Author: Editor

John Marx was a Police Officer for twenty-three years and served as a Hostage Negotiator for nineteen of those years. He worked as a patrol officer, media liaison officer, crime prevention officer and burglary detective. Also during his career he served as administrator of his city's Community Oriented Governance initiative through the police department's Community Policing project. Today John combines his skills to consult with businesses about improving both their security and their customer service programs. John retired from law enforcement in 2002. When one of his friends, also a former police officer, committed suicide at age 38, John was devastated and began researching the problems that stress creates for police officers. He decided he needed to do something to help change those problems and he wanted to give something back to the profession that gave him so much. He started a project that has evolved into CopsAlive.com. Put simply, the mission of CopsAlive is to save the lives of those who save lives! CopsAlive.com gathers information, strategies and tools to help law enforcement professionals plan for happy, healthy and successful careers, relationships and lives.
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Keeping Your Edge – Homework for Cops

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What are you doing to keep your edge as a cop?  Sure you went through the police academy, you probably have some sort of annual retraining and maybe you even get some occasional roll call training, but what are you doing to keep your professional edge?

Let me offer a couple of resources for you.  I was speaking to a group of over 150 police officers and sheriffs deputies last week and asked how many of them read the FBI’s Law Enforcement Bulletin.  I was shocked to find that none of them did.  The Law Enforcement Bulletin is a monthly magazine that many law enforcement agencies around the world subscribe to and at least at my agency are posted or passed around for everyone to read.  They also have a free online version… Continue reading

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Successful Cop: Lt. Christopher A. Manos, CPP

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Check out this weeks newest teleseminar and live web training with a continuation our our Successful Cop Series. This week’s guest is Lt. Chris Manos, CPP a 27 year veteran of the Arapahoe County Sheriff’s Office in Colorado.

Currently Chris is the Administrative Lieutenant in the Detention Facility but he has worked as a patrol deputy, Crime Prevention Deputy, Investigator and Sergeant. Prior to his law enforcement career he served in the United States Air Force as a Law Enforcement Specialist. He has a Bachelor’s Degree in Criminal Justice and a Masters Degree in Management. In his free time he works as a professional magician… Continue reading

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CopsAlive First Teleseminar a Success!

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Our first Teleseminar was broadcast live today over phone lines and free over the internet.

“5 Critical Concepts You Must Know to Start a Business” with Laurie Taylor.

Click the button below for the replay or to download an mp3 file for your audio player.

Learn more… Continue reading

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Teleseminar for Cops on Starting a Business

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Join CopsAlive Friday July 10, 2009 at 2 PM Mountain Time for our first Teleseminar training session on: “5 Critical Concepts You Must Know to Start a Business” with Laurie Taylor from FlashPoint!

For this free training session, targeted toward police officers… Continue reading

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Spirituality in Law Enforcement?

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I had the privilege to attend an excellent seminar last week hosted by the Denver Police Department on “Spirituality, Wellness & Vitality Issues in Law Enforcement Practices”.  Our presenters were FBI Supervisory Special Agent Samuel L. Feemster, J.D. and Sergeant Ginger L. Charles, Ph.D. of the Arvada Police Department.  They asked some interesting questions and offered some unique perspectives on modern law enforcement practices.  Some examples include: “Is Law Enforcement a calling for you?” and “What courses were you trained in at the police academy?”, then  “What courses should you have been trained in at the academy?”

This seminar was not about just religion but about any spiritual influence that gives police officers the kind of character that allows them to endure the toxic nature of police work and maintain their sanity over the years of a demanding police career.  There was information presented that many, many more officers die from suicide, cancer and heart attacks than ever are killed in the line of duty and we discussed what leads police officers, true leaders of our communities, to chose suicide over life.

The question was asked how do you become a well rounded police officer?

They led an excellent discussion on… Continue reading

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Law Enforcement Retreat at Sea

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Start your New Year off right with a law enforcement cruise to the Exotic Caribbean as part of the CopsAlive Cruise 2010.  We sail January 9th – 16th, from Port Canaveral near Orlando, Florida and you can be part of the fun and educational programs.  We will be stopping in Cozumel, Belize (Central America), Isla Roatan (off the coast of Honduras) and in Costa Maya (Yucatan Penninsula) .  For the last three years the staff at CopsAlive have been joining a larger group of internet entrepreneurs on a Carnival Cruise the second week of January and you are invited to join us in January 2010.

Here’s what’s happening.  As a member of the CopsAlive group you will have a chance to meet with other cops in private meetings while… Continue reading

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The Problems with Cops Kids

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We have all heard the stories about other cops kids getting into trouble but it’s NEVER our kids is it?  Those of us from law enforcement families know that sometimes it’s the kids of police officers that suffer because of our careers too.

Well this time it was my kid, an adult child, who I thought was past all that until he checked himself into a drug and alcohol treatment center for 30 days and my eyes were opened up.

What is it about some cops?  Are we too lenient in not wanting to play cop at home and police our own kids?  Or is it that we are too strict at home and… Continue reading

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The Impact of Poor Sleep Quality on Police Officers

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As part of our continuing search for the “hidden dangers” of police work, CopsAlive.com examines the issues surrounding shift work, stress and the importance of proper sleep to keep police officers rested and ready for the job.

According to a large British study released in  September of 2007 and reported by Reuters “People who do not get enough sleep are more than twice as likely to die of heart disease, Although the reasons are unclear, researchers said lack of sleep appeared to be linked to increased blood pressure, which is known to raise the risk of heart attacks and stroke.  A 17-year analysis of 10,000 government workers… Continue reading

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Cops helping other Cops

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Today is Law Day in the U.S. and the theme from the American Bar Association this year, which is the bicentennial of the birth of Abraham Lincoln, is “A Legacy of Liberty”.  As we held our state ceremony at the Colorado Law Enforcement Memorial I thought about all those police officers who have given their lives to create that Legacy of Liberty in the United States and all those still serving who sacrifice their lives and perhaps part of their souls each day Continue reading

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CopsAlive Wants Your Opinion

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CopsAlive was founded to help police officers, sheriffs deputies and other law enforcement professionals survive their career and be able to live happy, healthy and successful lives on the job and beyond.

We know that there are a lot of challenges between you and that successful life and we also know that there isn’t a lot of research to answer some of the major questions about the hidden dangers of police work and why cops have a higher incidence of cancer, divorce, stress related issues, alcoholism etc than the general population. Until we are able to fund our own research we have to start somewhere and that is with all of you in the profession. At least CopsAlive can survey the opinions of policing professionals and determine where more long term research needs to be conducted. To that end we are asking you to participate in one of our anonymous surveys.

Currently CopsAlive has four surveys in the field. They are:

CopsAlive Mixed Topic Opinion Survey – CLICK HERE to take this survey
This survey asks questions about your opinions of the job and the risks inheirent within our profession.

CopsAlive Perfect Retirement Survey – CLICK HERE to take this survey
This survey asks questions about your vision of your retirement and obstacles between you and a perfect retirement.

Personal Threat Assessment Survey – CLICK HERE to take this survey
This survey asks questions about what threats you perceive to your life and career.

CopsAlive Online Networking Survey – CLICK HERE to take this survey
This quick survey asks about how you communicate so we as law enforcement professionals can find better ways to stay in touch and communicate most effectively.

These are all short and quick surveys to take and will not waste your time. We will publish the findings of each on CopsAlive once we have established a broad enough bases for the survey.

We will also add new surveys as the need arises so please check the SURVEYS Tab on the CopsAlive main page.

Thank you!