (the traditional measure of aerobic endurance) is improved as much - or more- by using high intensity exercise like hill sprinting. This endurance is due to the sprints upgrading your oxygen intake system with new capillaries, developing stronger heart and lung tissue, adding more energy producing mitochondria and increasing your tolerance to lactic acid buildup.

Want the ability to respond to high intensity situations (and recover quickly afterwards)? Then train the same way.

2. Hill Sprints Give You Results In As Little As 15 Minutes.

Sure, this training sounds great - but how much time does it take?

Truth is, you can get these benefits in short workouts of 15 minutes or less - only 2 or 3 days per week.

High intensity work, especially hill and stair sprinting, is an incredibly efficient way to exercise. This stems from the fact that you must do more work in a shorter period of time. In other words, hills and stairs are like the perfect combination of strength training and sprinting - you literally "lift" or "push" yourself up the incline. The steeper the incline, the more demand is placed on your leg muscles. This intensity allows you to get in a superior workout in a very short period of time.

3. Hill Sprinting: The Incredible Stress Buster

The bad news: Your position as a law enforcement officer brings a great deal of stress along with the job. This stress can lead to health-related problems like heart disease and metabolic syndrome.

The good news: One of the best ways to "bust" that stress is with exercise - more specifically high intensity exercise.

Exercise in general relieves stress in a number of ways. First of all, exercise stimulates your brain to release substances (endorphins) that improve your mood. Besides that, exercise can decrease cortisol levels, provide a distraction from the source of stress and boost your self confidence.

Any exercise can have these effects, but high intensity can amplify your results. Recently, researchers at the University of Missouri-Columbia showed that high intensity exercise is superior in reducing anxiety and stress. The 2003 study even showed that the effects can be felt 30, 60, even 90 minutes after an exercise session.

These are just 3 of the reasons that every law enforcement officer should hill sprint. Take your endurance to a new level and reduce your stress in only a few minutes of exercise per week with this "old school" training. You, your fellow officers and those you serve and protect will be glad you did.